The Foundation welcomes back John McGuirk as the new director of the Performing Arts Program. He will be replacing Moy Eng, whose eight-year term ended in November. McGuirk was a program officer with Hewlett from 2002 to 2006 before leaving to lead the James Irvine Foundation’s performing arts program.
In addition to his responsibilities directing the Hewlett Foundation’s more than 200 performing arts grant recipients, McGuirk will assist Foundation President Paul Brest with local grantmaking projects and serve as Hewlett’s liaison to the Community Leadership Project, a joint effort of the David and Lucile Packard, James Irvine, and William and Flora Hewlett foundations to serve low-income and minority-led nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area.
Earlier in his career, McGuirk was director of grants programs for Arts Council Silicon Valley, one of the largest local arts agencies in California. Before that, he worked for seven years at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, California, and held positions at both the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Opera. A classically trained pianist, McGuirk is a graduate of Grove City College in Pennsylvania and earned his master’s degree in public management at Carnegie Mellon University, with a concentration in arts management.