“Debora L. Spar, the former president of Barnard College, has announced her resignation, just one year after starting in the position,” write Robin Pogrebin and Michael Cooper in Saturday’s (4/7) New York Times. In a letter to colleagues, Spar wrote, “ ‘While we have achieved a lot together over the past year, I have also questioned whether the role is right for me…. I ultimately determined that the fit I’d hoped for has not materialized.’… Brought in from outside the arts, Ms. Spar is leaving after a rocky year. Lincoln Center dramatically scaled back plans to rebuild David Geffen Hall; ended one of its summer mainstays, the Lincoln Center Festival; endured tensions between longtime senior staff and members of Ms. Spar’s new team; and grappled with financial challenges.… Her departure comes only six months after the decision to scuttle the expensive gut renovation of Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonic’s home at the center, and seek simpler ways to improve it…. Lincoln Center’s board [will] initiate a formal search for her successor in the coming weeks. Russell Granet, the center’s executive vice president of education and community engagement since 2012, has been named acting president.”
Posted April 9, 2018
Debora Spar photo by Hilary Swift
