Leadership in the local visual arts scene is about to change, yet stay familiar.
The Two Rivers Gallery announced Thursday that longtime managing director Peter Thompson is leaving his position. He has been the top business boss at the gallery for the past 12 years.
It will be the most seamless of transitions, as director of public programs Carolyn Holmes simply moves one desk over. Holmes brings 17 years of experience at the gallery, dating back to before there even was a Two Rivers Gallery, when it was just a rudimentary display space in the Studio 2880 complex. Part of the city's arts sector growing up and maturing into an economic and cultural force is having Holmes prepared to naturally step forward into the managing director's position.
"Usually a change like this is made in the best interests of the leader, not necessarily the organization," said Thompson, who is departing amicably and of his own volition. "This move has a lot to do with leaving the gallery in a position of strength, executing on our succession planning, and figuring out that someone else can bring what the gallery needs. My strengths are in operational change. Over the time I've been here, this organization has grown incredibly and changed a lot. We have fundamentally redefined how a gallery can serve a community. This has put us right on the leading edge of this in B.C. and in Canada. We are recognized nationally for what we have built here as a team. We still do all the traditional core things an art gallery does, but we have leveraged that into innovative things. The addition of MakerLab, for instance, was a game-changer for us and for Prince George."
Now, in his estimation, to capitalize on what's been built, the managing director needed a different approach to the business.
"I'm not a people-person in the way the optimal leadership of the gallery requires at this moment and going forward. I'm more of an ideas person. I have implemented my big ideas, with the collaboration of the rest of the staff," he said.
He also said he has had to fend off five or six years of active recruitment of Holmes by outside agencies.
"She is seen as a rock star in this field, and that is a danger I've had to manage for a long time. It did not affect the timing of my decision, but it speaks to how confident I am in her taking on this position," Thompson said.
Holmes said the progressive development of the staff and the close collaborations between managers and personnel within the gallery, for years, means this promotion is not a thrill for her in the sense of hitting a walk-off home run or scoring an overtime goal. It is a sense of natural transition that has been underway for a long time, and it carries on even before she changes offices. Holmes's current position will be filled by longtime public programmer Anna-Maria Lawrie, as part of that process. The public job posting will be to fill Lawrie's spot and begin building future managers from the foundation upward.
"We like this place a lot. It means a lot to all of us. We are really proud of 'us' as an organization," said Holmes. "I know I'm going to enjoy myself no matter what happens. There are so many things I want to do, but only because I have been part of the collaborations that established what it is we are, here, and what directions we are going. And I still have a lot to learn from Peter. Here, it is always new things to aspire to, and creative excitement. That's a big part of the atmosphere here just because it is what art is all about, so that's just what it's like every day to work here with these amazing people in this amazing facility."
The volunteer board is the ultimate boss at Two Rivers and Holmes said the group in place at that executive table is a big part of the reason Thompson could choose now for his departure. They are part of the strong management team.
"The board and I have already talked about this being a year to tighten up our operations, establish the quality of the programs and services we offer so we can streamline things in a measured way," Holmes said. "We have to maximize what we have started with things like MakerLab and the Make Art Make Sense space. We have to be on track and making sure we're not spreading ourselves too thin."
That kind of thinking, said Thompson, is exactly why Holmes's time was nigh.
"Throughout my tenure I've relied significantly on other employees to help me build community connections, and first among equals is Carolyn," he said. "It is extraordinarily fortunate for Two Rivers Gallery and for Prince George that we were in the position to have her to ask, and that she said yes. She is different in a number of ways. One is that she is, frankly, a better manager of details, of following through, of keeping an organization as complex as this one from making mistakes. I have enormous confidence in what will come next for this organization."
