Leadership
Biography
Sergei P. Tschernisch
Sergei P. Tschernisch is an artist, educator and administrator whose professional career includes initiating and shaping some of our country's most progressive arts programs. Most notable is his role as a founding member of the prestigious California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Following his 12-year tenure at CalArts, and 14 years of administrative leadership among leading arts institutions, Tschernisch assumed the presidency of Cornish College of the Arts in June 1994.
Under Tschernisch's leadership, Cornish has achieved record enrollments, eliminated accumulated deficits, created balanced operating budgets, and approved a strategic plan and a master campus plan. His vision and energy, coupled with a contagious passion for the arts, has enabled Cornish to expand beyond Seattle and take its place as the premier arts college of the Northwest.
Tschernisch began his acting career as an apprentice at the San Francisco Actors workshop after receiving his BA from San Francisco University and his MFA from Stanford University. He worked at regional theaters in New York, Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles. He appeared in major film and television productions including Paper Chase, Mission Impossible and General Hospital. As a director, Tschernisch gained a reputation for his bold and innovative approaches to classical works for championing contemporary and lesser-known works.
Prior to relocating to Seattle Tschernisch served as Dean, College of Communication and Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As Dean, Tschernisch was a significant force in advancing theatre at Loyola, particularly through his Council for the College. The Council attracted prominent business, arts and community leaders to advance fund-raising goals of the college.
As the initial Director of the Division of Performing and Visual Arts at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts (1982-92), Tschernisch guided three academic departments to academic prominence. He established professional residencies and affiliations with several Boston area performing arts organizations; renovated a 1,200-seat theater that offered a venue for emerging artists; and was instrumental in the renovation of an old factory building that housed the campus arts programs in one central facility. As the artistic director of a newly founded contemporary performing arts series, Tschernisch introduced New England audiences to breakthrough new works in the performing and visual arts, presenting dozens of important emerging artists in regional premieres that received broad acclaim.
Throughout his professional and academic career, Tschernisch served and continues to serve as a consultant to theaters and theater festivals in this country and abroad. He has consulted for the California Arts Commission, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. In the late 1980's, Tschernisch was one of a select number of Americans invited by the federal government to participate in the Moscow Performing Arts Seminar, organized by the Soviet Ministry and the United States Information Agency.