Moira Brennan (elected 2026) is the Director of Performance and Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she works to integrate the visual and performing arts, curates local, national, and international performance works for MCA stage, and oversees public programs including film screenings, roundtables, and parties!
From 2002 to 2023 she was the director of the MAP Fund, a national artist-services and funding agency that provides support for contemporary performing artists of all abilities and backgrounds, whose work challenges canon and convention. Under Moira, the MAP Fund redistributed $23 million to more than one thousand performance projects in every region of the United States and internationally. At MAP she also co-designed, with David Sheingold, the Scaffolding for Practicing Artist (SPA) program, which established a new model for highly tailored, horizontal one-to-one artist support practices and has now served more than 300 artists in performance, literature, filmmaking, and multi-genre practices. Under her direction, the MAP Fund was one of seven national arts organizations that, in 2020, formed Artist Relief, raising and distributing $25 million to artists impacted by the COVID pandemic.
Over her career, Moira has spoken widely on the complex interplay between creativity, art, power, and money in contemporary culture and philanthropy. A former editor at Ms. magazine, Moira has written about arts and social justice for a variety of publications. She is the former board chair of Movement Research, currently serves on the board of UnionDocs, and is a founding member of the Arts for Living Circle at Abrons Art Center.