Nevada County Arts & Culture names Robin Garcia as next Executive Director
California arts and public-policy leader will begin October 5 as Culture Forward moves into implementation
NEVADA COUNTY, CA, September 23, 2026— Nevada County Arts & Culture has named Robin Garcia, Ph.D., as its next Executive Director, beginning October 5, following a four-month search that drew nearly 140 applicants.
Robin Garcia succeeds Eliza Tudor, who is stepping down after ten years as Executive Director. Tudor will remain fully in post through September 30 and will continue in an advisory capacity through at least the end of the year to support Garcia, the Board and the leadership transition.
Garcia brings twenty years of experience across arts and cultural policy, government, community engagement and higher education, including work with the New York City Mayor’s Office, Los Angeles County, the City of Santa Monica and, most recently, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, a small city surrounded by rural communities in the Blue Ridge foothills. Her work has ranged from public engagement and cultural policy to arts administration, public art and a multi-million countywide arts and wellness initiative delivered through more than 100 community-based organizations.
Her appointment comes as Culture Forward, Nevada County’s six-year Arts & Culture Action Plan, moves from planning into implementation. The plan connects arts and culture with wider priorities including economic development, workforce development, sustainable tourism and regional identity, education, and community well-being.
“I am honored to join Nevada County Arts & Culture at a moment when so much careful listening, planning and relationship-building has already taken place,” Garcia said. “My first priority will be to listen—to artists and cultural workers, residents, businesses, public leaders and community partners—and to understand how I can best help carry that work forward.”
The search was led by the organization’s Board of Directors and included successive stages with staff, community and municipal stakeholders, County leadership and the full Board.
“We are deeply grateful to everyone who put themselves forward for this role,” said Amber Jo Manuel, Vice President of the Board of Directors. “The caliber of applicants was extraordinary. We met remarkable people along the way, and their interest in Nevada County Arts & Culture was itself an affirmation of the strength of this organization and the work ahead.”
Born and raised in California, Garcia has spent much of her professional life in the state before moving to Virginia, where she most recently served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Arts Leadership at the University of Virginia. Her move to Nevada County is also a return to California and to family across Northern California.
Tudor said, “I am grateful that such an accomplished field saw possibility in Nevada County Arts & Culture and wanted to be part of what comes next. I have enormous faith in Robin—in her judgment, her intellect, her instinct to listen, and her ability to understand arts and culture as part of the wider civic life of a community.”
Nevada County Arts & Culture is Nevada County’s designated State-Local Partner with the California Arts Council and administers the Grass Valley–Nevada City and Truckee California Cultural Districts. Garcia assumes the role on October 5.
Media contact: Eliza Tudor office@nevadacountyarts.org
