Todd Trebour
Deputy Director/504 Accessibility Coordinator
(401) 222-3882
Todd.Trebour@arts.ri.gov
Todd is a steward of the arts and culture organizations in Rhode Island. He manages RISCA’s Project Grant and General Operating Support for Organizations programs and function as an information resource, connector, and convener for arts and culture organizations. He develops programs for arts and culture organizations in collaboration with colleagues, based on shared needs in the field.
As 504 Accessibility Coordinator, he ensures internal and external education on access and accessibility, as well as being a point person for questions from our communities around accessibility issues.
About
Todd Trebour (he/him/his) is the Deputy Director/504 Accessibility Coordinator for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). Todd started at RISCA in 2018 and currently manages the agency’s support for organizations, including grants, programs and services. His prior arts management positions include working as the Program Coordinator for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Arts Extension Service, a national arts service organization and the arts management program at the University; and managing director at Chester Theatre Company in Chester, Mass. Before transitioning into arts management, Todd worked as a freelance operatic performer in Texas, Massachusetts, Halifax, NS, and many points in between. Todd received his bachelor's in music performance from Whitman College, his master’s in music in Voice from Rice University, and his Core Certificate in Arts Management from the UMass Amherst Arts Extension Service. Currently, Todd is an Americans for the Arts' State Arts Advocacy Captain for Rhode Island, and a member and volunteer with the West Broadway Neighborhood Association. He is also an adjunct faculty member with Goucher University’s master’s in arts administration program. Most recently, Todd is a 2023 PLACES Fellow, a prestigious year-long leadership development program from the Funders Network for grant makers interested in further incorporating equity and justice into their grantmaking and community engagement practices.
Q. Why is your work at RISCA important to you?
A. One of my favorite parts of my job is meeting new people (preferably over coffee or tea!) who are passionate about arts and culture’s transformative power within communities. If you share that passion, email me and let’s chat!
As a state arts agency, I believe we are charged with promulgating cultural democracy to achieve a more just society. This means creating and connecting Rhode Islanders with opportunities to participate in the policy decisions that affect their cultural lives. In my first few years at RISCA, I had the pleasure of stewarding two working groups comprised of nearly 50 Rhode Islanders in restructuring our organizational grant programs to be grounded in agency principles of equity and accessibility. At RISCA, I’ve been able to experiment with how a government agency can exemplify cultural democracy through
exploring models for decentralizing decision making, sharing power, and developing responsive programming.
Q. What is some of the work you did before you came to RISCA?
A. My career in the arts began as a classically trained singer and operatic performer. I worked for eight years as a freelance performer singing opera, church music, and classical music concerts. Later, I was a member of Double Edge Theatre’s company where I learned to develop new work using a movement-based methodology. I later developed my own work under the banner of Alchemical Opera Project, my experimental opera theatre company. I then went on to work in arts administration as Managing Director of Chester Theatre Company and then as Program Coordinator at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Arts Extension Service, a national arts service organization, where I taught courses in arts management and arts entrepreneurship, and created cross campus-community.
Q. What comprises your artistic practice, current or past?
A. Singing has always been a part of my artistic practice. Beyond my past professional experience, I’ve sung with chamber choirs, community singing groups and at self-organized karaoke nights. One of my most meaningful experiences was singing for four years with the Eventide Singers, a hospice choir based in Greenfield, Mass. Now, I can sometimes be found on early weekday evenings singing ‘80s and ‘90s power ballads at the Boom Box.
Q. What is a favorite artwork or project you have made or collaborated on?
A. Between 2009 and 2011, I developed an experimental opera theater piece entitled “Come and Sleep” under the banner of my company, the Alchemical Opera Project. Working with Canadian cellist Rachel Capon, we premiered the show at the Cooking Fire Theatre Festival in Toronto. Thanks to my father, we then toured the show in Massachusetts, Minneapolis and parts of Canada over the course of two years in his old minivan taxi.
Q. What was a memorable arts and culture experience you had as a young person?
A. I have two early experiences to share: 1) in kindergarten, hearing Whitney Houston’s debut album on the radio was the first arts and culture experience I really remember. It made me want to sing and made me feel magical when I sang. 2) At age 9, singing “Amazing Grace” with my dear friend Shapri LoMaglio in her living room while her mom played piano. It was the first time I really sang with someone else, and it connected us. We’ve been friends for more than 30 years and still sing together (mainly at karaoke) to this day.
