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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > December > 06
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Salvage Vanguard Theater founder to leave
Whoa. BIG news from Salvage Vanguard Theater.
Jason Neulander — founder and artistic director of the theater group for 13 years — has announced today that he is stepping down in late spring of 2008.
“It’s been an incredible run,” says Neulander, 38. “I’ve been thinking about stepping down for some time. Now that we’ve built our new space, it seems like the perfect time to move on. I’m thrilled to have developed the company to a point that will allow it to continue and thrive beyond the tenure of its founder.”
Neulander rode his motorcycle into town in 1993 after nabbing two degrees from Brown University in Rhode Island. He set about starting a theater company with a self-described punk aesthetic and a determination to give new voices a stage.
He did that alright. Neulander’s been responsible for some 50 premieres of new work, advocating the work some emerging super-talents such as playwright Dan Dietz and composer Graham Reynolds and racking up plenty of local awards. Neulander also took his popular live radio play “The Intergalactic Nemesis” on the road and it continues to travel nationally.
Last year, the vagabond company put down roots when it opened its first permanent home, concerting a rambling 9,000-square-foot warehouse on Manor Road into a theater with auxiliary exhibit and production space.
As a result of the physical growth, the organization has seen some exponential growth from an annual budget of under $150,00 a few years ago to $400,000 this year. “The organization is incredible fiscal shape,” says Neulander. “We’re going to end this year in the black.”
Neulander said that he’s had inklings that it was time to leave his post for a while now. Call it “founder’s syndrome” — the burn-out that comes with putting your all into it.
“For me personally, I feel like I hit an artistic peak about two years ago and struggled with my vision for the work we’re producing,” says Neulander. “Sure, there’s a lot of sadness in the decision, but I leave with the knowledge that I set out to do what I originally wanted. But now I need to step away.”
Neulander added that not having enough time for his growing family — he and his wife have an 8-year-old and a one-year-old — was a major decision factor.
Salvage Vanguard’s board has already formed a search committee and begun the process of hiring Neulander’s replacement. The committee will formally announce a national search in January.
Reza Shirazi, SVT’s board chair, says: “Just as SVT has grown, the board has matured into a committed group from across the spectrum of Austin community leaders. I am confident that the board will find a excellent successor to Jason to lead SVT through the next decade of creating and presenting great new art.”
Jason Neulander
Dempster named UT fine arts dean
Douglas Dempster, acting interim dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin since fall 2006 and senior associate dean of the college since 2001, has been appointed dean of the college, the university announced today.
UT’s College of Fine Arts oversees not only the arts degree programs — visual art, art history, music, dance and theater — but also the Blanton Museum of Art and the Performing Arts Center.
Dempster was named after a national search. He also holds the Marie and Joseph D. Jamail Senior Regents Professorship and the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Fine Arts as a professor in the college’s Department of Theatre and Dance.
Actually, this was the second national search, after the first collapsed in a chain of indecision. Dempster took over as interim dean in 2006 after previous dean, Robert Freeman, retired.
“The fine and performing arts programs at the University of Texas at Austin are among the leading programs nationally, both in scholarly disciplines and in the original creative work and performances of our faculty and students,” Dempster said in an official statesman. “The University of Texas at Austin is a superb example of the vital role universities now play as the central patrons of the arts for communities across the country.”
Dempster held a faculty position for 18 years at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester before coming to UT in 2001. At Eastman, he held appointments in the departments of humanities, philosophy, music theory and musicology and was humanities department chair and associate director and dean of academic affairs. Well known nationally for curricular reform in professional arts schools, he was founding director of the Eastman School’s Arts Leadership Program.
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