Longtime leader of Irish Arts Center in NYC to step down next year

Aidan Connolly, the longtime Executive Director of the Irish Arts Center in New York City, has announced that he will be concluding his tenure in the role in March 2027.

Connolly made the announcement in an email blast on Tuesday morning, with the news also being highlighted in the New York Times.

"Next March, I will mark 20 years at the helm of this adventure of a lifetime: visioning, developing, and delivering a new Irish Arts Center for the 21st century with some of the most wonderful artists, colleagues, supporters, partners, and audiences anyone could hope to encounter," Connolly wrote in his email announcement.

"Together we’ve built a cultural bridge between modern Ireland and New York City that is sturdy and panoramic. A home for artists and audiences animated by the spirit of hospitality and inclusion, aligning Ireland’s legacy of creativity with the excellence, dynamism, and diversity of New York City. A place that is new, global, authentic, relevant, welcoming, and enduring.

"This kind of work is never really finished. There is always so much more to do, and there’s no perfect time to mark a finish line. However, in leadership, as in life, there are seasons.

"Thus, after much consideration and planning, I’ve decided that next summer, after two decades, including six wonderfully ambitious years in our new home, I’ll be concluding my tenure as Executive Director. I’ll remain for some time as an advisor to the board on strategic and financial planning, to help transition new leadership, and see through the completion of the 51st Street redevelopment.

"The board and I have been working on this succession plan for several years, and I thank them for their enduring confidence, loyalty, and trust. (The board has formed a succession committee and engaged Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct the search for new leadership.)"

Connolly continued: "I came to this job in March 2007, after exciting chapters in the arts, politics and public service, and, later, business school.

"I’ve done my best to apply all of that experience and learning to the work of building a new Irish Arts Center, body and soul, for New York and Ireland, over the last two decades. It has been a wonderful gift to contribute to both of those cultural and civic landscapes.

"There have been enormous challenges—including a global pandemic that arrived amid construction of our new home. That crucible and others have shaped and seasoned and changed the organization—and me—in deep and profound ways. I am so grateful to every member of the Irish Arts Center family for their enduring commitment through it all.

"Now, I’m looking forward to creating some space—for myself to engage a new canvas, and for others to emerge and lead Irish Arts Center forward in its next chapter.

"Once new leadership is in place next summer, my husband Roberto, our pup Scout, and I will be dividing our time between New York and the west of Ireland, where I’ll be a Visiting Scholar at the University of Galway in 2027–2028, doing some writing, research, and teaching, distilling and sharing lessons from this extraordinary journey of cultural entrepreneurship in various formats and settings. I’m looking forward to taking this time to reflect before embarking on the next adventure."

Connolly reflected: "When you lead any institution, you spend a lot of your time asking people for things and thanking people for things. I have so much gratitude for our entire board and staff, especially my brilliant, longtime cultural co-conspirators over two decades, Pauline Turley, the wondrous personification of Irish hospitality that underpins our culture, and Rachael Gilkey, whose boundless commitment to excellence is an enduring inspiration, and all of our enormously talented, creative, hardworking colleagues; the board chairs I’ve served under: Cel Donaghy, Gerry Boyle, Shaun Kelly, Bob McCann, and John Martin; board member, confidant, mentor, and dear friend Loretta Brennan Glucksman; all our supporters, audiences, teachers and students, collaborators and partners. And, most of all, our artists.

"We are nothing if artists don’t trust us. I am so grateful that so many do, from our honorary chairs Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson—who have lent their hearts and time and credibility to this project from the beginning—to every artist we have presented, commissioned, or supported, or who has otherwise inspired us.

"The tectonic plates of our world are shifting relentlessly. I remain hopeful that this long era of profound disruption can be transformed by people of good faith and earnest endeavor into creativity and a more hospitable and sustainable world.

"There are new paradigms to build, strategies to develop, swings to take.

"We took a big one here in Hell’s Kitchen, and I am so proud of what we have built together!

"Many thanks to everyone in the Irish Arts Center community for the opportunity of a lifetime."

Irish Arts Center capital project

In Tuesday's announcement, Connolly also said: "We are thrilled to announce that we have now raised more than $40 million to fully fund the second phase of the new Irish Arts Center capital project: the redevelopment of our original 51st Street building, as an extension of our new 11th Avenue home which opened five years ago this autumn.

"Enormous thanks to our incredible stakeholders—including the City of New York, the State of New York, the Irish government, and so many generous private donors—who have collectively delivered a $100 million new Irish Arts Center for New York and Ireland for generations to come.

"The new 51st Street will provide a second, even more intimate venue for Irish Arts Center that echoes our original home, while bringing to it the innovation and flexibility we have achieved with the JL Greene Theatre. Fulfilling our original vision, this will further expand our canvas for programming, including more live music, literature and conversation, digital programming, community events, festivals, classes, and much more, while providing sustainable, energizing workspace for our team and our artists.

"The 51st Street building design is substantially complete. The architects are Davis Brody Bond/Stantec, who designed our Phase One 11th Avenue building. Construction will begin early next year and is expected to be completed by the end of 2028.

"As we celebrate this milestone, we are continuing our $50 million Always Home campaign, the successor to our Phase One Almost Home campaign, with funds going to sustain and expand our programming, operating reserves, and endowment, securing the future of Irish Arts Center for generations to come."