After a seven month-long international search, Kathleen Panoff, executive director of the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, will be the next director and associate dean of The University of Texas at Austin Performing Arts Center, effective Aug. 1.
“She emerged from a terrific field of strong candidates,” said College of Fine Arts Dean Douglas Dempster. “She has a life-long dedication to arts education and the place of the performing arts in higher education, which has included a faculty appointment and the creation of an arts management program at the University of Richmond. Kathy is equally well known by artists and arts managers for her superb judgment in arts presenting as she is respected for her administrative and business acumen. I couldn’t be more pleased with her appointment.”
Panoff will be taking over the post once held by former Performing Arts Center Director Pebbles Wadsworth and Interim Director April Holmes.
“I am honored to become a member of The University of Texas at Austin community,” said Panoff, “and look forward to working with our arts faculty and students and the Austin community at large to write the next best chapter in the Performing Arts Center’s distinguished history.”
Panoff has had a distinguished career in the performing arts, having been the managing director of the Cincinnati Playhouse before founding and running the Modlin Center for 13 years. She has been a development officer for the Celebrity Series of Boston and WGUC-FM, Fine Arts Public Radio in Cincinnati, and owns a private consultancy in fundraising. Panoff is a flutist and singer with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music education and conducting from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. She is a native of Virginia, and began her career as a music teacher in schools in Texas, Ohio and Virginia.
