James Carter is a multidisciplinary performing arts leader with over 20 years of experience creating innovative, community-connected programming across civic, academic, and festival platforms. He currently serves as Associate Director of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival (A2SF), where he curates and produces 200+ annual events spanning music, dance, circus, film, comedy, immersive performance, and digital media. Known for his artist-first approach, James builds inclusive cultural experiences and cross-sector partnerships that foster experimentation and public connection.

James began his curatorial journey in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn loft—an informal venue turned grassroots salon where artists and neighbors gathered to share music, short films, puppetry, and experimental work. This spirit of collaboration led to the co-founding of terraNOVA Collective. Under James’s leadership, terraNOVA supported early work by Taylor Mac, W. Kamau Bell, Nilaja Sun, Erin Markey, Joseph Keckler, Christen Clifford, and The Bengsons.

He developed and produced dozens of new plays, including works by Snehal Desai, Andrea Thome, Halley Feiffer, Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko, and Leah Nanako Winkler. His original plays—Baby Steps and FEEDER: A Love Story—sparked a deep interest in immersive formats, leading to NY_Hearts, a geo-tagged narrative app mapping love stories across NYC.

James expanded his work in immersive and digital media through The Civilians’ Extended Play, collaborating with Lynn Nottage and Tony Gerber on This Is Reading—a multimedia installation based on Nottage’s Sweat, combining live performance, film, and documentary storytelling in a Reading, PA train station.

Since joining A2SF, James has produced major commissions and performances by artists including Theater in Quarantine, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Cirque Alfonse, Craig Walsh, Polyglot Theatre, Falu’s Bazaar, Reggie Watts, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Squonk, and Tank and the Bangas. He’s built strong partnerships with the University of Michigan, civic agencies, and cultural institutions to increase access and deepen engagement.

“Inclusion isn’t a challenge—it’s a source of inspiration,” James says. “I meet audiences where they are and bring transformative art to their doorsteps. I believe in creative exchange as a civic act—and in the arts as a bridge toward empathy, equity, and shared imagination.”