Deana Haggag.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has promoted Deana Haggag to the position of Program Director for Arts and Culture, effective January 1, 2025, where she will direct the foundation’s substantial arts and culture grantmaking. She succeeds Emil J. Kang, who stepped down at the end of 2024. Haggag joined the Mellon Foundation as a Program Officer in the Arts and Culture program in 2021. Prior to Mellon, Haggag was president and CEO of United States Artists (USA), a Chicago-based organization that provides fellowships to artists across the country in multiple disciplines. At USA, Haggag spearheaded Artist Relief—a nearly $25 million effort to support artists experiencing financial emergencies. Before that, she was executive director of The Contemporary, a nomadic, non-collecting museum in Baltimore, building original programming and exhibitions in the region. She received a MFA in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Art History and Philosophy from Rutgers University. Haggan lectures widely and has taught at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Towson University.
Haggag’s predecessor, Emil Kang, joined the Mellon Foundation in 2019, having served as executive and artistic director of Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a multi-disciplinary program he founded in 2005. He also served as a professor in the department of music. In 2016, Mr. Kang was named special assistant to the chancellor for the arts and founded Arts Everywhere, an initiative dedicated to integrating artistic practice, learning, and engagement in the community. Kang previously served in administrative roles with orchestras across the country, including as president and executive director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He held roles with the Seattle Symphony and American Composers Orchestra, and is an alumnus of the League of American Orchestras’ Orchestra Management Fellowship Program.
