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Libbie Shufro, who as president and chief executive of the Boston Center for the Arts oversaw its expansion and revitalization, has resigned to "pursue new opportunities," a BCA spokesman said yesterday. Her departure is effective immediately.
Shufro, who has headed the nonprofit performing and visual arts complex for six years, was not available for comment yesterday. According to Philip Lovejoy, the incoming chairman of the board, Shufro and the Boston Center for the Arts "mutually agreed" it was time for a change in leadership.
"We've wrapped up a five-year strategic plan, and she made huge and tremendous changes," he said. "Now we're looking forward to the next five years."
The center, located in Boston's South End, comprises four theaters, including the Calderwood Pavilion in partnership with the Huntington Theatre Company, as well as other arts spaces that include the Mills Gallery, the Artists' Studio Building, the Cyclorama, and the Boston Ballet Building.
David Hacin, whose term as chairman expires in June, said Shufro is leaving at a "moment of transition" for the arts center. "She was at the end of a contract. It's a natural break, and it happens in organizations all the time. We are looking for a new set of skills."
He said Shufro helped the organization accomplish a great deal during her tenure at the Boston Center for the Arts. He cited, among other accomplishments: the recent opening of the Beehive Cafe, a restaurant/performance venue; substantial grants for programs and capital repairs; the launch of the Environmental Design Competition to improve the center's outdoor spaces; and increased income that helped subsidize affordable studio and theater space.
Lovejoy said Lisa Giuffre, chief operating officer, will serve as interim director. A search committee has been formed to find a successor to Shufro, who, according to the most recent public records, earned $124,835 in 2006.
Before working at the arts center, Shufro served in senior management roles with the YWCA in Boston and ACCION International, a microfinance agency. She was also executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Alliance in the mid-1980s.
"Her accomplishments were significant, and I guess it's time to do something else," said Michael Wasserman, a board member who runs a meeting and event-planning firm. "The BCA is a tough and interesting hybrid. I think it's an exhausting place to run."
Not everyone in the arts community had praise for Shufro.
Kathleen Bitetti - an artist and executive director of the Artists Foundation, an advocacy group for artists - said she was very disappointed in the way Shufro restructured programming at the Mills Gallery, resulting in the departure last year of Laura Donaldson, the gallery's curator and director. "I was strongly opposed to how [she] forced Laura out," Bitetti said. "The art community was very upset by that."
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