Lissette García Arrogante, M.P.A.
About
Lissette García Arrogante has over two decades of public, private, and nonprofit expertise in arts, culture, and mega events. She is skilled at building and managing alliances across multiple stakeholder groups, as well as leading teams to achieve greater social impact.
As a seasoned arts and culture leader, Lissette has an in-depth understanding of the value of the arts and culture as an economic driver. She has the ability to leverage the economic impact of the arts by implementing strategies to engage and revitalize economic and community development.
Since 2020, Lissette has served as the Director of the Tourism and Culture Department for the City of Miami Beach, FL, and was appointed by the Mayor and City Commission to oversee the tourism, cultural affairs division, special events and film division, and the Miami Beach Convention Center. The Tourism and Culture Department is also the liaison to the City’s sixteen (16) Cultural Anchor Institutions, Cultural Arts Council, Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority, and Art Basel.
Lissette is also oversees the City’s strategic partnership with but not limited to Art Basel Miami Beach, Design Miami, South Beach Wine and Food Festival (SOBEWFF), and the American Black Film Festival (ABFF). Through the Cultural Arts Council, the City of Miami Beach funds annually over $1 Million in cultural grant funding to local arts organizations.
In 2022, Lissette began work to diversify the City of Miami Beach’s tourism portfolio to expand beyond leisure and arts and culture tourism to include sports and wellness. In 2023, through the Miami Beach Live! initiative, Lissette curated four (4) weekends of large-scale fitness and wellness events during spring break in March. Participating organizations who made their debut in Miami Beach included AVP (American Volleyball Professionals), HYROX, and King of the Court. In 2024, Lissette successfully engaged Wodapalooza to bring the longstanding 12-year event to Miami Beach in January 2025. In 2026, Miami Beach will welcome back Wodapalooza , HYROX, and the host the North American debut of ATHX Games.
Previously, Lissette was the Director of the City of Savannah Cultural Resources Department and the Savannah Cultural Arts Center, a new $27-million-dollar 39,000 square-foot public facility that includes the Ben Tucker Theater, performing arts studio, five visual arts classrooms, and art gallery. She managed the department and the facility’s daily operations, visual and performing arts programming, implementing a new online grant software, and the proposal for a new public art ordinance while overseeing the Cultural Affairs Commission.
Lissette was the 2016-2017 National Urban Fellow at The Cleveland Foundation (TCF) where she received training specializing in community responsive grants management and proactive grantmaking. As part of her role, she led a $3.2 million creative placemaking project known as the PNC Glenville Arts Campus, an international artist residency for FRONT International (2018), Cleveland's first triennial exhibition (July 12th - September 30th, 2018). This project aimed to rehabilitate two vacant buildings into an international artist residency and studio space, in collaboration with The Famicos Foundation and FRONT International. Additionally, Lissette completed a Capstone project focusing on researching the impact of Cleveland's digital divide on school-aged children to inform TCF’s Digital Excellence Initiative grant program.
As Director of Special Projects at The Harpo Foundation, (2013-2016), Lissette managed new initiatives for the Native American Artist Residency Fellowship and Emerging Artist Residency Fellowship programs. Lissette oversaw Harpo’s rebranding initiative by art directing the website redesign and establishing the organization’s presence on all social media platforms.
Lissette's well-rounded experience in the arts includes being former contemporary art advisor and trust and asset manager for a multi-million-dollar international contemporary art collection by carefully selecting and vetting works of art that would accrue in value in a 20-year investment period.
As a Cultural Producer, Lissette has managed special events and concerts, including the Bang! Music Festivals in 2005 & 2006. The daylong events were held over 12 hours with 5 stages and over 75 performing acts, including Daft Punk, Modest Mouse, Tiesto, Swedish House Mafia, Gnarls Barkley and Duran Duran. Overseeing the logistics, A&R and a hospitality staff of 12, she was instrumental in running seamless and professional events.
Lissette has a strong professional background in artist and client management, program and event management, department administration, and grant management.