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Executive Director, Center for the Arts
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, VA
Virginia Tech
Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is one of the nation’s leading land-grant and comprehensive research universities and has the largest number of degree offerings in Virginia. Through its land-grant focus on learning, discovery, and engagement, the university creates, conveys, and applies knowledge to expand personal growth and opportunity, advance social and community development, foster economic competitiveness, and improve the quality of life. The university stimulates community and economic development through a variety of projects. For example, the Corporate Research Center, adjacent to campus, houses more than 130 companies with approximately 2,000 employees, offers opportunities for businesses to establish close working relationships with the university, and nurtures entrepreneurs with new inventions and developments.
Situated on 2,600-acres with more than 125 buildings, Virginia Tech's main campus is heavily residential with more than 28,000 students from 100 different countries, including a Corps of Cadets with 1,000 members. Additionally, the university has off-campus facilities in six regions, including a campus in the National Capital Region with more than 2,000 graduate students, and a study-abroad center in Switzerland. To better serve the cultural needs of the university and its broader community, Virginia Tech is seeking an executive director of a new Center for the Arts.
Community
Blacksburg and Montgomery County , Virginia Tech’s host communities, lie between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains. Blacksburg consistently ranks in national “Top Places to Live” surveys due to the natural beauty of its surroundings, moderate climate, outdoor recreational opportunities, low cost of living, and the presence of the university. During the academic calendar year (August – May), the town’s population totals over 40,000, including 28,000 students, who bring Montgomery County ’s total population to more than 85,000.
The town has a growing arts focus as does southwest Virginia which is anchored by Roanoke, the region’s largest city. Roanoke is home to a variety of performing arts organizations that have close ties to Virginia Tech including a resident symphony orchestra, the Roanoke Civic Center, the Jefferson Center, and several museums. In particular, with the fall 2008 opening of the Taubman Museum of Art, designed by noted architect Randall Stout, the city has significantly increased its visual arts exhibit space. In addition to affiliations with Roanoke ’s cultural organizations, Virginia Tech is a partner in the Hotel Roanoke, a four-star hotel and conference center, and the university’s new medical school in Roanoke.
To learn more about Blacksburg and the surrounding area please visit www.blacksburg.gov
Background - Center for the Arts
President Charles W. Steger’s institutional priorities include improving the university’s fine arts facilities not only for cultural enrichment but to strengthen the quality of the student experience and the institution’s standing as a top research university. The Arts Initiative has grown out of this vision and is a comprehensive university-wide effort to enhance the presence and practice of the arts at Virginia Tech and in the communities it serves. The cornerstone of this effort is the Center for the Arts, a complex of new and renovated facilities. Prominently located at the main entrance to campus, near other university and town arts facilities, the Center will create a conduit between town and campus. The Center for the Arts will be comprised of the following:
› A state-of-the-art multi-use 1,300-seat performance hall with superior acoustics for theater, music and dance;
› A conversion of Shultz Hall with both renovated and new space that will house:
- a visual arts gallery that will exhibit work from visiting and on-campus artists, and promote curatorial partnerships with other arts organizations;
- teaching and research spaces including a creative technologies lab, collaborative performance lab, and communications studio; and,
- support space for the performance hall and visual arts gallery
The first priority of the Center for the Arts will be to enhance life on the Virginia Tech campus and in the community it serves by offering a broad and rich set of cultural experiences. The Center will provide an extraordinary destination for both the university family and the regional community by presenting top-tier national and international artists and companies, university productions, and community arts. To do so, the Center’s staff will create partnerships with other universities and performing arts organizations across the region and strengthen relationships with local governments that support community and economic development through both traditional arts programming and Creative Technologies.
Driven by the Schools of Education, Performing Arts & Cinema, and Visual Arts, Creative Technologies combines performing and visual arts with Virginia Tech’s top-tier scientific, computing and engineering capabilities. Its efforts will be focused on developing new methodologies of teaching, experiencing, and delivering the arts. By exploring the synergies between the arts, education, and technology, Virginia Tech will provide an innovative platform for transdisciplinary research and scholarship to enrich P-12 learning and advance student career and scholarship opportunities. In the future, a separate Center for Creative Technologies will be built. The executive director will work collaboratively with a director of Creative Technologies (to be hired after the executive director) to enhance the programs of both Centers.
Current and Future Environment
The Center for the Arts is an $89 million project. It will be funded with $33.2 million in university funds, $27.8 million in support from the Commonwealth of Virginia and $28 million in private support being raised through Virginia Tech’s current $1 billion capital campaign. The Center for the Arts, which enters into schematic design in December, is anticipated to open in late 2012, with groundbreaking in late 2009 or early 2010. To provide a three-year planning window, the university will engage the Center’s executive director now in order to be an integral part of the Center’s programmatic development, which will help guide construction decisions. The early selection of the Center’s top leadership will ensure that the Center opens with a comprehensive operating and programming plan.
Virginia Tech’s development efforts are centralized, with two fundraising officers assigned specifically to the Center for the Arts. Additionally, the Senior Fellow for Resource Development, who formerly served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, plays a major role in the capital fundraising for the Center. The new executive director will partner with this team to help complete the capital campaign.
The operating budget for the Center for the Arts is estimated to be in excess of $4 million, supported by ticket sales, gifts, and endowment funds. The executive director will be responsible for formulating the operating and programming model for the Center, including budgets and staff plans. Additionally, the executive director, in conjunction with the University’s development staff, will play an ongoing role in fundraising for the Center’s programs.
Position
and Responsibilities
The position will report to a board chaired by the Provost & Senior Vice President. The executive director will exercise overall responsibility for the programming, operation, and financial performance of the Center for the Arts. In the run-up to the opening, the executive director will provide leadership in mapping programmatic objectives for visual and performing arts in the Center. Further, the executive director will develop operational and staffing templates needed to accomplish these programming objectives.
The executive director will work closely with campus groups and individuals from both academic areas and the administration, including the future Director of the Center for Creative Technologies in the Arts, to develop collaborative programs and activities that serve the entire campus and region. The executive director will also be responsible for developing initiatives that position the Center to provide facilities and programs that enhance and strengthen the cultural life of the town and region.
The executive director will be in a high profile position, and the successful candidate will possess an ease in public situations, take great joy in a number of business and social environments, and be able to navigate the complex environment inherent in a university of Virginia Tech ’s size and scope. Finally, the chosen candidate will demonstrate an ability to successfully interact with an extraordinary breadth of individuals – artists, patrons, educators, students, and community members.
Core Responsibilities
- Provide creative and innovative leadership for the Center’s programmatic, educational, and community activities consistent with its mission and the goals identified by the university.
- Present a high-quality and diverse mix of programming that includes national and international performing and visual artists.
- Once the Center is open, serve in a principal role in ongoing fund development for the Center’s operations.
- Collaborate with the leadership of the academic arts departments to coordinate visiting faculty/artists and foster arts-based interdisciplinary curricular programs for all students on campus. Further, create partnerships with campus groups for cross-promotions and program sponsorship.
- In concert with the director of the Center for Creative Technologies and other academic and administrative departments, develop a vision and plan for using interdisciplinary arts and technology research at Virginia Tech to address significant societal needs and to compete for major public and private funding.
- Building on the work done by the Arts Initiative Steering Committee, develop and implement strategic plans and budgets for the Center that address and stimulate on-campus and community constituencies.
- Represent the Center to build a regional arts identity for the university.
- Recruit, hire, train, supervise, and evaluate the Center’s staff.
- Develop and manage financial plans and operate the Center within a balanced budget.
- Work closely with Virginia Tech’s development office: assisting, consulting, and advising in the Center’s capital campaign.
- Circumstances permitting, the executive director will have the opportunity to teach graduate level courses in Arts Administration in the School of the Arts.
Qualifications
The successful candidate will:
- Be a dynamic leader who demonstrates the passion, motivation and vision required to accomplish the mission of the Center, including a strong commitment to interactive arts education and campus outreach and an understanding of how to successfully integrate such projects as part of the Center’s mission.
- Have a proven track record in institutions of significant size and scope, and progressively responsible experience in arts facility management, organizational and leadership development, fund raising, arts programming and marketing, staff management, strategic planning, budget development and management, and contract negotiations. A minimum of 10 years of successful experience managing complex performing arts facilities.
- Possess the ability to provide high quality programming in music, theater, dance, and other genres within budget, while stimulating the development of non-traditional performance activities and events.
- Demonstrate successful fundraising ability including foundation, corporate, and individual solicitation.
- Be an articulate individual with strong communication and interpersonal skills who can effectively represent the Center and its programs.
- Possess a passion for developing a collaborative working relationship between the Center and the university’s academic departments, the ability to build consensus and develop strong relationships within the Blacksburg community and region, and the ability to partner with other arts organizations and universities.
- Have earned a college degree; a master’s degree in arts or business administration is preferred.
- Have a desire to be part of the Blacksburg and Virginia Tech communities.
- Strong preference will be given to candidates with successful college/university experience.
Salary & Benefits
The position will be filled at the earliest opportunity, with an anticipated decision by winter 2008-09 and the successful candidate onsite as soon as possible thereafter. The decision will be accomplished by a ten-member search committee populated by key staff, faculty and administrators. Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience, with institutions similar in size and scope to the Center for the Arts, and within Virginia Tech.
Procedure for Application
Interested candidates are invited to submit résumé, salary requirements, names and contact information for a minimum of three professional references, and a brief cover letter describing interest, relevant qualifications, and experience to the executive search firm retained by the university to manage this search. Recommendations of qualified candidates are also welcome.
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