Debora L. Spar is taking the reins of Lincoln Center, the largest performing arts center in the U.S. The president of Barnard College will serve as the arts complex’s 10th president beginning in March, The New York Times reports. She’ll be first woman to hold the position. Spar will succeed Jed Bernstein.
“Lincoln Center’s board looked beyond arts administration circles and decided to tap someone with experience running a large nonprofit and with a track record of raising money for capital projects — skills that could prove useful as the renovation proceeds,” the NYT writes. The author and former Harvard Business School professor launched a record-breaking $400 million capital campaign at Barnard.
A “long-delayed” project to renovate David Geffen Hall, “the home of the New York Philharmonic, is proving even more complex than officials initially expected,” notes the source. The majority of funds required for the project — set to cost about $500 million — have yet to be raised.
Spar doesn’t seem at all daunted by the ambitious undertaking. “People want to give you money for something that is exciting,” she said. “It’s very hard to raise money when you say to people let’s fix this hole in the carpet, or let’s do infrastructure. That’s what’s very hard to raise money for. But raising money for something that aims to be the best performing arts space in the world? That’s exciting.”
“Lincoln Center is unlike any other arts organization,” observed Katherine Farley, the chairwoman of Lincoln Center’s board. “There’s really no logical feeder institution. And we thought that it was less important to have someone who, for instance, had a career playing the French horn, than it was to find someone who really understood how to manage a complicated organization.”
Spar, who studied ballet in college, acknowledged, “My career is nonlinear.” After graduating “from Georgetown intending to enter the Foreign Service, [she] wound up getting her doctorate in government from Harvard, and, after briefly teaching political science at the University of Toronto, became a professor at Harvard Business School,” the Times summarizes. “Along the way, she has written about the rise of the internet, reproductive medicine, and, more recently, the challenges facing women in her 2013 book, ‘Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection.’”
Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation and a vice chairman of the board of New York City Ballet, described Spar as a “tremendous fund-rasier.” She’s also shown a commitment to progressive policies. As the Times notes, “during her tenure at Barnard, she attracted a more racially diverse student body, broadened the college’s admissions policy to include transgender women, and worked to bolster the role of the arts on campus.” Barnard is a partner and hosts with The Athena Film Festival which is co-founded by Women and Hollywood founder, Melissa Silverstein.
“The more tumultuous times are, the more vibrant and important the arts become,” Spar said, seemingly a nod to current political unrest in the nation.
Spar has studied and written about technology innovation and the arts, and is committed to ensuring that the Lincoln Center remains a relevant, essential destination. “The next generation listens to music and enjoys performance in pretty different ways, and so how do you think about educating the next generation so that the performing arts become a part of their lives?” she asked. “And that they come to see Lincoln Center as theirs, something they can be part of and participate in and perform at and visit?”
Watch Spar discuss glamorized depictions of female leaders, why she hates the phrase “having it all,” and the significance “Roseanne” in an interview below.
