Michael Bobbitt—the artistic director at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown since March 2019—has been named the next executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the state arts agency announced.
The director, choreographer, and playwright will succeed David Slatery, who has served as acting executive director since Anita Walker retired on June 30, 2020, after leading the agency since 2007. Bobbitt is scheduled to begin the job on Feb. 1, 2021.
Bobbitt was selected by unanimous vote of the agency’s governing council during a special meeting on Dec. 18, after a “nationwide search” led by Arts Consulting Group, the agency reported.
Before joining New Rep, the DC native worked as artistic director at the Adventure Theatre MTC in Maryland for 12 years. “He led a merger with Musical Theater Center, increased the organizational budget and audience, commissioned new works by noted playwrights, transferred two shows to Off-Broadway, built an academy, and earned dozens of Helen Hayes Award Nominations, garnering eight wins,” the MCC reports.
Bobbitt received non-profit arts management training at Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management, the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, and Cornell University’s Diversity and Inclusion Certification Program.
He has served as an associate professor of theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and volunteered on non-profit boards at Non-Profit Village, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Leadership Montgomery, Weissberg Foundation, Watertown Public Art Commission and ArtsBoston. He is a member of MassCreative’s Policy Committee.
Previously:
March 5, 2020: Mass Cultural Council Chief Anita Walker to Retire
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