Arts

Ready to start at the BCA

Thursday Aug 4, 2016

by Gregory Ruffer

Today I am honored and energized to begin my tenure as the sixth President & CEO of Boston Center for the Arts.

As the BCA moves through its 5th decade of serving the community, I am excited to lead the organization into its next phase of growth. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of BCA's incredible community of artists, staff and Board, and I look forward to meeting many more of you in the coming months.

I come to this job with the passion and drive of a performing artist, having spent my performing life as a conductor and singer. Throughout my career I have advocated for living artists by advancing the music of living composers. It is an organic transition to find myself at an organization that is completely devoted to the incubation of new work and fostering the artistic process.

It is particularly exciting to be in Boston, a city I have come to know only in the last year since my husband joined the artistic staff of Boston Ballet. I have visited many of the incredible museums, attended world-class music and dance performances and saw cutting-edge theatre; this is a city that is committed to artists and artistic endeavors. When I'm not exploring the arts you'll find me enjoying amazing seafood and craft beers all over the region.

Currently the vibrancy of the BCA is showing with 2016 Resident Public Artist Chanel Thervil's dynamic, colossal tree of hope, Emergence: What does hope look like? on the BCA Plaza. It is in our new Performing Arts Resident program, which just welcomed eight small theatre companies and three small dance companies to the BCA campus for the next three years. It will be in the Cyclorama this winter when we present a new work by Masary Studios, the BCA's first major commission of site-specific work in the historic Cyclorama.

I look forward to meeting all of you at the many BCA events and programs this year. You are also invited to stop by the Cyclorama and introduce yourself any time. As we begin to shape the next phase of BCA growth, I hope that you will take every opportunity to share your passion, expertise and dreams to ensure the future reflects our entire community.

Please also save the dates of Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25 to join us on the BCA campus for South End Open Studios. Our Artist Studios Building will be open to the public from 10 am-6 pm, giving you a rare inside look at the creativity and energy of our studio artists. We are also lucky to have the work of our studio artists on view in a wonderful exhibition, Placemaking Objects: BCA Artist Studios Building Exhibition, in the Mills Gallery through September 25.

Thank you for welcoming me to your community and for your commitment and support of Boston Center for the Arts. I look forward to seeing all we can build together!