Leadership

Joseph V. Melillo was BAM’s executive producer from 1999 through 2018 and will oversee the 2019 Winter/Spring artistic season.

In his tenure, Melillo led a major expansion in programming in the areas of theater, dance, music, visual art, and multi-disciplinary arts throughout the campus and fostered the work of emerging and established artists and forged dynamic artistic partnerships. He furthered the global reach of BAM’s mission through projects like The Bridge Project—a three-year series of international theater engagements featuring a transatlantic company of actors directed by Sam Mendes and produced by BAM, The Old Vic, and Neal Street; Next Wave Down Under, a festival of Australian performing Arts; DanceMotion USA^sm, a cultural diplomacy program in partnership with the US Department of State that shared the rich dance culture of the US with international audiences through cultural exchange; and the Brooklyn-Paris Exchange with Théâtre de la Ville in 2016. He commissioned music projects including Sufjan Stevens’ The BQE, Gabriel Kahane’s The Ambassador, and Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, curated by Bryce and Aaron Dessner; he also cultivated an ongoing relationship with Nonesuch Records and its artists. And he presented contemporary opera works, including David Lang’s The Loser, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole, and Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing.

Fulfilling a need he had expressed for many years, Melillo worked to establish a smaller third stage for BAM, on which the organization could present both developing artists and established artists’ experimental work—with affordable ticket prices. To that end, the BAM Fisher opened in 2012. In its 250-seat, highly-flexible Fishman Space, BAM has presented a diverse roster of artists in its annual Next Wave Festival, including Geoff Sobelle, Miranda July, Nora Chipaumire, Thaddeus Philipps, Suzanne Bocanegra, Lars Jan, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Martha Wilson, Ted Hearne, Kyle Abraham, and The Civilians, among others.

Melillo was recognized by the French government in 2009 as a Chevalier and in 2004 as an Officier de L’ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary OBE for his outstanding commitment to British performing arts in the US. Melillo was appointed Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star in 2007, in recognition of his role in solidifying ties between the performing arts communities of Sweden and the US, and in 2012 he was named cultural ambassador for Taiwan in recognition of his efforts to bring the arts of Taiwan to the US. In May 2012, Melillo was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Francis College, Brooklyn, and the Guadium Award from the Breukelein Institute. He was awarded the title of Knight of the National Order of Québec in 2016. Melillo is also on the US Nominating Committee for the Praemium Imperiale, a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association.

Melillo has served on the faculty of the Brooklyn College Graduate Program in Arts Management and on the boards of directors for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and En Garde Arts. He was a panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts Dance Program and the New York State Council on the Arts, and served as Multidisciplinary Panel Chair of the Pew Fellowships in the Arts’ 2003 and 2007 Awards. Melillo is a lecturer at colleges and universities nationally and internationally. He currently serves as a member of the International Arts Advisory Committee for the Wexner Prize. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and theater at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, and a Masters of Fine Arts in speech and drama at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.