Saratoga Arts has announced that its executive director, Dr. Joel Reed, will be retiring at the end of March.
Reed was appointed to his current position at Saratoga Arts, then known as the Saratoga County Arts Council, when its founder Dee Sarno retired in January 2007.
Reed began working for the organization in June 2003 as its associate director after moving to the Saratoga Springs area from Syracuse.
The Saratoga Arts board of directors is engaged in a search for its next director. More information about the position and how to apply can be found at www.saratoga-arts.org/join-our-team.
Board member Meaghan Golden, principal of MGolden Design + Photo and the co-founder of the Women’s Art Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, will serve as interim director from April until the search is completed and a new executive director has settled in.
During Reed’s tenure, Saratoga Arts took on new projects including: its adoption in 2009 of First Night Saratoga from the YMCA of Saratoga Springs; the commissioning and installation in Saratoga Springs’ High Rock Park of Tempered By Memory, the large-scale sculpture created from World Trade Center Towers steel; the expansion of the regrant program it offers in partnership with the state Council on the Arts, from $51,230 for projects in Saratoga County to $123,010, which will be awarded this year for arts programs in Saratoga, Fulton, and Montgomery counties; the continued growth of its education program, which offers classes, workshops, and school break program for over 1,200 artists of all ages annually; and the development of programs with regional health centers to facilitate the acquisition of significant art collections by local and regional artists.
During this growth, Reed worked with Saratoga Arts staff, volunteers, members, and board of directors to ensure that the organization remained focused on its mission of supporting local and regional artists and providing community members and visitors year-round opportunities to appreciate and participate in the arts.
The financial support Saratoga Arts offers regional artists and arts presenters, and the performance and teaching space at the Arts Center at 320 Broadway in Saratoga Springs that it makes available to other community arts organizations, illustrate the importance he’s given to partnerships and collaboration in furthering those goals.
Reed’s years at Saratoga Arts have coincided with a shift in New York state’s community arts environment, as organizational mergers and closures have transformed what had been a local Arts Council movement to a broader regional model. Reed helped expand the reach of Saratoga Arts to serve multiple communities and counties, while putting an emphasis on developing revenue-generating programs, rather than relying on contributions.
Reed has also helped grow Saratoga Arts’ long-term reserves by nearly 250 percent since 2007, granting it the resources to securely weather downturns and transitional periods, according to the organization.
