City's head of cultural affairs steps down

Boston cultural affairs commissioner Esther Kaplan has abruptly resigned after five years as Mayor Thomas M. Menino's liaison to the city's arts and cultural community.

Neither Kaplan nor Menino would discuss what led to the resignation, which Kaplan offered and Menino accepted Thursday evening, according to the mayor.

Menino said he expects that Kaplan will return to the world of community-oriented, not-for-profit arts, which is where she spent most of her career until he tapped her as his cultural adviser in 1999. She was made commissioner in 2001.

Without criticizing Kaplan or her performance, Menino suggested that the office of cultural affairs -- which provides support and some financial assistance to artists and arts organizations -- needs a different kind of advocate.

"The arts community is entering a new era and needs a leader and an innovator with an ability to bring people together to promote the arts and have the arts thrive," Menino said yesterday.

Kaplan had no comment beyond a statement she released in an e-mail announcing her resignation, which was sent to City Hall colleagues and members of the arts community.

The former commissioner offered no reasons for her departure. She thanked the mayor for the opportunity to serve the city and its cultural community and touted her key accomplishments, which included fostering "cultural economic development" and artists' living and working space; expanding youth arts programs; and publishing a city cultural calendar.

News of Kaplan's departure surprised many in Boston's tight-knit cultural community, but only a handful expressed disappointment.

Widely admired for her hard work and dedication to bringing culture to all Boston neighborhoods, Kaplan has also been a controversial figure.

"Esther really helped the mayor and the city understand the value and the power of the arts, but she was working against great odds," said Libbie Shufro, president and chief executive officer of the Boston Center for the Arts.

Over the years, the heads of midsize and large arts groups privately complained that Kaplan functioned more as an advocate than a leader, focusing her energy on grass-roots and neighborhood efforts, sometimes at the expense of those with far bigger audiences.

"She has worked hard to unify a divided community, and I think she's suffered from its divisions," Shufro said.

Kaplan was working against significant odds. Boston's cultural affairs office is notoriously underfunded, and national studies have shown that the city receives and distributes fewer arts dollars per capita than 40 other major American cities.

Still, Kaplan irritated many arts institutions a year ago when she established the Boston NOW Cultural Fund Campaign to raise and redistribute money from the private sector. She set up the fund without consulting local arts organizations, all of which were struggling to raise money from the same sources Kaplan targeted.

Tensions between Kaplan and the cultural community have been brewing since then, and observers say that her fractious relationships with established arts leaders became apparent at a Jan. 8 meeting of Menino and the Cultural and Scientific Directors Group, made up of the heads of the largest and most established of these local institutions and organized by City Councilor John Tobin.

Kaplan was not invited to the meeting, but she attended. Neither the cultural leaders nor the mayor addressed her, according to participants.

The mayor said he would begin looking immediately for a commissioner to replace Kaplan.

Maureen Dezell can be reached at dezell@globe.com