Fashion
PS21, a Hub for Forward-Looking Art Upstate, Names a New Director
Vallejo Gantner, a longtime arts administrator in New York City, has taken over as artistic and executive director at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y.
PS21, a newly prominent center for contemporary performance in Chatham, N.Y., has a new artistic and executive director, it announced on Thursday. Vallejo Gantner has already stepped into the role.
Gantner comes to the position from a long career in arts administration, including leading the similarly named but unconnected East Village theater PS122 (now Performance Space New York) from 2005 to 2017.
“I’m looking forward to maintaining a trajectory of seeking out work by the most exciting artists in the world and demonstrating what can be done outside of the usual urban artistic centers,” Vallejo said in an interview.
Founded in 2006 by the local philanthropist and conservationist Judy Grunberg, PS21 presented shows in a tent on its 100-acre site until 2018, when it opened a state-of-the-art proscenium stage with roofed open-air seating. (It can also be converted to a black box theater.) The next year, just before Grunberg died, the center hired its first artistic and executive director, Elena Siyanko, who quickly established PS21 as an internationally recognized destination for new music, experimental dance, circus arts and genre-blurring performance.
The current season — which starts on May 30 with the Hatched Ensemble, led by the South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza — was organized by Siyanko, who left at the end of last year to work on projects like Down to Earth, a new multidisciplinary festival in New York City. But Vallejo said he planned to introduce new programming as early as the winter.
“I want to think about what we can do when it’s dark and cold and local businesses are suffering,” he said. “We’re going to turn that bug into a feature and build out programs that speak to local audiences.”
