CONTACT JOSHUA

Joshua Heim is Executive Director of Western Arts Alliance, where he is strengthening the presenting and touring network that has connected artists and presenters in the West for the last six decades.

Josh stepped into leadership during a moment of sector-wide disruption and has guided our members through recovery and revitalization. Under his leadership, membership has grown by over 20 percent, opportunities to connect and learn have expanded year-round and he secured the largest operational grant in our history. He also launched PADX, an international export program that connects US touring artists and agents with international markets through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Josh brings more than 15 years of experience in public arts administration and is known as a turnaround leader. At 4Culture, King County’s public cultural funding agency, he led the transition of the $16 million budget from an endowment spend-down to administering public tax revenue and helped lead the distribution of $12 million in federal COVID relief to the region’s cultural sector. In Bellevue and Redmond, he made the arts part of how those cities plan, creating a $1 million Cultural Facilities Fund and integrating the arts into major urban renewal and economic development initiatives. His work in placemaking and the creative economy has been recognized nationally.

His work rests on a simple conviction: the arts are infrastructure, not decoration. Before his career in arts leadership, Josh was a professional hula dancer and award-winning chanter in Hawai‘i with Puamana Hula Studio.