Taryn Sacramone

Taryn Sacramone has been the executive director at the Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC), a nonprofit performing arts organization in Queens, since 2005. During her tenure, APAC has received 21 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations and four wins, as well as the 2012 IT Awards Caffe Cino Fellowship, given to an Off Off Broadway theater company that consistently produces outstanding work. 

A motivated and diligent leader, Ms. Sacramone is responsible for APAC’s fourfold budget increase, and the expansion of its programming, to include an after-school playwriting program for children (Astoria Playmaking) and a performance program for senior citizens (Senior Stars). In 2012, USA Today named APAC a “Top Queens Attraction.” The New York Times has praised APAC for being “adventurous” and “talented” and Time Out New York described the company as an “inventive programmer” on its list of “50 Things to Love about NYC Theater.” 

Ms. Sacramone’s excellence has been recognized by Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, being honored with an Artistic Achievement Award as part of Women’s History Month. She has also been appointed as a member of Queens Community Board 1 and will be honored at the 11th Annual Queens Top Women in Business Awards, hosted by the Queens Courier, in May 2013. She has served on grant review panels for the Queens Council on the Arts and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. 

Ms. Sacramone graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Kenyon College, with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. While in college, she studied political philosophy and modern literature for two terms at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University. After graduation, she studied acting at the Atlantic Theater in New York. From 2002-2010, she worked at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), a nonprofit academic research organization. She began as an assistant for the SSRC’s Program on the Arts and advanced to become Senior Special Projects Manager of Communications & IT. 

For all the many ways she contributes to the betterment of our society, and for the grace and generosity of spirit with which she does it, Ms. Sacramone is truly an inspiration to us all.