NEW YORK, NY.- Anne Pasternak, President and Artistic Director of New York City-based public arts presenter Creative Time, announced that Laura Raicovich has been appointed Creative Time’s Director of Global Initiatives. Ms. Raicovich, who will take her post in January 2012, is currently Deputy Director at Dia Art Foundation, where she has held a range of positions over the past decade.

As Director of Global Initiatives, Ms. Raicovich will be charged with envisioning and developing a triad of internationally based public art programs. She will oversee a series of global residencies that provide artists with opportunities for research and engagement in communities around the world. She will expand upon Creative Time’s annual Summit conference, which explores the implications of politically-engaged art, working closely with Chief Curator Nato Thompson. Ms. Raicovich will also guide the development of a unique digital platform that will integrate social media channels into an innovative web experience, giving artists space to investigate a diversity of issues in world politics, culture, artistic practices, and contemporary life. These new programs will be unified under Creative Time’s Global Initiatives program and launched throughout 2012.

Ms. Pasternak said, “I am over the moon that Laura has joined the team and will be spearheading the launch of this new initiative for Creative Time. I have known and respected Laura for a long time and right away knew she was the ideal candidate for Creative Time.”

Ms. Raicovich said, “I am thrilled to be joining Creative Time. Leading Global Initiatives with Anne and the team is an opportunity to put into action my passion for art, and to develop new models for expanding the knowledge and discourse around contemporary art practices.” She continued, “Over the past decade, I have been privileged to work with an exceptional group of artists, colleagues, and trustees at Dia, an organization that shares Creative Time’s unwavering commitment to artists. I envision the Global Initiatives as a platform to unite artists, cultural producers, thinkers, and communities, and am inspired by how much there is to invent.”

Ms. Raicovich joined the staff of Dia Art Foundation in January 2002, first as Liaison to the Board of Trustees and then as Director of External Affairs, before assuming the position of Deputy Director in 2006. In this capacity, she has been centrally involved with both the development of Dia’s new exhibition space in New York City and with strategic planning for the organization. She has also overseen development initiatives, public relations, government affairs, and information technology applications, as well as operations at Dia:Beacon, the Foundation’s museum in Beacon, New York.

Dia Director Philippe Vergne said, “Laura has been a pillar of Dia. Her knowledge and love of art, her sense of institutional responsibility, and her thoughtfulness have brought Dia where it is today. She has been, with discretion and ambition, a force for both our staff and our board. We have enjoyed working with Laura and learning from Laura in equal measure. I am very happy that she has found a venue to explore and share her creativity. We are going to miss her but are elated to know that we are remaining neighbors and that we will still benefit from her talents on a global scale. I commend Anne on a marvelous hire.”

Prior to joining Dia, Ms. Raicovich worked at Public Art Fund from 1996 to 2001, where she served as Communications and Development Director and organized public projects including Pipilotti Rist’s Open My Glade, Vanessa Beecroft’s VB42 Intrepid, and Keith Haring on Park Avenue. In 2001, she acted as Senior Publicist for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Ms. Raicovich graduated from Swarthmore College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art and political science. She holds a Master’s Degree in Liberal Studies from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, where she studied art history and completed her thesis, At The Lightning Field. This project, a lyric essay and parallel text to Walter De Maria’s renowned artwork, is being prepared for publication in book form.

Ms. Raicovich will be joined by two other additions to the Creative Time team. Marisa Mazria Katz, a New York-based writer who has contributed to The New York Times, the Financial Times, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Vogue and the Wall Street Journal, among others, recently joined Creative Time as Editor of the Creative Time initiative Artists on the News, which inserts artists’ voices into contemporary journalism. In addition to her writing, Ms. Katz runs a U.S. State Department-sponsored program in Casablanca, Morocco that teaches marginalized youth about citizen journalism and blogging. Cara Starke will also be joining the team as Director of Exhibitions. Ms. Starke has most recently held the position of Assistant Curator in the Department of Media and Performance Art at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. She will be heading the Programming Department and working closely with Nato Thompson and Anne Pasternak on Creative Time’s exhibition programming.