After eight years leading The Peale museum, Nancy Proctor will take the helm as the next executive director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Theatre, home of the Maryland Film Festival.
Proctor, who start in her new position Aug. 4, said she is looking forward to supporting community-driven and immersive film programming at the SNF Parkway Theatre, located at 5 W. North Ave. in Station North.
“One of the things that attracted me to the position was the opportunity to work with another historic, beautiful Baltimore building and try to find new ways of activating it and making it more useful and relevant and accessible to lots of different kinds of people in Baltimore and beyond,” Proctor said. “It feels like a logical next step after my work with The Peale, but also a door opening onto some very new things, which I’m really excited about as well.”
Proctor first landed in Baltimore in 2014 to serve as the Deputy Director of Digital Experience and Communications at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Then, in 2017, she joined The Peale as its (re)founding director, where she oversaw a five-year, $5.5 million renovation and capital campaign that led to The Peale’s reopening as Baltimore’s community museum in 2022. After serving as The Peale’s chief executive officer from 2017 to 2020, Proctor changed her title to chief strategy officer to reflect the museum’s transition to a shared leadership model.
Among her contributions to the museum, Proctor founded and led The Lab @ The Peale, which supports cultural experimentation and reimagination of the museum experience. She said she will not be working full time immediately at the SNF Parkway, as she wraps up some projects with the Lab.
Proctor’s tenure with the SNF Parkway and Maryland Film Festival begins after changes to the organizations’ leadership and business structure.
In November 2022, the SNF Parkway put its operations on hold and canceled the Maryland Film Festival for 2023, citing financial challenges due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for a more sustainable business model as video streaming tightens its hold on the film industry.
In 2023, Sandra Gibson stepped down as executive director of both the SNF Parkway and the Maryland Film Festival.
The film festival returned in May 2024 for the celebration of its 25th anniversary. The 2025 festival is scheduled for Nov. 5-9, with the shift to fall dates meant to align with academic calendars.
A year ago, the SNF Parkway unveiled a new vision for the organization, including a greater emphasis on “film plus” programming, which uses artist conversations and other events to draw audience members to film screenings and enhance their theater-going experience.
Proctor envisions opportunities for “taking the film off the 2D screen and creating this 3D immersive experience out of it” that goes beyond merely “moving digital wallpaper.”
“How can we make these really meaningful experiences where it is like stepping into a movie, rather than either just walking through a 3D space or just watching a 2D projection?” she ponders.
One example of digital immersive media that has impressed Proctor has been right here in Baltimore, with Afro House’s recent presentation of “Cloud Nebula” at The Voxel.
“They’re taking the components of a film, performing the music live, the audience sits all around them, and then there are projections on four walls all around the audience,” Proctor said.
The SNF Parkway also envisions being a venue for creators and audiences interested in gaming and extended reality media, such as augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality – and they’re already making it happen. On Aug. 5, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the theater will host DevMode, a new meetup where Baltimore-based game developers, artists, technologists, and entrepreneurs will be able to test games and network with one another.
Although the Maryland Film Festival already shows films ranging from local to international creators, Proctor sees the SNF Parkway reaching even more audiences across the state, country, and world.
“I think we need to think way beyond Baltimore,” she said. “First of all, it is the Maryland Film Festival and so there is a responsibility there to filmmakers and film audiences across the state. But also, as was pointed out to me, there really is no natural home for independent theater cinema in the Mid-Atlantic region. I’d like to see the Parkway fulfill that and play a national and even an international role.”
During the pandemic, the Maryland Film Festival shifted to virtual programming. In-person screenings have since resumed, but those virtual showings presented worthwhile lessons, according to Proctor.
While many theaters contend with the popularity of video streaming, she says digital programming can actually draw audiences to physical venues rather than keeping them away.
“For most people, the first time they go to Paris, seeing the Mona Lisa is on the bucket list…. The reason why the Mona Lisa is so famous is because it’s been reproduced and represented in every medium known to humans,” Proctor said. “So I feel like putting things online, making them more accessible, helps build the desire to do the in-person thing, be it see the painting or visit the Parkway or whatever it may be. It becomes a kind of a pilgrimage for some people.”
Artists, including those in the film industry, are also worrying about the rise of artificial intelligence. Proctor said she, too, is concerned about AI’s environmental impact and the small number of companies that have a monopoly over the technology.
But she also sees AI as something that is here to stay, and it is up to artists to determine how to use it responsibly.
“Pandora’s box has been opened,” she said, adding “Let’s make sure we are working towards ways of doing this ethically and we’re not just telling ourselves stories about how it’s all going to be fine and trust that innovation is going to fix it down the road. We’ve got to be proactive. We’ve got to be very purposeful and very self aware of what we’re doing.”
Proctor is also optimistic that the advent of AI will not cause other tools and art forms to fall by the wayside.
“I’ve never seen a new tool come on the scene that artists haven’t embraced and used,” she said. “But similarly, nor have I seen tools ever entirely go out of use…. Even in the digital age, people still make oil paintings and I even made films using Super 8 and things like that. So it is, on one level, another tool in the toolkit and I can’t imagine that it won’t be used. The question is probably how do we respond to that, and what value do we place on that?”
On whether films created using AI will be allowed to be submitted to the Maryland Film Festival – or, for that matter, how festival organizers will vet which entries use AI – Proctor said she will defer to experts.
Like other arts and cultural organizations, the SNF Parkway has faced the Trump administration’s threats of withholding funds from organizations that promote so-called “gender ideology” and diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion (DEAI) efforts.
Proctor said DEAI remains at the heart of the SNF Parkway’s mission, and that will not change.
“I don’t care what kind of government is in charge, human beings will tell stories and they will make art. They will create. We just are wired that way,” Proctor said. “You cannot stop people doing that, and it’s going to happen with or without federal funding. With or without federal funding, organizations like the Parkway and the Peale and all of the other great organizations in Baltimore are going to serve as platforms for that artistic process and for those creative outputs.”
