Appointment by Governor Newsom in December 2023, Danielle Brazell serves as the California Arts Council’s Executive Director. Brazell has been a Consultant with Super Creative Strategies and an Instructor for Claremont Graduate University since 2023. Brazell was General Manager at the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs from 2014 to 2022, reporting directly to the Mayor and leading a full-time staff of 64 and a part-time staff of 80. Ms. Brazell directed and worked with the arts agency’s Public Art, Grants Administration, Community Arts, Performing Arts, and Marketing and Development Division Directors to oversee a $42 million portfolio of facilities, programming, and initiatives providing arts and cultural services in Los Angeles.

Prior to being appointed to this position in the summer of 2014, Ms. Brazell was the Executive Director of Arts for LA, a regional advocacy organization working to foster a healthy environment in which arts and culture may thrive and be accessible to all in the region. During her tenure, she transitioned the organization from an ad-hoc steering committee comprised of local executive arts leadership, to a highly visible arts advocacy organization serving the greater Los Angeles region. Under her stewardship, Arts for LA became a formidable coalition advancing the arts in the largest county in the country.

Ms. Brazell’s additional professional experience also includes working as the Artistic Director of Highways Performance Space and as the Director of Special Projects for the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. In addition to her work with SMU DataArts, she is a board member of Americans for the Arts.