Nationally recognized artist, educator, and cultural leader. More than two decades of experience at the intersection of contemporary art, higher education, and community engagement.
Oakland, CA—August 5, 2025
The Board of Directors of Creative Growth Art Center is proud to announce the appointment of Sunny A. Smith, Executive Director and CEO. They begin the role on August 18, 2025. A nationally recognized artist, educator, and cultural leader, who believes in art as a force for change, connection, and creative agency in the 21st century, Smith most recently served as Dean of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts (CCA), where they have shaped progressive arts pedagogy, stewarded major institutional gifts, and championed equity and access to the arts for all people. Smith succeeds Interim Executive Director Kathleen McLean.
“Sunny brings not only a deep knowledge of contemporary art, but a leadership style rooted in care, accountability, and community transformation," said Michael Breland, President of the Board of Directors. "Creative Growth is a pioneering force in the arts and disabilities field, and I am confident Sunny will both champion art as the path for people with disabilities to express themselves and realize a bold and sustainable future for the organization.”
"I’m honored to join Creative Growth—an organization I’ve admired and followed for more than two decades for its visionary work, its artists, and the vibrant community it has built,” said Smith, an equity driven arts advocate who brings more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of contemporary art, higher education, and community engagement to the role. "I’m excited to steward its next chapter—building on recent milestones while focusing on long-term financial sustainability, coalition building, national advocacy in contemporary art and disability justice, and deepening support for Creative Growth’s extraordinary artists and staff.”
Founded in 1974 by Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz on the vision that art would be the path forward for people with disabilities to express themselves and a professional gallery that would exhibit their work, Creative Growth is now the oldest and largest nonprofit studio and gallery for artists with developmental disabilities. Over the past five decades, the organization has catalyzed a global movement by expanding the visibility and influence of artists working outside traditional art world structures.
Its artists have exhibited at major institutions including MoMA, SFMOMA, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Venice Biennale. Creative Growth’s legacy was recently celebrated through major exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California (Into the Brightness, 2023) and SFMOMA (The House That Art Built, 2024). The organization also hosts the annual Creating Community Symposium, which convenes artists and leaders from progressive art studios across the U.S. and beyond to explore best practices, advocacy, and the evolving landscape of art and disability.
About Sunny A. Smith
As Dean of Fine Arts at CCA—ranked as one of the best art and design schools in California and one of the most diverse colleges in the U.S.—their leadership has encompassed strategic planning, fundraising, program and curriculum development, chair management, faculty mentorship, and budget oversight. Smith led 16 academic programs—spanning contemporary art, craft, and digital media—through a period of profound transformation. Their tenure included a swift pivot to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, the college’s transition to becoming a residential campus, and the consolidation of its historic Oakland campus and satellite locations into an expanded 82,000-square-foot San Francisco space for teaching, making, and exhibiting art, all while strengthening CCA’s contemporary art disciplines.
As an educator, Smith has taught nearly 80 courses in sculpture, social practice, and contemporary art history and theory across institutions, including Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, Maryland Institute College of Art, New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, and CCA. Through their work, they have helped launch the careers of hundreds of artists, mentored faculty across disciplines, and contributed to the evolution of a vibrant and inclusive arts ecosystem.
An artist with nearly 30 solo exhibitions and works held in museum collections worldwide, Smith’s practice explores a queer transmasculine perspective on themes of U.S. colonial and military history, the performativity of nationalism and identity, and the use of crafted objects and community rituals to address intergenerational trauma.
Smith holds a B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design, a B.A. in Psychology from Eugene Lang College at The New School for Social Research, and an M.F.A. from Yale University.
They also participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, the International Studio & Curatorial Program, and numerous national and international artist residencies. Smith is based in San Francisco, where they live with their partner, curator and museum educator Christina Linden, and their 10-year-old son, Claude Linden Smith.
For press inquiries and interview requests, contact jackie@creativegrowth.org.
High-resolution images and press kit available upon request.