Khady Kamara Named First Executive Director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center

The Board of Directors of the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) announced the appointment of Khady Kamara as the organization's first Executive Director. Kamara comes to the PAC from New York's Second Stage Theater, following an extensive national search. As Executive Director, Kamara will work closely with the PAC's Artistic Director Bill Rauch and will oversee all administrative and operating aspects of the PAC, which opens in 2023.

Kamara will join the PAC in a part-time capacity this month and will be fully on board starting in early 2023.

"When the PAC opens next year, it will be a spectacular addition to Lower Manhattan and New York City's cultural life - and, in Khady Kamara, we have found a terrific Executive Director," said Michael R. Bloomberg, Chair of the Board of Directors. "Khady has a wealth of experience in the performing arts and executive leadership, and together with the PAC's Board of Directors and our Artistic Director Bill Rauch, I welcome her to the job as we prepare for the exciting months and years ahead."

"The Board of Directors of the PAC unanimously agrees that Khady is the ideal person to partner with Bill and guide us as we prepare to open next year," said Peter Darrow, Vice Chair and head of the search committee. "She is an extraordinary leader whose extensive experience and commitment to creating community will advance our mission to expand access to the arts to audiences across New York City and beyond."

"I have known Khady Kamara since we first worked together at Arena Stage and I have continued to admire her groundbreaking work at Second Stage," said Bill Rauch. "Khady and I share an unwavering commitment to encouraging people from across all five boroughs to find a home as artists and audience members at the PAC. I'm especially thrilled to embark on a partnership with someone whose values are so completely aligned with my own, and with the institution that we are honored to help launch."

"I am thrilled to work with the Board of Directors, Bill Rauch, and the entire team to build the Perelman Performing Arts Center," said Kamara. "It will be a place of expansive creativity, where artists and audiences together will explore and embrace the complexities of our shared existence. By making this wonderful new institution on the World Trade Center campus a reality, we are demonstrating the power of art to foster community and bring people together."

Khady Kamara has been Executive Director at Second Stage Theater since September 2020. Second Stage Theater produces works entirely by 21st century American Playwrights in three theaters: on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater (585 seats), off- Broadway at the Tony Kiser Theater (296 seats), and at the McGinn/Cazale Theater (100 seats). As Executive Director, she supervises all fundraising, marketing, media relations, audience services, theater rentals, information systems, operations administration, finance, human resources, and production activities.

She has extensive non-profit management experience including a 20-year career at Arena Stage in Washington DC, one of the largest performing arts organizations in the United States. There she was managing director before coming to New York City to lead Second Stage Theater. In December 2021, she was elected to the Board of Governors of the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry. In June 2022, as part of the Second Stage leadership team, she won a Tony Award® for Take Me Out.

Kamara is originally from Senegal and received a BA in Economics from Wells College and an MBA from the University of Maryland. She serves on the board of the League of Resident Theaters, the national service organization for major professional theaters in the U.S. She is also an adjunct professor of Arts Management at George Mason University.

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