Head of Minneapolis' Cowles Center for Dance stepping down

The head of the Cowles Center, a major hub of Twin Cities dance, will step down this summer, the center said Tuesday in a surprise announcement.

Executive director Lynn Von Eschen, who took the helm of the Cowles Center in January 2012, will retire in June shortly after his 59th birthday.

Former mayoral candidate Tom Hoch, who was president and CEO of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, which presents Broadway in Minneapolis, will step in as interim executive director and will coordinate the search for a replacement.

"I will have worked in the arts for 34 years and it's always been a dream of mine to go out on a high note," Von Eschen said Tuesday, alluding to his decade at the Children's Theatre and 18 years at the Ordway Center. "Things are clicking at the Cowles with a great team in place."

Von Eschen is the second leader of the center, which opened in 2011 after a multi-year $42 million fundraising campaign to preserve, move and renovate the historic Shubert Theater. Frank Sonntag, who was lured from New York, spent just 10 months at the helm.

The Cowles has a budget of around $3 million, and attracted about 40,000 patrons to dance shows put on by over 40 companies, according to Von Eschen. He said he is proud to have helped bring the center online, to increase its audience size and to serve all the people, about 150,000 annually, who take classes and see shows in the complex of venues under the Cowles umbrella, including the Illusion Theater.

Von Eschen said that stepping away now gives him an opportunity to focus on family. His father, he said, has dementia. "My husband and I are centered and grounded here, and three of our four children live here," he said. "I don't know if this retirement is forever but it certainly is for the near future."

The Cowles is under the aegis of non-profit developer Artspace Inc, whose leader, L. Kelley Lindquist said that he had been in conversations with Von Eschen "for a while."

"The Cowles Center has ended every year in the black and has done a good job serving Twin Cities and statewide dance and performing arts," he said, describing Von Eschen as "a gift." "I'm super-sad to see him go."

Hoch, a veteran administrator with knowlege of the inner workings of Minneapolis' city hall, steps into the Cowles position at a time when the city is planning a re-do of Hennepin Avenue.

"We'll be looking out for the interests of the Cowles for the 2020 redesign of Hennepin," said Hoch. "The Cowles is one of our very important arts organizations and I'm glad to be able to advance it on an interim basis."