Piper Fellow:
Dr. Gerd Wuestemann

Wuestemann discovered music and art at a very young age, and the arts have been the one constant in his life—as a performer, a patron, an entrepreneur, and an administrator. After transitioning from a performance career and professorship to working as an entrepreneur, he began managing arts organizations in Louisiana and built a new multidisciplinary arts center. He became the CEO of Scottsdale Arts in 2018. Since then, the organization has grown from three to six major branches, working across visual, performing, and public art, as well as in arts education and festivals such as Canal Convergence. Funded by a city bond in 2019, Scottsdale Arts will be opening a new 14-acre outdoor campus with three performance venues in early 2023.

Wuestemann’s Fellowship agenda includes eight major focal areas throughout 2023. His goal is to study, synthesize, and plan a welcoming, accessible, and encompassing 21st century campus for arts and education in Scottsdale. After two decades of working on building venues and organizations, Wuestemann has been fortunate to grow deep relationships with architects, museums and theater planners, acousticians, and designers. He plans to study master planning with Studio Libeskind; architectural venue design with Snohetta; theater design with Theater Projects; acoustics with Akustiks; campus development and sustainability at Lincoln Center; and technology in the arts with digital museums and performance venue developers. With time to reflect and digest, Wuestemann plans to synthesize this new knowledge into action plans to develop a sustainable and people-centric model.