Steven D. Lavine is an American academic administrator who was the president of the California Institute of the Arts.
His father was a house call doctor, and his mother was a gifted pianist, reciting compositions of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at home.
Lavine cites artistic works like Bob Dylan's debut album and Alain Resnais' film Hiroshima mon amour as early influences in developing his interests in the arts.
Through the professional recommendation of Martin Friedman, then-director of the Walker Art Center, Lavine was put in contact with CalArts's Board of Trustees.
[1] In 1991, with Ivan Karp, Lavine co-edited "Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display".