BAM Faucets Former Chief of Its Movie Program as Its Subsequent President

After a turbulent two years that has compelled the Brooklyn Academy of Music to navigate the coronavirus pandemic, finances woes and management upheaval, the group mentioned Tuesday that it was turning to a veteran of its movie wing to turn into its subsequent president, filling a place that was left vacant more than 12 months ago.

Gina Duncan, who beforehand served as BAM’s first vp of movie and strategic programming, has been chosen because the group’s new president, the establishment introduced. She is going to take over a multifaceted performing arts behemoth with a $50 million working finances.

Ms. Duncan, 41, who has by no means held the highest job at an arts establishment, will probably be tasked with stabilizing and reinvigorating BAM, an necessary cultural anchor and incubator identified for presenting an eclectic array of cutting-edge artists and performers. Her first day as president will probably be April 11. She returns after a stint on the Sundance Institute, the place she labored as its producing director.

“Coming again to BAM looks like returning residence,” Ms. Duncan mentioned in a phone interview. “The opposite day I went right down to see Annie-B’s ‘The Mood Room.’ And it was the primary time I had been again in BAM since all of us fled our places of work in March 2020. And I simply was overwhelmed.”

“I got here again for BAM — the artists, the employees, the viewers,” she added. “They’re my individuals.”

The choice makes Ms. Duncan the primary individual of colour to guide the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In selecting her, the academy’s board chosen a candidate with whom they have been acquainted, after beforehand tapping an outsider in Katy Clark — a violinist-turned-arts-executive — who left BAM after lower than six years in January 2021. Ms. Clark’s predecessor, Karen Brooks Hopkins, spent 16 years as BAM’s president, and a complete of 36 years on the group.

Ms. Duncan joined BAM’s govt group in January 2017 as an affiliate vp for movie — a newly created function through which she oversaw the group’s Rose Cinemas and its repertory movie program. Beneath her management, BAM’s repertory programming started to focus extra on underrepresented voices in cinema.

She was promoted in 2019, along with her function increasing past movie to incorporate duty for the group’s archives and its lectures, lessons and discussions; she helped combine programming throughout the establishment. She additionally helped transfer packages on-line in the course of the early months of the pandemic, officers mentioned.

She left BAM in September of 2020 for the Sundance Institute, and now will return after roughly 18 months away.

The chairwoman of BAM’s board, Nora Ann Wallace, mentioned in an electronic mail that Ms. Duncan’s “management expertise are instantly evident to anybody who works along with her.”

“Her capacity to encourage a gaggle of individuals — be it employees, audiences, donors, or our board — is significant to this second in BAM’s historical past,” Ms. Wallace mentioned. “The board noticed these expertise when she was at BAM in her earlier management function.”

Ms. Wallace famous that along with her background in movie, Ms. Duncan has produced theater and arts-centered neighborhood programming for a few years. “Gina is a gifted strategist who excels at assessing the larger image,” Ms. Wallace mentioned.

Ms. Duncan mentioned that her imaginative and prescient for BAM concerned guaranteeing it’s “important and visual throughout Brooklyn and past.” Throughout her preliminary tenure with the establishment, she mentioned, she had labored to make sure that its movie program each served native audiences and have become a part of a “bigger nationwide dialog.”

“I see a possibility to try this with BAM throughout all of the totally different artwork and wealthy cultural programming that we current,” she mentioned.

When Ms. Duncan’s predecessor, Ms. Clark, left BAM, questions were raised about the housing bonus she had acquired to buy an condo in Brooklyn, which she was allowed to maintain when she left the place.

Ms. Wallace didn’t disclose Ms. Duncan’s wage, saying solely that her pay is “according to different performing arts organizations of comparable measurement.” Ms. Duncan’s compensation doesn’t embrace an condo or housing allowance, Ms. Wallace mentioned.

Ms. Clark’s departure created one thing of a management vacuum at BAM; the board’s earlier chairman, Adam Max, died in 2020 and an inner group was appointed to guide the establishment briefly because the pandemic created a disaster for the performing arts. With dwell performances unattainable, BAM was compelled to slash its working finances, lay off some workers and furlough dozens extra, lower the pay of top executives and dip into its $100 million endowment for particular distributions.

Ms. Duncan may have the benefit of taking up at a time when cultural establishments, together with BAM, are beginning to discover their footing once more. The academy’s first full season for the reason that begin of the pandemic focuses on the artists of New York Metropolis.

“The business stays actually tenuous,” Ms. Duncan mentioned. However at BAM, she mentioned, she mentioned she has a “robust basis to start out from.”

“An establishment is its individuals,” she mentioned.