PERFORMANCE SPACE 122 LAUNCHES SEARCH FOR NEW LEADERSHIP

East Village’s Performance Space 122 has announced that artistic director Vallejo Gantner will step down and that a search for a new head for the nonprofit organization is under way. Gantner, who has been at the helm of PS122 since 2005, will remain in the role until the institution can find a replacement. The board hopes to reveal the organization’s new artistic director before the end of the year.

Gantner said that he was “immensely proud” of what he, the staff, and the artists he’s worked with have achieved at the adventurous performing-art space but believes that when the organization moves back to its renovated First Avenue home in 2017, it will be time for him to exit. “I think cultural organizations, particularly those in the business of new work and ideas, must embrace change in order to remain vital,” Gantner said. “We artistic directors can often hang around a bit too long.” He added, “I’m looking forward to being a part of that transition and ensuring that PS122 remains an essential anchor of New York City’s cultural life.”

During Gantner’s tenure at the contemporary performance-art hub, he launched Coil, an annual performance festival; PS122 Global, an international touring project, which brings works produced by the organization’s artists to countries in Europe as well as Australia; and Give Performance Space, the organization’s largest and most successful fund-raising effort. Before joining PS122, Gantner led Ireland’s Dublin Fringe Festival from 2002 to 2005, served as an artistic associate for the Melbourne Festival, and worked as a theater director and producer for various venues in Asia and the US.

PS122’s twelfth edition of the Coil festival as well as programming for 2017 will still be curated by Gantner.