Philip Roger Caterino's passion for art began in high school. His talent for managing nonprofit corporations came later. As the new executive director of the Brewery Arts Center, he's combining the two.
"I've been working at Lake Tahoe and the Sierra with a number of nonprofits for about 30 years, primarily in historic preservation and land conservation," the 52-year-old Reno resident said. "I've raised more than $50 million in the last 20 years."
From 1999 to 2002, he was executive director of the Thunderbird Lodge Historic Preservation Society. He was project manager for the American Land Conservancy from 1997 to 1999, and supervised trail construction for the Desolation Wilderness for the U.S. Forest Service from 1975 to 1976.
But Caterino admits his first passion is art.
Originally from Pittsburgh, he moved to Sacramento, Calif., with his family in the mid-1960s and developed his first real appreciation of art through his instructors at Encinas, Calif., High School.
"A number of talented artists who had just graduated from (University of California) Davis taught at our school," he said. "My teachers were Ralph Goings, Wayne Tebo and a ceramicist named Robert Arneson.
"They're all famous now. Goings went from starving artist, to teacher, to the cover of 'Art & America Magazine,'" he said. "I was just a hippie kid who decided to be an art teacher."
Caterino, who has experimented with a wide variety of media from painting to theater, first became a teaching assistant at a Sacramento community college, California State University in Sacramento and UC Davis.
If he has the time, he said he wouldn't mind teaching classes to fill in the art curriculum at the Brewery.
Caterino said current programs seem to be meeting the community's needs. He hasn't had time to take a serious look at them, but doesn't expect to make major changes.
"It's exciting to join a program that's been established for 25 years and has a great track record," he said. "I'm interested in building an endowment, to ensure maintenance, improvements and upgrades for the Brewery."
Caterino graduated with honors from CSU Sacramento with bachelor's and master's degrees in art. He has an associate's degree in art from American River College and teaching credentials from California Community College in Sacramento.
He and his wife, Karen, have four children: Tanaya, 21, Giovanni, 18, Alisha, 13 and Gabriella, 13 months.
