Veronique Le Melle, outgoing president and CEO of Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), will leave Boston by the end of this year and move to San Antonio to become Artpace‘s new executive director. Her first day will be Jan. 28, 2016.
It’s been nine months since the Artpace Board of Directors, led by its search committee, initiated its national search to replace former Executive Director Amada Cruz who left to lead the Phoenix Art Museum.
“I am excited to join the Artpace team and am already passionate about its mission to support the creative process,” stated Le Melle in a news release. “I’m also eager to immerse myself into the larger arts ecology of San Antonio, which is such a creative and vibrant community.”
Le Melle has worked in arts administration for more than 30 years and what stood out most on her resume, according to Artpace Board Chair J Travis Capps Jr, is that her “career is marked with transforming organizations; building community engagement at all levels; and forging working collaborations among arts organizations, governmental bodies, and economic development initiatives.”
While at BCA, Le Melle led the nonprofit visual and performing arts complex’s efforts to raise its profile in the city of Boston and nurtured programs for professional development for artists including residencies. Before Boston, she was executive director of the Louisiana Division of the Arts where she was instrumental in the creation of its Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation. Prior to that, she was the director of Cultural Affairs and Tourism for Queens, New York.
“As Artpace enters its 21st year in 2016 and as San Antonio approaches its 300th year in 2018, we believe Veronique is the right leader to help chart our course and our position in the city,” Capps stated.
Artpace is perhaps best known in the local arts community for its International Artist- in-Residence program. The nonprofit, founded by Linda Pace as “a laboratory of dreams,” hosts three eight-week residencies a year, featuring one Texas-based artist, one national artist, and one international artist. Artist curation changes hands every year to a notable curator.
The downtown gallery and studio space is located downtown at 445 North Main Ave. and free and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, noon-5 p.m., and by appointment.
*Top image: Veronique Le Melle introduces a speaker at a BCA event honoring Michael Wasserman. Photo by Craig Bailey.
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