For the second time in two years, the Creative Alliance is looking for an executive director.
The 28-year-old arts organization announced this month that its most recent leader, Gregory Smith, resigned and left on May 11, after 16 months on the job. He cited family reasons as the cause for his departure.
When Smith arrived from Minnesota in January of 2022, he was the third director in the Creative Alliance’s history, after founder Margaret Footner and her successor, Gina Caruso, who stepped down in early 2021.
Smith was also part of a new wave of African Americans taking leadership roles in local arts organizations, along with president Jenenne Whitfield at the American Visionary Art Museum and music director Jonathon Heyward at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Founded by volunteers in 1995 as the Fells Point Creative Alliance, the organization operated for several years out of a Fells Point row house as a hybrid of gallery, performance space and artist guild. Since 2003, it has been based in the former Patterson Theater at 3134 Eastern Ave., now a multi-purpose arts center.
While in Baltimore, Smith helped get the Creative Alliance through the COVID-19 pandemic, brought full programming back to the Patterson theater, and presided over the opening of an expansion, the $5.2 million Creativity Center at 3137 Eastern Ave.
Marketing and communications director Heather Keating said the Creative Alliance board will soon name an interim director while it searches for Smith’s replacement.
“The Creative Alliance thanks Gregory for his leadership during a challenging time for us all, and we wish him well,” said board president Sophia Silbergeld, in a statement. “The board is committed to supporting our incredible staff during the transition, maintaining our focus on the strategic plan, and continuing to support the fantastic programming coming out of the organization.”
