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 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, the Miami Beach Convention Center, The Bass Museum and The Colony Theater. 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. The appointed concluded in mid-June 2026.
Lissette oversaw 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, 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 from Miami to Miami Beach in January 2025. In March/April 2026, Miami Beach welcomed back Wodapalooza, HYROX, and the hosted the North American debut of ATHX: Games presented by adidas.
In 2023, Lissette successfully advocated to grow the City's cultural arts grants (60+ organizations) from $850,000 (2016) to $1.05 million, securing Mayor and City Commission's approval and demonstrating her effective arts advocacy.
In 2025, Lissette oversaw the City of Miami Beach Mayor and Commission approval of one-time $1-million funding to address the State of Florida’s arts budget shortfall for Miami Beach institutions and non-profit organizations. Miami Beach was the only municipality in the State of Florida to do so.
Lissette led the City of Miami Beach’s first cultural master plan and managed the cultural consultant agreement with Cultural Planning Group, helping establish a long-term, community-informed vision for the City’s arts ecosystem. The plan, Cultural Currents: Miami Beach’s Arts and Culture Plan, is currently ahead of schedule and is expected to be presented to the City Commission in Fall/Winter 2026.
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 fundraising campaign for a P3 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. In 2021, Lissette created Miami Beach OnStage!, the City of Miami Beach’s largest outdoor arts and culture program. OnStage! engaged cultural presenting non-profit organizations to provide free open-air entertainment and diverse cultural events. In 2022, Lissette oversaw Miami Beach Live!, four weekends of concerts (average attendance 8,000) during Spring Break in the Lummus Park beachfront with live acts that included Jon Batiste, Juanes, Bernadette Peters, Alanis Morissette, NuDeco Ensemble and Cima Funk.
Lissette has a strong professional background in artist and client management, program and event management, department administration, and grant management.