On Friday, August 18, Erinn Gavaghan and the Executive Committee of the Norman Arts Council informed the NAC Board that Gavaghan will be leaving the organization after 13 years in her position as Executive Director.
Gavaghan will remain in her position throughout the search process for a replacement, which the Executive Committee believes will take approximately ten months. Gavaghan, who is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oklahoma in Art History, will be graduating after the Fall 2023 semester.
“While I have loved my time with the Norman Arts Council and am extraordinarily proud of the work we have done in the community, the time for me to move on has come. My partner and I will be leaving Oklahoma to be closer to our families in the Pacific Northwest,” Gavaghan stated.
Gavaghan has bolstered Norman Arts Council’s standing in the community, cultural offerings and expanded its staff that, accordingly, increased the organizations capacity to serve the city. She has also guided Norman Arts through a number of transitional periods through her tenure.
Shortly after beginning her role with Norman Arts, Gavaghan helped usher the transfer of a surging Norman Music Festival — which started under NAC’s umbrella — to the Norman Music Alliance.
She helmed moving the operations of MAINSITE Contemporary Art under the organization to become the now longstanding home of Norman Arts and provide a street level presence in the Walker Arts District of Downtown Norman, which became a certified cultural district by Oklahoma Arts Council (one of only seven in the state) under her leadership.
Gavaghan actively kindled relationships with Norman’s sister cities across the globe, creating cultural exchanges that brought international talent to showcase their work in Norman and, conversely, sent Norman’s own out to places where their art might not have otherwise ever reached.
In the tumultuous COVID era, Gavaghan actively advocated for arts funding on a state, regional and federal level, securing numerous grants that helped aid the local arts industry’s resilience and continued return to normal in the years since.
Most recently she steered the organization through another successful vote to raise the City of Norman’s Transient Guest Tax, the second such increase under her watch. As a major funder of all the arts in Norman through NAC’s granting program, these increases mean bigger events to draw visitors to Norman, better job opportunities for local creatives, improved pay for Norman artists and musicians and assurance that the city’s creative community and economy can thrive for decades to come.
The NAC Board of directors has contracted with CoSpire Consulting to guide the organization through the process of selecting a new Executive Director to continue Norman Arts’ positive trajectory in the years ahead with plenty of opportunity to learn directly as her shadow.
“We anticipate that the search process will take us into the Spring of 2024,” said Board President Dennis Brigham. “Both Erinn and the NAC Board feel strongly that whoever is chosen as the new ED has time to work alongside Erinn before she departs the organization.”
An Executive Director Search Committee has been appointed by the NAC Board and the details of the search process will be released soon.