Creative Alliance is proud to announce that Gregory S. Smith has been appointed to be the next Creative Alliance Executive Director. Smith is the third Executive Director in the 26 year history of the Creative Alliance, following founder Margaret Footner, and Gina Caruso. The board, with the support of staff, undertook an extensive search beginning in March of 2021. Smith will start January 10, 2022.
Smith arrives at the Creative Alliance with over twenty years of experience in arts non-profit and business management. His business experience includes executive operations, fundraising, staff management, and long-range planning, with additional experience in arts education, community engagement and community building events, and arts programming. Most recently at Minnesota Public Radio and the Fitzgerald Theater, Smith was accountable for revenue goals, newly imagined guest experiences that led to increased sales, and was the producer for the monthly community conversations series, In Focus, which centered conversations on issues impacting BIPOC communities. Smith started his career as an actor, director and choreographer, and will be bringing these experiences and his passion for the performing arts to the Creative Alliance as we continue to support diverse arts programming in Baltimore. Smith’s career has been committed to making arts and cultural programming accessible to all people through a mission-based lens of collaboration and strong fiscal management.
“Gregory arrives at such a thrilling time in the Creative Alliance’s history. For twenty-six years, the Creative Alliance has celebrated the transformative power of the arts and community in Baltimore. Gregory brings experience in leadership, fundraising, support of the broad spectrum of the arts, and engagement with the communities he has worked and lived in,” says Doreen Bolger, outgoing Board President and member of the search committee. “Gregory is a positive and collaborative leader. The board and I are confident that Gregory’s warmth, collegial and collaborative style, and passion for making the arts accessible for all people will endear him to staff, artists, communities, volunteers, board, and donors.”
Creative Alliance has emerged from the past year and a half of the COVID public health crisis as a financially and artistically thriving organization through the innovation and creativity of its staff and board. As the Creative Alliance enters 2022, its 27th year, it is expanding its reach and impact with the construction of the new Creativity Center, which will open in fall 2022 across the street from its home at the Patterson Theater, with broad support from the community, donors, foundations, local and state government, raising close to $6 million through their capital campaign.
“I am delighted to join such an amazing organization and be part of Baltimore. The Creative Alliance has such a rich history, and I am joining at a time where the reach of the Creative Alliance is expanding,” Smith said. “The organization’s mission, to be a catalyst for building stronger communities through the arts and with artists from diverse backgrounds, will expand with the new Creativity Center. The Creativity Center is a testament to the Creative Alliance’s commitment to the arts and the communities of Baltimore.”
As executive director, Smith will work closely with staff and the Creative Alliance board to ensure the organization will continue to play a vital role in celebrating the communities it serves through the arts. One of his first acts as executive director will be to meet with as many members of the communities that comprise Baltimore and the Creative Alliance’s audience.
“The future is bright for the Creative Alliance, and we are thrilled to welcome our new Executive Director, Gregory Smith, to lead the organization at this exciting time. He joins a talented, energetic, and visionary staff and will be supported by a strong and supportive Board of Trustees,” says incoming Board President Sophia Silbergeld.
We hope you will join us wishing him well in his new role with us and we can’t wait to introduce him to all the wonderful work happening in Baltimore!
