Tara Foster is an arts administrator, curator and multidisciplinary creative whose work sits most broadly at the intersection of place-keeping and contemporary art. Tara is a strategic systems builder whose career is centered on expanding access, so that opportunity and creativity is available to an ever expanding number of people and communities.

As the Director of Grants and Awards for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Tara led a small and mighty team in stewarding nearly $6 million of funding, across 13 programs, to artists, collectives, and small arts organizations based throughout New York city, state and nationally. Tara designed and launched two new award programs during her tenure, each providing direct, unrestricted cash support to creative practitioners.

In her role as a Curator and Project Manager with MTA Arts & Design, Tara brought to life myriad, site-responsive permanent and temporary art projects throughout a transit environment that serves millions of people daily across the New York metropolitan area.

Over the past twenty years, through staff and consulting roles, Tara has provided leadership in direct artist support; program design, implementation and evaluation; brand management and strategic communications; operations and organizational effectiveness; and development and financial stewardship.

Tara completed a self-designed, dual degree master’s program at the University of New Orleans, earning a M.A. in arts administration and M.S. in urban studies. She received the Planning and Urban Studies Department's annual Fritz Wagner Prize for academic achievement and community service. Tara received a B.A. in art history, with a double-minor in English and studio art, from the University of Vermont.