ABOUT MARK MURPHY
OZ ARTS’ ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Mark Murphy is an influential leader in the national and international field of contemporary performing arts, with 20 years of experience producing, presenting and developing new audiences for interdisciplinary performances. Murphy has served as Chairman of the Choreographer’s Fellowship Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, was a founding board member of the National Performance Network, an advisor to the National Dance Project, and a member of the Advisory Board for the Japan Foundation’s Performing Arts Program.

While serving as the Artistic Director of On the Boards, a contemporary performing arts center in Seattle (1984-2001), Murphy commissioned or co-produced adventurous new productions from some of the world’s most influential contemporary performing artists, and developed a unique model for combining the disparate acts of producing and presenting – helping emerging and established artists to create and tour new work, and also serving as a leading host of major international and national productions. Murphy helped arrange the first U.S. performances by many young international artists, and has been a sought-after speaker at international conferences on international exchange and collaboration in Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, and at several European gatherings.

Murphy developed an award-winning educational program for youth which combined everything from intensive artist-in-the-schools projects and the creation of rap and hip-hop musicals to the launching of a break-dance academy. Murphy has also been active as a writer, performer and director, having performed his original solo and group projects at multiple venues throughout the U.S., and developed three projects for PBS affiliate KCTS TV. He is the winner of first place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for Feature Writing and radio documentary production. He is a graduate of Fairhaven College.

Photo by Tiffany Bessire