EDAC Virtual Meeting: Dr. Gerd Wuestemann

Dr. Wuestemann began his tenure as President & CEO of Scottsdale Arts in March 2018. An arts entrepreneur at heart, he brought an immediate focus on innovation and growth to his organization, while executing a financial and cultural turn around. Scottsdale Arts is today one of the largest arts organizations in the Southwest, comprised of six major departments: the Center for Performing Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), Scottsdale Public Art, Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation, Canal Convergence Public Art Festival, and Civic Center LIVE. During the extremely challenging time of the COVID pandemic, Wuestemann’s leadership allowed Scottsdale Arts to remain fully staffed, largely operational, and financially stable.

In 2019 Dr. Wuestemann was successful in passing a bond initiative, resulting in a major arts infrastructure project completed in Spring of 2023: the full renovation of Scottsdale Arts’ campus @ Civic Center, including the construction of three outdoor performance venues. Civic Center LIVE recently opened its new East Bowl Main Stage to great national reviews with iconic band Wilco. Festivals spanning from Americana to Jazz, Culinary to Automotive, and including First Nations and other ethnic gatherings, now create an eight-month outdoor season with 85+ events drawing 150,000 visitors. This new department joins Scottsdale Arts for a total average of over 800 annual shows & events, SMoCA’s exhibits, city-wide community work, arts integration in schools for 30,000 students, lifelong learning programs across the city, and the iconic Canal Convergence Festival, which draws 180,000+ visitors over 10 days.

In Fall of 2023, Dr. Wuestemann was successful in securing funding for a new 250-seat theater project, slated to break ground with the 50th anniversary season of the Center in 2025. In addition, Wuestemann secured other large gifts, now set aside for future expansion projects.

2025 will see the implementation of a new ArtSpark program, a concept Dr. Wuestemann had pioneered in his prior organization in Louisiana.  ArtSpark will inhabit the iconic 11-acre Cattletrack Arts Compound through an innovative partnership and will become an arts career incubator for the Southwest.

Dr. Wuestemann currently serves on the boards of Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, Experience Scottsdale, SCOTT, and both ASU’s and GCU’s Dean’s advisory committee. He was honored as the Scottsdale Citizen of the Year in both 2019 and 2020. He received the AZ Society of Chairs Keys to the
 
Community Award, and in 2023 the prestigious Virginia G. Piper Fellowship, a research award carrying a $100,000 investment with it. Most recently he was recognized as Arts & Culture Hero during the 2025 July 4^th Parade of Heroes.
For the previous decade he held the position of Executive Director at Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA) in Louisiana. Under Dr. Wuestemann’s leadership, AcA completed the construction of a 60,000 sqft Arts Center and tripled in organizational size, while transforming its programming and identity. The new AcA grew into a multidisciplinary, regional cultural hub. Dr. Wuestemann co-founded INNOV8, a festival of entrepreneurship and creativity. In 2016 & 2017 AcA was bestowed subsequent Governor’s Arts Awards. Upon leaving Louisiana, he was recognized as an Honorary Cajun, and Cultural Ambassador.

Dr. Wuestemann holds master’s degrees from the Musikhochschule Frankfurt and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona. He is a graduate of Leadership Louisiana, the NAS Executive Leadership Program and the Meeting of the Minds National Executive Cohort.
Prior to career-ending accidents in 2005, Wuestemann began his professional life as a classical guitarist at a very young age. He has recorded 12 albums and performed around the world, including debuts at lauded musical centers such as Taiwan National Hall and Alte Oper Frankfurt. After building an academic career as professor of guitar studies at the University of Louisiana, he worked as an entrepreneur, launching two successful companies before starting his career in arts administration.