TACA Unscripted | Featured Panelists

Featured Speaker

Alex Sarian

Author of The Audacity of Relevance | President & CEO of Werklund Centre

Alex Sarian

Alex Sarian is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Audacity of Relevance: Critical Conversations on the Future of Arts and Culture (ECW Press, 2024), and President & CEO of  Werklund Centre, where he is responsible for leading the $660 million Arts Commons Transformation (ACT) project—the largest cultural infrastructure project in Canadian history.

Prior to moving to Calgary in 2020, he spent 18 years in New York City, where he served as a senior executive at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. A proud member of the 2022 class of Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40, he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from New York University, is a graduate of the CommunityShift program at Western University's Ivey School of Business, and was an inaugural graduate of the Impact Program for Arts Leaders at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

 

Sasha Maya Ada

Founding Artistic Director | Altar'd Playhouse

Sasha Naya Ada

Sasha Maya Ada is a director, actor, educator, and the Founding Artistic Director of Altar’d Playhouse. Passionate about allowing the intersection of restorative practices and artistic technique guide her story-telling, Sasha’s theatre-making approach spans from some of Dallas Fort-Worth’s largest performance houses to the heart of the juvenile justice system. After completing her artist-in-residency at Arts Mission Oak Cliff ‘24, Sasha launched Atar’d Playhouse, a training ground for professional theatre artists to continue developing their technique. A TCG: Alan Schneider Director Award Nominee (‘22), Sasha is excited to serve as a directing mentor for Teatro Dallas’ inaugural Nuevo Mundo  Director’s Festival. As she continues to investigate her own relationship to creating, she is grateful to be able support the development of her fellow creatives in the community that nourished her young artistry.

She, of course, could not end this blurb without mentioning the incredible impact her mother, friends & family, and mentors B and Anne have had in her journey. She is a proud recipient of their belief and support.

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Avery-Jai Andrews

Executive Director | Arts Mission Oak Cliff 
Founder | Agora Artists

Avery-Jai Andrews (she/her) is a Dallas-born dance artist, arts leader, and community organizer dedicated to building a city where artists can truly thrive. A graduate of Booker T. Washington HSPVA and NYU Tisch, she has choreographed and performed nationally and abroad, with local credits including HAIR (Arts Mission Oak Cliff), Little Shop of Horrors (Lyric Stage), See Me (OutLoud Dallas), Thunder Knocking on the Door (Jubilee Theatre), and The Eldert Lofts (Agora Artists). From 2015–2021, she was a founding member of the New York–based company cullen+them.

In Dallas, Avery-Jai serves as Executive Director of Arts Mission Oak Cliff and founder of Agora Artists, two artist-led organizations committed to building sustainable and innovative models for the arts. Her work emphasizes community, care, and artistic integrity, with a vision of Dallas not only as an arts hub, but as a home where artists are recognized as leaders, neighbors, and cultural builders – able to live, work, and flourish without compromise.

 

Brad Pritchett

Chief Experience Officer | Dallas Museum of Art

Featured in Dallas’ Regional Chamber Magazine, D Magazine, D CEO and Passport Magazine as a dynamic Dallas marketing guru, Brad Pritchett is a Tony Award-wining marketing, branding and communications executive and community activist. Brad is the Chief Experience Officer at the Dallas Museum of Art where he oversees all marketing, brand activation, PR, advertising and earned revenue strategies (events, café and store) for the Museum. With 20 years of mission driven marketing, communications and brand equity experience, he is a hands-on strategist with a proven ability to streamline business operations and increase efficiencies to enhance internal/external communications, brand relevance and increased revenue.

Brad has an award-winning track record of defining and directing integrated and multifaceted marketing and public relations campaigns with a focus on advertising, public relations, digital and traditional marketing, tentpole event execution and strategic leadership. Brad led the marcom efforts for Dallas Theater Center and the American Heart Association prior to his role at the DMA. He has professionally entertained audiences all over the world singing, acting and dancing for Disney, Six Flags, Radisson Cruise Lines, The Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and theaters throughout Branson, Missouri. Brad has also hosted and emceed countless high-profile charity events all over the country and was the face of Dallas Voice Television – DVTV. He has also worked as an Arts Host and Contributor for WFAA Channel 8, On-Air Media and hosted his own LGBTQ podcast, the good, the Brad & the ugly, on Yea Network.

The recent recipient of the 2025 Unleashed LGBTQ Arts & Culture Influencer of the Year, Brad was also featured in Culture Map as one of their top 5 fashion influencers for the Style Maker Awards, has been listed as DCEO Top 500 three times and was CMO of the year nominee for the American Marketing Association in 2023. In his spare time, Brad is actively involved in the community serving on the Advisory Board and former chairman of Black Tie Dinner Board of Directors, was a 2024 DIFFA Style Council member and was also a member and spokesperson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Citizen’s Leadership Academy program.