Arrivederci Billeci

Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta Billeci, the longest serving director of UCSB Arts & Lectures, is retiring after 25 seasons.

Though Celesta’s next chapter will take her beyond the Santa Barbara campus, her legacy of leadership will continue to inspire the community.

She is the third director of the organization, following in the footsteps of Peg Armstrong and Jan Oetinger.

She arrived at the university following more than a decade of leadership at the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, subsequently known as UCLA Live and currently as the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance.

Over the course of two and half decades in the top spot at UC Santa Barbara, she brought Arts & Lectures to downtown Santa Barbara venues and to national prominence.

Embracing the program’s unusually broad scope, Celesta grew the organization’s budget from less than one million dollars to its current level of more than $10 million annually.

On a personal note, we became good friends in the 17 years I have lived in this rarefied enclave, and I will miss her bubbly enthusiasm for all things cultural, particularly dance.