Prior to joining Northwestern University as the Managing Director for The Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, Jorge Silva was the Managing Director for the Neo-Futurists, leading the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic by revitalizing infrastructure. Prior to working with the Neos, he was the Producing Coordinator for the Goodman Theatre serving as the producing liaison for community engagement projects and the curator for artistic programming. He is currently a Neubauer Civic Scholar and MBA Candidate at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a 2024 Global Arts Management Fellow at the University of Maryland (DeVos Institute). Silva is also an alum of the inaugural WESTAF-Arts Midwest Leaders of Color Fellowship (2023).
While based in Washington, DC, Silva was a performing artist and administrator for the Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater and was one of the founding teaching artists for their DCPS in-school arts education program, ‘Tools of Discovery.’ Much of Silva’s work, however, is identified with The Neo-Futurists beginning as a 2016 recipient of the Artists of Color Scholarship. From there, he joined the experimental essay show THE ARROW (Kurt Chiang, Lily Mooney) and was the lighting designer for REMEMBER THE ALAMO (Nick Hart). Jorge Silva is also an artistic affiliate with Teatro Travieso (Wooster, OH).
Outside of theatre, Silva has worked with the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund and The Posse Foundation: Chicago in their respective student mentoring programs. He was also a Lecturer and graduate projects advisor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Writing Program. Notably, Silva was a featured speaker at Latinos Progresando’s flagship community event, MEX talks [2018] and remains a member of the event’s Host Committee. Silva is a native Chicagoan and an alum of The College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University.