Kate Nordstrum, new music curator and director of external relations at the financially-troubled Southern Theater, is leaving the organization, she announced Wednesday in a letter to supporters.
(Photo by Tom Sweeney, Star Tribune)
Nordstrum has been at the Southern for five years. About two-and-a-half years ago, she started curating a new music program that brought such internationally known composers and performers as Nico Muhly, Sujfan Stevens and Nadia Sirota to the Southern. Nordstrum did not announce her post-Southern plans at this time.
Nordstrum survived a recent round of cuts that eliminated curators for dance and theater and left a skeletal crew at the theater, which is trying to stabilize in the middle of a financial crisis. The theater has a $300,000 deficit and serious cash flow problems. It got into trouble because it commingled restricted money intended for artist fellowships with operational funds. The theater spent those funds, given by its biggest backer, the McKnight Foundation, while the artists went unpaid.
