About Denise Pate

Part ONE:

A State of the Times Understanding

Denise Pate has a wealth of experience in nearly every capacity of arts participation and management. She began her career as a dancer, later transitioning to arts administration. Step by step, she gained more exposure to the difficult decisions nonprofit administrators make every day. In particular, she learned both the 10,000-foot view and the nitty gritty details of designing grants programs and overseeing their administration, benefiting thousands of artists along the way.

One of her most influential positions was as Cultural Funding Coordinator for the City of Oakland where she managed competitive cultural arts granting to Oakland individual artists and nonprofits for ten years. This work prepared her to help solve many problems for other city agencies. 

Currently Denise is the Director of Community Investments for the San Francisco Arts Commission. SFAC is the third largest municipal arts organization in the United States, distributing $16 million in grant awards annually. 

Before reaching this pinnacle of her career, she served in many other influential capacities, such as:

• Associate Director of Operations for the California College of the Arts Center for Art and Public Life
• Executive Director of CitiCentre Dance Theatre, a multicultural arts center once headquartered in Oakland’s Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. 

Denise’s efforts on behalf of artists and arts organizations have also been recognized by her peers. She’s been an appointee to:

• 2023 Review Panelist, Western Arts Alliance
• 2022 Dance USA, a national organization. Elected Treasurer of the Executive Committee
• 2021 Review Panelist, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
• 2019 Review Panelist for MAP Fund (Multi-Disciplinary Arts Programming)
• Member of the Northern California Grantmakers, Co-Chair of the Bay Area Arts Loan Fund
• Past member Steering Committee for Bay Area’s Isadora Duncan Dance Awards.

Other affiliations that have added to her knowledge base and connections:

• Young Audiences of Northern California 
• Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts 
• Youth in Arts and World Arts West 

Her consulting clients have included, among others:

• Yerba Buena Garden Festival (consultant to the program director)
• San Jose Museum of Innovation Technology Conference (consultant to the producer)
• San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival

Denise has state-of-the-times understanding of what is needed in re-writing granting guidelines to fit today’s racial equity standards and racial reckoning. She understands the mechanics of achieving fairness, of communicating with artists in a respectful way, and of creating systems that are friendly to diverse populations.

She doesn’t just interact with one community. She is comfortable with and embraces all cultures and regularly interacts with people from many backgrounds.

Part TWO:

Early Artist’s Life & Performance

In Denise’s own words…

I grew up in South L.A. and attended school in Englewood at St. Mary’s Academy (for those in the know, I was a “gold tie!”) 

I began my journey in the arts world as a young dancer, studying at one of Los Angeles’ most prominent Black-owned ballet schools, founded by Carolyn Skyer. I spent my teen years studying with Karen McDonald, the current director of Debbie Allen Dance Academy. 

I originally thought I would go to New York and join Alvin Ailey’s company. But I discovered early on that I had interest in the business side of the arts. Eventually I decided ‘I’ll let the other people jump and do split kicks in the air. They do that better than I.’ Even at 25 I could see my body had some issues.

As a little girl I had this dream of what I wanted to be doing. In the last couple of years, I’ve realized: ‘I’m actually living the life I would have wanted if I’d allowed myself to truly imagine in a no-limits way.’

My mother’s best friend was a television writer, which is how I got free tickets to see dance shows — and that’s how I saw Alvin Ailey for the first time at UCLA. My Mom took me to dance shows all the time, so she ultimately had a great influence on my career choices. 

I received my B.A. in Dance from Dominican University, where I trained at Marin Ballet School and had the opportunity to study under the tutelage of Martha Graham dancer Lar Robeson, Director Maria Vegh, and other prominent ballet masters.  

After graduation, I was anxious to become involved in a more diverse dance community. Having heard many stories about Oakland’s vibrant Black dance community, I couldn’t wait to move there and begin taking classes and performing in a dance company. I heard stories about the multi-ethnic dance center, Everybody’s Creative Arts Center, and the many African dance and music masters teaching and performing there, such as Malonga Casquelourd, Dr. C.K. Ladzepko, and Halifu Osumare. Also legendary at the time was the African-diasporic Dimensions Dance Theater.  

The first weekend after moving to Oakland, I heard that New York Jazz master teacher Fred Benjamin was teaching a master class at Everybody’s, where I met Dimension Dance Theater Director Deborah Vaughan. Soon thereafter, she invited me to audition for the company and,  subsequently, I performed with them for many years. This gave me the opportunity to work with nationally and internationally celebrated choreographers, such as: Garth Fagan (choreographer, “The Lion King”), modern dance pioneer Donald McKayle, and Dr. Zak Diouf (National Dance Company of Senegal and Les Ballet Africains). 

I also appeared with Dimensions in the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival as part of the 1984 Olympics.

Before leaving performance behind, I danced with other local dance companies and choreographed for civic festivals and community theaters. I founded “Denise Pate’s Dance for Children,” a program that offered dance classes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for children and youth. I trained hundreds of children over a two-decade period, which I am proud of and consider a great honor.

I eventually transitioned to arts administration, serving as an executive director, program manager, consultant, grant writer, and grant panelist for programs that serve the needs of the local and national arts community. I have raised funds, managed programs, and provided technical assistance for organizations throughout the Bay Area counties.

I was always interested in the business side of the arts and I knew that I’d have more power if I wasn’t on the dance side! These young people are incredible dancers, but in terms of where I can effect change — it is where I sit right now. For instance, in Oakland, my employers gave me permission to change our granting process so that it honors the applicant – which is quite revolutionary in funding circles.