Clara Inés Schuhmacher

Clara Inés Schuhmacher has two decades of experience in the cultural sector, working primarily at the intersection of the arts, community and public space. In her current role as Senior Vice President, Programs at the DUMBO Improvement District, Clara helps to tell the individual & collective stories of the neighborhood, supports Dumbo’s businesses with planning, advocacy, and marketing, and curates and produces cultural programming and public art with and for the neighborhood and its public spaces. Clara has held leadership positions at New Music USA, Make Music New York, and the Village Halloween Parade. For many years, she was on the editorial team of Createquity, a pioneering ten-year initiative to help make the world a better place by better understanding the arts, now in an archival state. She has toured Europe and South America as a vocalist, and her video art work, as part of the duo vvitalny, active in the 2010s, has been exhibited internationally. Clara holds a BA in Ethnomusicology from Brown University, an MA in Arts Politics from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is a 2017 graduate of the Coro Neighborhood Leadership fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn.

What drew you to the MA Arts Politics program?

Honestly, it was the only program I applied to! I looking for a way to more deeply connect the work I was already doing in arts + community, get a practical-and also theoretical-grounding, learn from those who had come before me. This was the only program that offered this in a way that felt organic and flexible. Plus, how could I resist the opportunity to learn from incredible women like Karen, Kathy, Marta?

How did your experience in the program shape your work?

The program profoundly impacted my work, and continues to shape the choices I make. I met collaborators who I still work with today; made friends who will forever be there for me in the trenches. I often reference lessons and conversations from APP; frame problems and their solutions with an APP lens. The program is largely philosophical. It’s challenging; it asks hard questions. I learned a lot about myself and how I fit into a larger picture. It was an invaluable year, and the APP continues to be an important one for me both personally and professionally.