Khady Kamara, currently the executive director of Second Stage, has been named the first executive director of The Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, currently under construction and set to open in 2023.
Kamara will work closely with PAC Artistic Director Bill Rauch and will oversee all administrative and operating aspects of the new venue. She will join The PAC in a part-time capacity this month and will be fully on board starting in early 2023.
“When The PAC opens next year, it will be a spectacular addition to Lower Manhattan and New York City’s cultural life—and, in Khady Kamara, we have found a terrific executive director,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, chair of the Board of Directors, in a statement. “Khady has a wealth of experience in the performing arts and executive leadership, and together with The PAC’s Board of Directors and our Artistic Director Bill Rauch, I welcome her to the job as we prepare for the exciting months and years ahead.”
“The Board of Directors of the PAC unanimously agrees that Khady is the ideal person to partner with Bill and guide us as we prepare to open next year,” said Peter Darrow, vice chair and head of the search committee. “She is an extraordinary leader whose extensive experience and commitment to creating community will advance our mission to expand access to the arts to audiences across New York City and beyond.”
“I have known Khady Kamara since we first worked together at Arena Stage, and I have continued to admire her groundbreaking work at Second Stage,” stated Rauch. “Khady and I share an unwavering commitment to encouraging people from across all five boroughs to find a home as artists and audience members at The PAC. I’m especially thrilled to embark on a partnership with someone whose values are so completely aligned with my own, and with the institution that we are honored to help launch.”
“I am thrilled to work with the Board of Directors, Bill Rauch, and the entire team to build The Perelman Performing Arts Center,” added Kamara. “It will be a place of expansive creativity, where artists and audiences together will explore and embrace the complexities of our shared existence. By making this wonderful new institution on the World Trade Center campus a reality, we are demonstrating the power of art to foster community and bring people together.”
Kamara, who is originally from Senegal, has been executive director at Second Stage Theater since September 2020. She has extensive non-profit management experience, including a 20-year career at Arena Stage, and in December 2021 she was elected to the Board of Governors of the Broadway League. In June 2022, as part of the Second Stage leadership team, she won a Tony for the Broadway revival of Take Me Out. She serves on the board of the League of Resident Theaters and is also an adjunct professor of Arts Management at George Mason University.
For additional information visit ThePerelman.org.
