Paul Sacaridiz has been widely recognized for his work as an artist, educator, administrator, and leader in higher education and the nonprofit sector. Most recently he was the Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and previously held the position of Executive Director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. While at Haystack, he successfully led the organization through a period of transformational change and historic fundraising. He navigated the organization through the pandemic, developed free online programs that cultivated new audiences, increased support for LGBTQ and BIPOC students, and completed major studio and infrastructure upgrades to the historic campus. Underscoring all of his work is a deep commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity which has influenced his approach to programming, fundraising, partnerships, and organizational governance.
Earlier in his career, he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Associate Director of the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. He was a Fellow with the National Council of Arts Administrators and has extensive experience serving on nonprofit boards including the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+), among others. As a speaker, Sacaridiz has lectured nationally on art, education and leadership through the College Art Association, Artists Communities Alliance, American Craft Council, International Academy of Ceramics, and the Smithsonian Institution.
An accomplished sculptor and ceramicist, Sacaridiz has produced multiple large-scale projects for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum and the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft among others. He has been the recipient of numerous artist residencies including the Ragdale Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and the Arts/Industry Program at Kohler Company. He was an inductee to the International Academy of Ceramics and received the Romnes Faculty Fellowship and the Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell award in the Arts, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in recognition of outstanding research, outreach and public service.
Sacaridiz holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He is also an alumnus of the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology.