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Tom McKenzie

Co-founder

Thomas McKenzie lives and works in Los Angeles with his spouse, Jill Newman, and daughter Flora McKenzie.

As Development Manager for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission’s Arts for All initiative, he raises funding for Los Angeles’ Countywide effort to ensure all 1.6 M students receive quality K-12 arts instruction as a core part of their well-rounded public education. When not at the office, he likes to write plays and articles. Tom’s most recent play, The Ship’s Recorder, debuted at Machine Project in Los Angeles.

Tom McKenzie freaking out as another deadline approaches in the Pulse's early days.

Tom McKenzie freaking out as another deadline approaches in the Pulse’s early days.

Before moving to Los Angeles with Jill, he co-founded and co-published the Peninsula Pulse in Door County, Wisconsin. During the Pulse’s first five years, he managed advertising and distribution and launched the Gallery Guide and the Hal Grutzmacher Literary Contest.

He is proud to have worked in the vibrant nonprofit sectors of both Door County (e.g. American Folklore Theatre, Birch Creek Music Performance Center, Miller Art Museum, Paul Sills Community Theatre, Peninsula Art School, Peninsula Players) and Los Angeles (e.g. Antaeus Company,  The Broad Stage, Deaf West Theatre, Fellows of Contemporary Art, Paul Sand Presents, The Road Theatre).

Tom is the former board chair of the Outpost for Contemporary Art, where he successfully led the effort to merge the organization with the Armory Center for the Arts. Tom is also liaison for the Arts Commission to Los Angeles County’s Waste Free Future Initiative, member of Los Angeles Housing Resource Group, partner in the performance art collaborative Ecstatic Energy Consultants with Steven Anderson and a member of the Llano del Rio artist collective.

Tom McKenzie Articles