Angie Bertucci: Prioritizing the Arts and Fostering Community

With a cheetah-print coat draped over her chair and disco lights flashing in the background, Angie’s office reflects her overwhelming creativity and playfulness. Above her desk and behind the disco lights, her whiteboard is covered with multi-colored design plans, deadlines, and marketing strategies. It’s February so she is particularly busy promoting the Lobero Theatre’s 147th birthday and annual “Give Day” campaign. In seasons like these, Angie rarely considers the personal or professional incentives of being the Lobero’s Marketing and Communications Director. Rather, her motivation to keep this theater funded and operational stems from her long-standing appreciation of the arts and overarching compassion for the Santa Barbara community.

A Musical Upbringing

Like many Lobero staff members, Angie’s affinity for the arts dates back to her musical upbringing. Growing up just outside of Milwaukee, Angie spent her weekends visiting block parties, dive bars, and rotary clubs to listen to her dad’s band. With tremendous awe, she watched his concerts from the audience and participated enthusiastically. Music was intensely integrated into Angie’s family dynamic, and it wasn’t long before she tried her hand at piano and drums. Soon, she could read music, decipher drum notation, and hold her own in any band or orchestra. Beyond her love for the craft and increasing skill level, Angie also found a sense of belonging in these arts communities and formed her most genuine friendships with fellow creatives. Music not only gave her an effective outlet for artistic expression, but it also served as a bridge between her personal and social lives. In high school, Angie’s musical inclinations translated to active roles in band and orchestra. She recounts finding her “tribe” within these organizations and spending most of her free time practicing or performing. The arts remained undeniably essential to her daily endeavors throughout high school, and she definitively continued her father’s musical legacy.

Angie playing drums in a jazz trio. Picture Credits: Angie Bertucci

Angie's father playing drums (Angie’s musical passions were highly genetic). Picture Credits: Angie Bertucci

Relocation and Discovery

The summer after her high school graduation, Angie packed up her instruments, moved across the country, and enrolled at Santa Barbara Community College (SBCC) to reunite with her family members in California. Santa Barbara had been calling her since her mother moved there a couple years prior, and she was eager to establish a life on the West Coast. Despite her life-long passion for music, Angie was still somewhat undecided in terms of her future career path; from earth science to sociology to business administration courses, she tried her hand at a range of disciplines and explored the breadth of a liberal arts education. But on Fridays and in the evenings, you could always find her collaborating with campus bands or enrolling in extra jazz improv courses. Similar to her experience in Milwaukee, Angie formed real relationships within these artistic communities and integrated into the intimate yet lively community culture. When she transferred to UC Santa Barbara, Angie allowed her personal love for music to become her academic focus. “For me, it really came back to, I was just happiest playing music,” she said. “By the time I was ready to move to UCSB I was like, why am I fighting this? Let’s just go for it.”

As a music major pursuing a degree in percussion, Angie soon grew accustomed to experimenting with the marimbas, xylophone, tympany, snare drums, and vibraphone both in class and through outside collaborations. At that point in her undergraduate career, Angie was dreaming of a life on the stage as a sitting musician and aspiring to travel with chamber orchestras world-wide. Describing her collegiate memories, Angie cites the UCSB Jazz Program with John Nathan and the College of Creative Studies (CCS) composition class as two of her most rewarding artistic experiences. Essential to both of these involvements was ongoing collaboration with fellow musicians and student composers.

Planting Roots in Santa Barbara

Outside of her classical training, Angie also explored the Isla Vista music scene. Through backyard concerts and friend referrals, she discovered more performance opportunities and briefly sat in with an all-girl punk band. Angie quickly became well-acquainted with the local music groups, establishing additional connections in the community. She even met her future husband, a member of the band The Hero and The Victor, at an Isla Vista concert, and music remains an important part of their story.

As Angie defined her personal and professional place in Santa Barbara, she also started to re-shape her career aspirations. She began viewing the life of a traveling musician through a skeptical lens and desired a more rooted lifestyle. In school, she continued exploring her musical abilities, but ultimately finished with a degree in her other love – English Literature. Despite straying from music professionally, she still practiced in her free-time and even played keyboards on a couple The Hero and The Victor albums. Angie craved artistic involvement in some capacity and was highly pleased with the array of ways she could “scratch that itch” in Santa Barbara.

One of Angie’s musical “tribes.” Picture Credits: Angie Bertucci

“Playing” it Forward

Multiple local marketing jobs later, Angie decided to fuse her love for the arts, passion for writing, and determination to improve the Santa Barbara community. When a close friend and employee of the Lobero Theatre mentioned the foundation was potentially bringing their marketing in-house, Angie jumped at the opportunity to build the promotional branch of this historic arts non-profit from the ground up. Over the past 10 years as the Lobero’s Marketing and Communications Director, she has spearheaded all advertising, press relations, and outreach efforts, serving as the main liaison between the foundation and their community partners.

Because of the Lobero’s non-profit classification, Angie focuses on writing for both ticketing and fundraising purposes. While she spends some afternoons crafting press releases for shows and budgeting for local advertising space, she also designates a significant amount of her time to communicating with donors and garnering funding for the foundation’s youth outreach programs. From offering ticketing subsidies for low-income families to facilitating arts outreach in local schools, Angie and the Lobero team consistently strive to create an inclusive and educational space for community members. Angie explained, “In the state of education where arts funding is cut and kids don’t have the access to programs like they used to, I think we definitely provide a needed outlet for kids who want that.”

Angie’s passion for multiple Lobero outreach programs is no doubt strengthened by her own musical background. Specifically, she has enjoyed promoting the Lobero’s newly established annual Brubeck Jazz Residency to both general community members and program donors. In conjunction with accomplished New Orleans jazz artist Derek Douget, the Lobero sponsors a series of masterclasses with music groups at UCSB, SBCC, and Santa Barbara High School. Jim Mooy, Artistic Director of the SBCC Jazz Ensemble, expressed to Angie the impact of this residency stating, “I could see the players in my band playing ‘up’ to the world-class musicians in Derek’s band. Thank you so much for sending them our way.”

Likewise, the theater collaborates with Santa Barbara Vocal Jazz Foundation throughout the school year to provide tangible jazz education to students in local elementary schools. Through these community partnerships, local students get a unique opportunity to learn from established musicians and perform on the Lobero stage. “Getting kids in here and onstage is really the core of our mission in these outreach programs,” said Angie. “We want to give kids a professional stage experience, and we want to bring the arts to life.” For Angie, these were the types of programs that shaped her childhood in Milwaukee and fostered her life-long passion for music of all kinds.

Moreover, Angie and the rest of the foundation consistently adopt Executive Director David Asbell’s mentality, which Angie describes as, “We have a building, we have a stage, you have an idea. Let’s work together.” Like so many of Angie’s memorable involvements in high school and college, collaboration plays and important role in the theater’s routine operations. As part of the foundation’s overall messaging, Angie emphasizes in her public writing that whether they are visiting as patrons or performers, local individuals, families, artists, and non-profit groups should always feel at home at the Lobero.

Keeping the Arts Alive

The Lobero team thanks donors for their Give Day gifts. (From left: Brandon, Angie, Shelia, Marianne, Cecilia, Adrienne) Picture Credits: Sophia Steinhorn

As the foundation’s annual Give Day campaign and 147th birthday celebration comes to a close, Angie’s reflecting on the importance of arts establishments in Santa Barbara. “I really do believe in supporting institutions like this,” she said. “I do that not just with my work, but I donate when I can because I really think places like this help kids like me. That was where I found myself, my friends, and my tribe.”

Since working at the Lobero, Angie’s found a new tribe of creatives. Cecilia, Graphic Designer and former dancer, sits adjacent to Angie’s desk. Shelia, Donor Relations Coordinator and former performer, works right down the hall. Musicians and actors are sprinkled throughout the office. As an intern, I find their appreciation for and excitement surrounding the arts infectious. In an organization teeming with artistic passion and Santa Barbara history, the sense of community and desire to improve it is overwhelmingly tangible. At the end of the day when Angie puts on her cheetah-print coat and turns off her disco lights, she’s grateful to be a part of this narrative and excited to continue inspiring new generations.