Alexander L. Aldrich brings over 25 years' experience in the arts to his current position as Executive Director of the Vermont Arts Council. At the Council, Aldrich is primarily responsible for furthering the Council’s mission: to inspire and nurture the arts at the center of community life, through program development, fundraising, and advocacy.
Before moving to Vermont, Aldrich spent five years in Atlanta, Georgia: first as Music Programs Producer for the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games' Cultural Olympiad; then as the first-ever "Cultural Paralympiad" Director for the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games; and finally as the Business Manager of Georgia State University's new 1000-seat Rialto Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Atlanta. Between college and graduate school Aldrich held a variety of positions in music performance and management ranging from Music Director of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals (three years) to Company Coordinator for the Lake George Opera Festival in Glens Falls, New York.
A graduate of Harvard College and Yale School of Management, Aldrich is married with four children. He met his wife, Suzanne, in Washington, DC while serving as the Executive Director of the Arlington [Virginia] Symphony Association. Six weeks prior to his wedding, he became Assistant Director of the National Endowment for the Arts' Music Program. His first position after graduate school was as Program Director with the National Institute for Music Theater in Washington DC, a not-for-profit foundation serving young artists in the field of opera and musical theater.
Aldrich currently serves on the Board of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, the Board of the New England Foundation for the Arts, the New England Creative Economy Council, and the Board of the Associated Harvard Alumni. He is also on the advisory board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Vermont Chapter), and the Museum of Glass and Ceramics in Portland, Maine.