BAAC appoints new executive director

Pamela Keech hasn’t moved from New York yet and she already has goals for Bloomington’s art community.\nAfter a nationwide search, the Bloomington Area Arts Council announced in a press release that Keech will take the helm of executive director beginning Sept. 4.\nKeech replaces Miah Michaelsen, who left in July to take a job with the City of Bloomington as assistant director of economic development for the arts. Ed Vande Sande, BAAC development and marketing director served as interim executive director throughout the summer and will continue until Keech begins in September.\n“Pamela Keech has every skill that we need at this point, not only for the arts council but for the arts community and arts economy,” Vande Sande said.\nKeech has been the curator of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in Manhattan for the last 15 years. She is also the President Emerita of the Society of Fellows at the American Academy in Rome.\nKeech said she feels those two positions will help influence her plans for Bloomington. \n“I think what we want to do is to organize everything,” she said. “There’s so much going on – it’s overwhelming I think.”\nShe said she wants to bring new ideas to Bloomington as well as new ways of doing them. She added that her ultimate goal is to bring a little bit of art to everyone in the five-county area.\nKeech said one of her first goals is to get the arts in Bloomington under better financial footing. Once she feels out the community she will then implement plans to make the arts more accessible \nto residents.\nAccording to a BAAC press release, the BAAC Board President Gerald Sousa said Keech is passionate about the role of the arts in local communities.\n“She has demonstrated success in building non-profit organizations by fostering collaboration, garnering support and inspiring others with her vision,” Sousa said in the release.\nVande Sande said Keech has the training, experience and passion that the BAAC needs to lead the arts community. He said because she is an artist she understands what the community needs at a very fundamental level. \nHe said he suspects people might be concerned about Keech’s appointment. He said he feels she’ll combine some of her Midwest sensibility with the flair she attained from the east coast.\n“She’s going to blow some people away,” Vande Sande said.\nKeech said she is currently in the process of moving to Bloomington and said she couldn’t be more excited to start her new job.\n“I think Bloomington is poised to become a major arts force in the Midwest and I’m looking forward to becoming a part of that,” Keech said.\nKeech will be speaking at the BAAC annual meeting at 5 p.m. Sept. 11 in the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium.The meeting will cover plans for the upcoming year and the new Board of Trustees will be elected, according to the BAAC Web site. It will be free and open to the public.