By Mary Abbe
The Minnesota Center for Book Arts is seeking a new executive director following the abrupt departure Wednesday of Dorothy Goldie whose seven year tenure was ended by the organization's board of directors.
Jeff Rathermel, the center's artistic director since 2004, will assume the position on an interim basis while the board conducts a national search for Goldie's replacement.
There was "nothing meant to be punitive," about Goldie's departure, and no financial issues or other improprieties were involved said board member Jason Inskeep who was not privy to all the deliberations.
At a time when funding for arts and culture organizations is scarcer and more competitive, the 25 year old organization wants to raise its public profile by refining and focusing its mission.
"The board felt a need for a new direction coming out of a strategic plan that is more centered on the arts," Inskeep said. "After a while the sentence, 'We had no idea you were here,' is not one you want to hear again."
The MCBA shares runs educational programs, publishes an annual artist's book, and stages exhibitions of hand-made books. It claims to be the largest and most comprehensive organization of its type in the country. It shares space at the Open Book Center on Washington Av. with the Loft literary center, the publisher Milkweed Editions, a software developer and a venture capitalist firm.
MCBA board members on the search committee include Betty Bright, an MCBA founder; Pamela Johnson and Marguerite "Maggie" Ragnow, curator at the James Ford Bell Library.
