The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge announced this morning that it has hired Renee M. Chatelain as its new president and CEO.
Chatelain will assume her new role later this summer following a transition period that begins immediately, the nonprofit agency says in a press release. For the past five years Chatelain has been executive director of the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center in downtown Baton Rouge. She’s also an attorney, and she previously has worked as an arts administrator and teacher at Episcopal High School and the Dunham School. In addition, Chatelain is among Business Report’s 2015 Influential Women in Business honorees and is profiled in the current issue.
“She has the knowledge, experience and leadership qualities to bring the Arts Council to a new level of impact in our community,” Brian Haymon, chair of the Arts Council board of directors, says in a press release.
Chatelain will be introduced at the Arts Council’s annual meeting on Tuesday, June 16, which starts at 6 p.m. at the LSU Museum of Art in the Shaw Center, 100 Lafayette St. The public is invited to attend.
“I am thrilled to become part of the Arts Council in this capacity, to advocate for and support arts and cultural initiatives in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area,” Chatelain says in a prepared statement.
The Arts Council has been without a CEO since early this year, after Eric Holowacz resigned in February following a vote of no confidence by the board. Neither Holowacz nor the board ever publicly discussed the events leading up to his departure, but in recent weeks Holowacz formed a new arts initiative called the Creative Development Bureau. The Arts Council, meanwhile, had been working with a search firm to help with a national search for his replacement. Two Arts Council staffers, Lisa Ibert and Jonathan Grimes, have been serving as interim co-directors.
