Redhouse Arts Center Executive Director Samara Hannah To Depart In 2023

Redhouse Arts Center Executive Director Samara Hannah, who began her career with Redhouse in 2014, announced to the Board of Directors that she has accepted the position of Executive Director for Corporate and Foundation Relations at North Carolina State University, beginning in February 2023 and will soon be leaving her post at Redhouse.

Throughout her tenure, Hannah has provided transformational leadership to Redhouse which has positively impacted the arts and educational communities in Syracuse and transformed an entire city street. Hannah is credited with helping move Redhouse from its early days in an Armory Square retrofitted theater with fewer than 100 seats to its new location in the formerly vacant Sibley's Department Store, located on South Salina Street in Syracuse. Located at City Center, the state-of-the-art, 40,000-square-foot facility includes three theaters, rehearsal space, and educational settings. In seven theater seasons, Hannah has presided over more than 26 productions, 250 performances and over 50 youth theater and music camps, and seven "Rockin' the Redhouse" benefit shows. Under her leadership, Redhouse theater productions were awarded dozens of SALT awards. In an effort to improve education and bridge education and the arts, Hannah also developed and expanded educational partnerships delivering arts-based learning to more than 12,000 students annually in after-school and day programs.

Hannah has been a committed member of the community serving on several local boards and committees, including CazArts and Visit Syracuse. "It has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of Redhouse, particularly during the transition to the new space and the monumental growth that followed. I am proud of the entire Redhouse team and all of their efforts to serve our community through professional theater and arts-based learning that reaches thousands of people each year. Redhouse's new venue and its staff are positioned well for the next phase of growth. I look forward to remaining in touch and visiting often," said Hannah.

In thanking Hannah for her service, Redhouse Arts Center Board of Directors Chair Ron Tascarella said, "A simple thank you cannot express my gratitude and appreciation to Samara for her time at Redhouse. The past three years have been some of the most challenging for the arts. Samara has not only maintained the organization through these difficult times, but she has also supervised our move into our new location, promoted our educational programs, and brought our theater performance to a new level. She has continued to search for ways to strengthen the Redhouse financially and artistically. The loss to our organization and the community is significant and it will prove difficult to find someone up to the task."

The Redhouse Board of Directors has already formed a search committee and will begin the process of finding the next executive director prior to Samara's departure.

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