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From Opera to Impact: An Inside Peek into the Life of Shoreline Arts Alliance’s CEO, Eric Dillner

By Lily Paine


It’s time to meet Eric Dillner, the Chief Executive Officer and person responsible for the management of Shoreline Arts Alliance. 






Eric is always busy with some project and wouldn’t be happy any other way, “I love that each day is very different and requires me to juggle many things,” he explains.  How does he effectively manage the people and programs that make Shoreline Arts Alliance successful?  Eric has had extensive experience in business and nonprofit management as the Artistic and Producing Director of in-house productions at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, second in size only to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Eric was the Artistic and General Director of Shreveport Opera, the Managing Director of Skylight Opera Theatre, and served as a Voice Instructor and the Director of Opera, at the University of Missouri, Columbia and as a vocologist at University of Missouri, Columbia Hospitals and Clinics. SAA is fortunate to be benefiting from his prior business and artistic experience coupled with his immense passion and dedication for the arts.


Eric performing as Alfred in Die Fledermaus


Art has always been a big part of Eric’s life, “I grew up in a family that loved music of all kinds, and one of our family friends was a big-time visual artist who created incredibly vibrant and colorful massive works of art that were seen throughout the world’s greatest galleries.” His appreciation of art changed after he attended Hendrix College to study business and accounting and missed the arts, and subsequently earned both a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance at Butler University and a Master’s Degree in Opera Production at Florida State University, blending opera performance, business management, and production.



One of Eric’s roles as CEO of Shoreline Arts Alliance is directing the Leadership Development Program. He meets weekly with interns from Shoreline Arts Alliance’s 24-town region. “My favorite time every week is when the interns gather, share a little bit about their day, and then before I know it, they’re deep into generating incredible ideas as they evolve into future leaders right before my eyes... I absolutely love it when they achieve something that is so unexpected and makes a great change for us all,” he comments.


After nearly 14 years as CEO of Shoreline Arts Alliance, Eric finds it difficult to choose his favorite memories, however, he concludes that his favorite memory may have been when two photographers, Nicole Croce and Anastasia Fasnakis, took Eric’s son under their wings and taught him how to review a portfolio, “This experience speaks to my love for peer-to-peer, person-to-person, mentee-to-mentor opportunities that transform not only the one receiving the information but also the one that is giving it.”



Eric has many goals for SAA moving forward, “I think we’ve really hit our stride here at Shoreline Arts Alliance,” he states proudly. Motivated to foster a relationship between the creative and business aspects of the artistic community as a whole, Eric makes it very clear what he wants to achieve at Shoreline Arts Alliance: “Our goal is to partner with a network of business-minded philanthropists to

champion this extraordinary effort to build nonprofit leaders for the future and ensure that artists have the tools they need to have successful careers.”


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