The arts and culture organization Engine is thrilled to announced it has named Jessica Muise as the new executive director. Muise succeeds Tammy Ackerman, the organization’s co-founder and executive director since 2009. 

“Jessica is an experienced arts and community advocate who will bring energy and exceptional collaborative skills to the job of the executive director" says Stephen Burt, the Engine board member who chaired the search committee. "We're truly thrilled to have Jessica as a new and engaged member of the Biddeford and surrounding community.”

A native of Waltham, Mass., Muise has been leading data and partnership efforts for the Creative Economy team at the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) in Boston. In addition to her work at NEFA, Muise has more than a decade of experience with outreach, fundraising, marketing, program and facility management, and strategic planning for arts-based community organizations. Amongst other work, she held leadership roles at Artisan’s Asylum, a 40,000 square-foot community workshop in Somerville, Mass., and The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, Mass.

Muise was selected from more than 120 applicants in a national search process. In addition to her professional nonprofit experience, Engine’s board was wowed by Muise’s passion, charisma, innovative thinking, and collaborative spirit.

Muise holds BA from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study in Dance in Education as Transformative Pedagogy, and recently completed the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy through University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. As an artist, she has a deep background in movement practices, and her creative work has focused on bringing dance making into public spaces.

“I’m thrilled to be leading Engine, a catalyst for community building and a keystone of Maine’s thriving creative economy,” say Muise. 

Muise begins fulltime on February 1, 2021. 

For more information: director@feedtheengine.org / 207-494-7125

Engine is partially funded by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo: Jessica Muise / Photo Credit Eric Leone

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ENGINE, located in the heart of Biddeford, Maine, is a nonprofit arts organization. Engine’s mission is to connect and inspire our community through art, design, and education. In keeping with its mission, Engine curates exhibitions that are centered on innovation, design, design-to-market and creative endeavors in all genres that harken to Biddeford’s heritage in the industrial and textile design and makers fields, especially those with a strong community engagement component.