SAM GAPPMAYER NAMED DIRECTOR OF JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center has announced that Sam Gappmayer, the president and CEO of Illinois’s Peoria Riverfront Museum, will join the Wisconsin-based nonprofit organization as its new director. He will take up the post on October 17.

“I have admired the work of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Ruth DeYoung Kohler, its longtime director, for most of my career,” Gappmayer said. “Vital and relevant programming in multiple artistic disciplines, the unique Arts and Industry program, and the focus on art environment builders sets the Arts Center apart as an important contributor to a healthy arts culture on local, regional, and national levels.”

Gappmayer has served in leadership roles at multidisciplinary arts organizations for almost three decades. Prior to the Peoria Riverfront Museum, he worked as the top executive at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum, Idaho. Gappmayer earned a master’s degree in art history from the University of Oregon and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Montana State University. He will succeed Ruth DeYoung Kohler, who served as the center’s director from 1972 to 2015.