CriticalDance Forum

Statement by Boston Ballet Board Chairman John Humphrey regarding today's announcement about Jeffrey Babcock accepting the deanship at Boston University's School for the Arts:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>It was announced today that Boston Ballet General Director and CEO Jeffrey N. Babcock has been appointed dean of Boston University’s School for the Arts. On behalf of the Ballet's Board of Trustees, I congratulate Jeff on his appointment to such a prestigious institution. We are saddened to see him leave the company. He has attracted many wonderful people to the Ballet and made many important contributions over the last three years. <P>The Board will implement a search for Jeffrey's replacement immediately and we hope to name a new CEO by early this fall. In the meantime, Jeffrey has agreed to continue to serve the organization during the transition. Dr. Babcock and I will work together with the Board to insure continuity and stability during the search for his successor.<P>In a time of change, it is important to focus on the exceptionally positive news at Boston Ballet. The company’s production of Sleeping Beauty was artistically grand and attracted large audiences. In addition, subscription renewals for next year are ahead of this time last year; the renovation of our MetroWest studio in Newton is moving forward this summer; and we are fully engaged in an international search for a new Artistic Director. I am confident the Ballet, with Jeff’s help, will continue a clear, direct path in the next several months.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited June 12, 2001).]

And a press release from Boston University:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>For Release Tuesday, June 12, 2001<BR>Contact: Sarah Godbout, 617-358-1240, sgodbout@bu.edu<P>BOSTON UNIVERSITY NAMES JEFFREY BABCOCK DEAN OF SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS <BR>Boston Ballet CEO to take helm in August<P> (Boston, Mass.) — Jeffrey N. Babcock, general director and chief executive officer of Boston Ballet, has been named dean of the School for the Arts and professor of music at Boston University, effective August 1st.<P> Babcock, who has more than 25 years' experience in performing arts management, education administration, strategic planning, fundraising, and teaching, was selected after a seven-month search. <P> "Jeffrey Babcock has the combination of artistic vision and administrative acumen needed to build on our strengths in the fine and performing arts," says Boston University President Jon Westling. "He has thoughtfully and creatively directed several kinds of performing arts organizations and achieved notable success in developing new programs. Dr. Babcock will help the University to multiply its contributions to the cultural life of Boston and the nation." <P> As CEO of Boston Ballet, one of America's top five ballet companies, Babcock led the company through a period of significant growth and strategic restructuring. The ballet company, with 58 dancers and 57 orchestral musicians, performed more than 120 performances in the 2000-2001 season to a total audience of 250,000. <P> Under the auspices of its Center for Dance Education, Boston Ballet operates one of the nation's largest, most profitable, and most comprehensive ballet schools, in which 60 faculty members instruct more than 2,400 students each year in three Greater Boston locations. The Ballet's highly regarded education and outreach programs give 20,000 inner-city and suburban students of all ages opportunities to dance and attend performances each academic year. <P> "I am honored and delighted to be asked to lead the next era of institutional growth at Boston University's School for the Arts," says Dr. Babcock. "I look forward to working with the School's distinguished faculty, gifted students and staff to build on existing strengths and to creating a compelling institutional vision and strategic plan that will take the SFA to a new level of artistic and educational excellence."<P> From 1991 to 1997, Babcock worked for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games as director of a four-year Cultural Olympiad and executive producer and artistic director of the Centennial Olympic Arts Festival, a $25 million international arts and entertainment program, the largest cultural program in Olympic Games history. <P> In collaboration with Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas, he co-founded and served as president and CEO of The New World Symphony in Miami, Florida, a national post-graduate training orchestra and chamber music program for exceptionally gifted musicians. During Babcock's tenure, the New World Symphony made three international tours to Europe, South America, and Japan. Together with artistic directors Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Lewis, and Michael Tilson Thomas, he also founded and managed the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, a national summer training program for orchestral musicians and conductors at Hollywood Bowl.<P> Prior to his tenure with Boston Ballet, Babcock served as executive director of the $140 million Maryland Center for Performing Arts at the University of Maryland, guiding the development of the Center's artistic and educational mission, creating the facility's operating and performance plan, and overseeing construction issues. Early in his career Babcock chaired and taught in the department of music theory and composition at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan for four years. <P> Babcock earned a Ph.D. in music composition and a B.A. with honors in Music Theory and History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, which recognized his national leadership in the arts by presenting him with that institution's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992. <P> An eclectic composer whose output includes an opera, Mirrors, as well as works for orchestra, dance, and chorus, chamber music, electronic and computer music, jazz, and music for film and television, Babcock also is an experienced conductor and professional musician (keyboards, bass, and tuba) who brings to the School for the Arts an extensive background in information and arts technology, and television and radio production. <P> With more than 900 students, and a distinguished full-time faculty of 152, Boston University's School for the Arts is an internationally recognized conservatory-style school that offers advanced professional training and a wide range of important performance activities and ensembles, and prominent visual arts exhibitions in its schools of Music, Theatre Arts, and Visual Arts. The School for the Arts also founded and continues to sponsor the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and offers two nationally prominent summer programs for pre-college students: the Boston University Tanglewood Institute for musicians, and the Boston University Theater Institute at the Huntington Theatre, one of Boston's two major professional theatres, which is an affiliated resident organization of Boston University, and an active academic partner of the School of Theatre Arts. <P> – 30 – June 12, 2001<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

See also:

- the <a href=http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000699 target=_blank>Boston Ballet Firings thread</a>

- the <a href=http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000712 target=_blank>Maina Gielgud Departure thread</a>

<small>[ 08-11-2002, 18:07: Message edited by: Azlan ]</small>

Will it never stop? Is this company going to be left with absolutely NO leadership? I'm intrigued.

The other slipper has dropped indeed:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>Dancing to academia: Top administrator leaves Boston Ballet for dean's post at BU</B><P>Paul C. McLean, Boston Herald<P>The other slipper has dropped.<P>Jeffrey Babcock is going back to school.<P>The embattled head administrator of the Boston Ballet will become dean of the School of the Arts and professor of music at Boston University on Aug. 1.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/babc06132001.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A>

A commentary:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>It's time for Ballet to get back to business</B><P>T.J. Medrek, Boston Herald<P>So Boston Ballet's Jeffrey Babcock years are finally over. Was it only September 1998 when Babcock, full of big promises, was installed as CEO/general director of the company? It seems like it has been much, much longer. The question today is: Where does a ballet company with neither a business nor artistic leader go from here? And how does it get there?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/bbal06132001.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A>

I wasn't going to post this but... I received a private message that said simply, "Poooooor Boston University."

From the Boston Globe:<P><B>Ballet's Babcock named dean of BU arts school</B><P><BR>By Maureen Dezell, Globe Staff, 6/13/2001 <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Jeffrey N. Babcock will bow out gracefully this summer from a tumultuous three-year tenure as general director and CEO of Boston Ballet. <P><BR>Babcock will become dean of Boston University's School for the Arts, effective Aug. 1. He replaces Bruce MacCombie, a composer and BU professor who stepped down last year. <P><BR>Ballet board chairman John W. Humphrey said that a search for Babcock's replacement would begin ''immediately.'' <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/164/living/Ballet_s_Babcock_named_dean_of_BU_arts_school+.shtml" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><BR>

Ottawa Citizen [CP], 06/12/01:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>Boston Ballet's general director takes job as dean at Boston University</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><B>more...</B><BR>

While I believe that the handwriting has been on the wall for a quick exit by Mr. Babcock just as soon as an opportunity presented itself (note the comment in one of the articles above indicating that he has been looking for a new job for over a year), I remain appalled by the degree of institutional damage that he and his collaborators on the Board of Directors have vitiated on Boston Ballet. I remain disturbed at the suggestion made in one of the other articles that the AD search be put on hold until a CEO search can be conducted so that a new AD will know who "the boss" will be. I hope that the Board will re-examine this misguided policy of making the AD subservient to the Managing/Executive Director. The disaster in this case has clearly arisen from the management/board side of the operation...not the artistic side. Get a strong AD in place and make the two positions co-equal in reporting to the Board. If the Board is too leaderless (or clueless) to make a decision on an AD, consign the early stages of the search to a team of ex-ADs/dancers (with no interest in the position) to screen/interview and recommend finalists to the Board AD Search Committee. Get it done now. Don't wait for the vacuum to be filled by another such as the departing manager.

I think Babcock sold a "bill of goods" to the BB board, so that now they believe in running a ballet company like a business. By the way, if you do some research into Babcock's history, you will find out that he ran an arts business admin co. This appears to be defunct. Another interesting thing about his bio: if you go to the New World Symphony site you can find out a lot about their history/how they were founded etc. There ARE names associated with their history that are mentioned (besides Michael Tilson Thomas), but Babcock is not one of them. And then, you may notice he wasn't at the Maryland School for the Arts for very long either - that at a time when they were in the process of expanding and constructing a new building. Given the history of his association with the Boston Ballet and his rapid exit (although I do understand that his contract was due to expire in the autumn), I find all this very, very interesting - to put it mildly and politely. I wonder of BU did any real digging into Babcock's history. Perhaps someone from there is reading this thread....<BR>By the way, through friends associated with another music institution, I can add that BU was not the only place to which Babcock applied. (OK - the official press release says they approached him: it shouldn't be too difficult to find out of any of the members of the Boston Ballet Board are also affiliated with BU's arts school.) Poor BU!