After 25 years of leading UCSB Arts & Recipes (A&L) to extraordinary success, Celesta M. Biresi will take her final bow at the end of the 2024-2025 season. Billesi, a key leader in the arts community in Santa Barbara and beyond, announced his retirement as Miller-McKeown Executive Director of UCSB Arts & Lectures through a statement from the organization.
Recently recognized for his longstanding artistic leadership by Santa Barbara County (story here), Bilesi is the longest-serving director in A&L history. She arrives at UCSB after more than a decade in leadership at the UCLA Performing Arts Center (now called the UCLA Center for the Arts of Performance). During her time at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she brought her art and lectures to a venue in downtown Santa Barbara, gaining national recognition. Embracing the program’s unusually broad scope, Billeci grew the organization’s budget from less than $1 million per year to its current level of more than $10 million per year.
Celesta Biresi and Conan O’Brien, 2016. Photo: Provided
She is a passionate champion of dance, and under her leadership, UC Santa Barbara has become a part of the world of international dance companies, including Taiwan’s Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Ballet Preljokai, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Batsheva Dance Company. It is a base for tours. All of America’s major dance companies, including Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Alonzo King Lines, New York City Ballet Moves, and Dorrance Dance, also feature unique stars such as Lil Buck and Tiler Peck. We currently perform regularly in Santa Barbara. This is the result of Biresi’s continued curation, both through the program and her valued group of dance sponsors within and outside the Santa Barbara community.
“As an innovative A&L Executive Director, Celesta Biresi has worked with faculty, staff, students, and community members to strengthen the educational and cultural mission of UC Santa Barbara. We appreciate their contributions and look forward to A&L’s 65th anniversary season,” Executive Vice President David Marshall said in a statement to the UCSB campus community.
Many of Bilesi’s longtime friends will return to Santa Barbara for the 65th season, including Wynton Marsalis (who will perform with his 13-piece jazz ensemble in Arlington on May 17, 2025); He said: Since she was a baby, we just started. We were all born at the same time in a sense. I knew her from the beginning of her career. I always loved her because she was consistently so intense and genuine. She is like a force of nature. Now we’ve been doing this work here, I don’t know if it’s been 30 years, but when I look at her now, I have to smile, because it’s amazing how much we’ve done in those early days. Because it reminds me of what I was doing. She believed in the field of art and bringing people deep experiences. she’s really real. Her name is always the first thing that comes out of my mouth when people talk about arts organizations, presenting arts programs, or arts administration on college campuses. She is the absolute gold standard in this kind of work and has had such dedication since childhood. ”
The Santa Barbara County Department of Arts and Culture recognized Mr. Billesi’s leadership, saying: “Her determination and passion is to bring the best performing arts, public lectures, educational programs, and special events to audiences across Santa Barbara County.” ) and implemented more than 100 educational outreach programs, all of which are a result of Celeste’s personal commitment to serving the UCSB campus and the Santa Barbara community.”
Celesta M. Biresi with her husband John Haida and Yo-Yo Ma in 2006. |Photo: Provided
“I am dedicated to my loyal staff,” Biresi said. “None of this would have been possible without them and our amazing student staff who do everything from staffing the box office to guiding events.”
Mr. Bilesi thanked the many generous donors and benefactors who have contributed to the organization over the past 25 years, saying, “The support that Arts & Lectures has received from the community has been exemplary in every way. Their assistance and guidance led to significant changes, and the prestige that Arts & Lectures enjoys today is based on those efforts.
The university will conduct a nationwide search for Biresi’s successor. Meanwhile, Bilesi looks forward to presenting an outstanding 65th anniversary season and ensuring the stability of an organization that will continue to entertain, educate and inspire for the next 65 years and more.
