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Damian Woetzel Appointed As Juilliard's President


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The press release:

 

Juilliard Names Damian Woetzel as Seventh President
 
 

 
 
 
NEW YORK ----  The Juilliard School announced today that it has selected Damian Woetzel, director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, artistic director of Vail Dance Festival, and former principal dancer at New York City Ballet, to serve as its seventh president beginning July 2018. Woetzel was chosen after an extensive search process led by a board-appointed search committee and Board Chair Bruce Kovner in consultation with faculty, student, and staff representatives. Juilliard's current and longest-serving president, Joseph W. Polisi, announced in October that he will be stepping down at the end of June 2018.
 
"On behalf of the board of trustees, I am pleased to welcome Damian Woetzel to The Juilliard School as our next president," said Kovner. "Since beginning our search last October, we have had the privilege of getting to know some of the most distinguished leaders in the arts field and beyond. Damian's vision and optimism are second to none, and we are confident that he will advance Juilliard's mission for the next generation while building on the foundation of artistic and academic excellence established by his distinguished predecessor, Joseph Polisi."
 
Woetzel, who turns 50 next week, retired in 2008 from an illustrious career as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, and was celebrated internationally for his performances across a wide range of repertory. In addition to his positions at the Aspen Institute and Vail Dance Festival, Woetzel is also an independent director, choreographer, and producer. His many projects include the Kennedy Center's interdisciplinary DEMO series;Spaces by Wynton Marsalis for Jazz at Lincoln Center; an arts salute to Stephen Hawking at Lincoln Center for the World Science Festival; and the first performance of the White House Dance Series during the Obama administration. From 2009 to 2017, Woetzel served on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, where he helped create the Turnaround Arts Program, which brings arts education to some of the nation's most challenged school districts. Woetzel holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. In 2015 he received the Harvard Arts Medal.
 
As president of Juilliard, Woetzel will inherit a number of large-scale initiatives spearheaded by Polisi, including the continued development of scholarship and entrepreneurship programs, K-12 curricula, online education products, and The Tianjin Juilliard School in China. Woetzel will serve as president-designate during the 2017-18 academic year, during which time he will conclude his work as director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, finishing in June of 2018 at the end of the Aspen Ideas Festival. He will continue to serve as artistic director of the annual Vail Dance Festival at least through summer 2018.
 
"It is a tremendous honor to have been selected as the next president of The Juilliard School," said Woetzel. "Building on collaboration has been a defining principle of my life in the arts, and I can think of no greater privilege than to help shape the future of this extraordinary institution of music, dance, and drama. I'd like to extend my thanks to Bruce Kovner, Juilliard's board of trustees, and President Polisi for this tremendous opportunity to join in the tradition of excellence that Juilliard embodies, and I am inspired to work alongside them to foster new generations of emboldened citizen artists for the 21st century."
 
"Juilliard could ask for no better president than Damian Woetzel," said Polisi. "Damian's commitment to performing arts education and to securing the best and brightest future for our school are all attributes that ensure a very successful tenure as Juilliard's president. I look forward to working closely with Damian during the next year and watching Juilliard flourish under his leadership."
 
About Damian Woetzel
Damian Woetzel has taken on multiple roles in arts leadership since retiring in 2008 from a 20-year career as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet and as a dancer on the international stage. During his distinguished dance career, he was lauded for performances in a wide range of roles created by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and had works choreographed for him by Robbins, Eliot Feld, Peter Martins, Susan Stroman, Twyla Tharp, and Christopher Wheeldon among others.
 
Woetzel currently serves as the director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, which aims to further the value of the arts in society, and as the artistic director of the Vail Dance Festival, which presents annual summer seasons in Colorado and recently offered an acclaimed debut season at New York City Center entitled Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC. Also an independent director, choreographer, and producer, Woetzel's recent projects include DEMO, his own interdisciplinary series at the Kennedy Center; Spaces by Wynton Marsalis for Jazz at Lincoln Center; Lil Buck @ Le Poisson Rouge, an award-winning show featuring Lil Buck, Yo-Yo Ma, and an array of stellar musicians; an arts salute to Stephen Hawking at Lincoln Center for the World Science Festival; two Turnaround Arts performances at the White House; and the first performance of the White House Dance Series, which took place in the East Room of the White House and was hosted by former first lady Michelle Obama.
 
Woetzel has collaborated on numerous events and initiatives with Yo-Yo Ma, including work on his Silk Road Connect program in the New York City Public Schools, and on "Arts Strike" events, which they have pioneered as a format for artists to engage in public service. In 2012, Woetzel co-produced the televised Kennedy Center Honors tribute to honoree Natalia Makarova, and for the 2014 Honors he co-produced the salute to honoree Patricia McBride. In 2009, Woetzel became the founding director of the Jerome Robbins Foundation's New Essential Works (NEW) Program, which over a five-year period initiated grants to enable the production of 35 new dance works. In November 2009, President Obama appointed Woetzel to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, where he served until 2017 and worked on creating the Turnaround Arts Program, which now brings arts education to some of the nation's most challenged school districts.
 
Woetzel holds a Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and has taught as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. Among his awards, in April 2015, Woetzel received the Harvard Arts Medal.
 
About The Juilliard School
Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. Juilliard's mission is to provide the highest caliber of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers, and actors from around the world so that they may achieve their fullest potential as artists, leaders, and global citizens.
 
Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). Currently more than 800 artists from 43 states and 41 countries are enrolled at Juilliard, where they appear in over 700 annual performances in the school's five theaters; at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully and David Geffen Halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as other venues around New York City, the country, and the world.
 
Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in global performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through The Tianjin Juilliard School, K-12 educational curricula, and an increasing array of digital education products.
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Congratulations to Damian - quite an achievement!   Although I have been secretly nurturing the idea that he would someday replace Peter Martins as Ballet Master-in Chief at our beloved NYCB when Peter decides to step down.  Of course, that could still happen :).  

Edited by KarenAG
Name spelling change
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It sounds like the method of the performance evaluation was unconventional but the feedback was pretty strikingly negative. From the article:

Quote

Woetzel’s evaluation was sent to 49 members of the faculty and staff — including every department head and 18 direct reports — 43 of whom responded to it anonymously. There are about 700 full-time and part-time members of Juilliard’s faculty and staff.

The review was designed and conducted by Kovner and J. Christopher Kojima, a vice chairman, Woetzel’s letter to the board said. His letter said that it was “not conducted at an arm’s length distance by an independent party as is best practice for nonprofit institutions of our scale.”

The responses included 143 comments, more than three-quarters of which were negative, according to someone privy to a summary of the report who was granted anonymity to describe this sensitive personnel matter.

The feedback amounted to several key criticisms, according to the summary, which was described to The Times: that Woetzel focused on performance instead of education; had weak administrative leadership; failed to consult faculty members on key decisions; and created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

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It seems Mr. Kovner and many faculty members  did not like Damian Woetzel's way of dealing with racial matters at Juilliard.  (For what it's worth,  I know a number of Black Juilliard graduates,  and every one of them,  while grateful for the rigor of the training,  suffered some degree of trauma.  They perceived the faculty as anti-Black and merely tolerating their presence.  One was even denied a degree,  after paying for four years of tuition,  because they decided she wasn't talented enough to make a career as a dancer.). It's telling that apparently Woetzel's most ardent defender is Wynton Marsalis,  a Juilliard graduate and arguably the most prominent Black figure in jazz.

Then there's the fact that Woetzel is relatively young and good-looking,  and was actually a star performer.  There must be a few faculty members who felt looked over when Woetzel got the position as president.  And shame on him for emphasizing performance at a school for performers!

Woetzel may have won this time,  but the knives are out.

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19 hours ago, nanushka said:

It sounds like the method of the performance evaluation was unconventional but the feedback was pretty strikingly negative. From the article:

I thought it was interesting that in Woetzel's letter, at least as quoted, he seems to have focused more on due process as opposed to rejecting the report's conclusions. The article says that Woetzel's contract is up next year. I wonder why Kovner wanted to force the issue now instead of just not renewing the contract. (The article also says that Kovner is supposed to step down in June, so perhaps that accounts for the timing.) Plainly there's more to this story.

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This happens a lot -- a charismatic celebrity takes over a large unwieldy arts organization and it doesn't go smoothly. Many people are shocked at the amount of bureaucracy, busy work, budgeting, and fundraising involved. Others aren't used to managing this many people. 

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I did manage to read the article, and thanks to those who sent me tips for how to access it. I agree with dirac that it's interesting Woetzel contested the method, rather than the findings. It sounds like things aren't going well for him there. However, I don't think that a Board member, however uber-wealthy he may be ($6 billion, really??), should be allowed to run things behind the scenes. That doesn't sound good for the health and integrity of the institution.

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I think it's understandable that Kovner would want to have direct influence over choosing are successor for Woetzel before he resigns, because either the a majority of the Board agrees with him and/or is willing to do his bidding after he leaves, even if only for his continued financial support, and he wanted to give them a clean slate -- a bit like the "Prince Charles will be king for a while and be the heavy and leave streamlined house for Prince William" theory -- or they've figured out a way to thrive without his money and this is his last chance to entrench someone he likes better for the duration of a new contract.

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19 hours ago, On Pointe said:

It seems Mr. Kovner and many faculty members  did not like Damian Woetzel's way of dealing with racial matters at Juilliard.

This paragraph in the NYT article certainly caught my eye:

Kovner, who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, has contributed extensively to conservative causes and has served on the boards of the American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute, both right-leaning think tanks. Last May, City Journal, which is published by the Manhattan Institute, criticized what it described as the school's “growing cadre of diversity bureaucrats” in an article headlined “The Revolution Comes to Juilliard: Racial hysteria is consuming the school; unchecked, it will consume the arts.”

I clicked through to the City Journal article and its author, Heather MacDonald, appears to be beside herself that a) Juilliard is addressing matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion and b) that in attempting to do so, faculty, students, and administrators have made blunders and missteps. (And, yes, they have. Is anyone surprised? They are "the bumps and bruises that could be expected in navigating the national reckoning regarding racial injustice," as the Dean of the preparatory division put it. This is hard work for everyone and we will get things wrong while we try to get things right.) I suspect that in macDonald's view Juilliard's DEIJ initiatives have had no good results—or indeed, could never have good results since the whole premise behind such work is wrong-headed at best and grievous overreach at worst.

If this is what people in Kovner's circle have been pouring into his ear—and if he hasn't troubled himself to look for another perspective—it might be at least part of what prompted his actions. (The article does not mention what actually prompted Kovner to undertake the evaluation in the first place.) I wish I knew whether and when Kovner or others on the Board approached Woetzel with their concerns, and whether Woetzel even knew the "internal evalutation" was taking place or what its results were before he was asked to resign. 

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3 hours ago, cobweb said:

I agree with dirac that it's interesting Woetzel contested the method, rather than the findings.

Well, yes and no. Feedback is a gift and a good leader listens to it. It may well be that he took the criticism to heart and appreciates the opportunity to address them. And it wouldn't be in his best interests as a leader to contend that the people providing (presumably) honest feedback were wrong. If he believes that the evaluation was undertaken in bad faith, or was poorly designed and executed, he has better cause to challenge Kovner's actions on those grounds.

Edited by Kathleen O'Connell
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First, thank you Ballet Talk contributors for helping me think through this thing. Woetzel was an unconventional pick. He has star power, fundraising power, and education but, as far as I know, no experience in leading this type of organization. Vale is different. He can call the shots, invite who he wants etc. There seem to have been a lot of negative feedback about him at Juilliard. The most interesting to me are his focus on performance not education, and creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear. The administrative and communication aspects, I feel, are flaws more easily addressed.

In terms of diversity and direction, surely these things were discussed during the interview process. My question would be, why was this individual hired? What was impressive about him, and where was his leadership expected to go? Is he going off in a direction that was unexpected.

It is unfortunate. Personally, I've been in professional situations in which one is expected to take sides (I'm sure a lot of us have). It's no fun. Lastly, it's interesting that Woetzel went after support from the big names. I suppose that's necessary, but I'd really want to hear what the adjuncts are saying.

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2 hours ago, vipa said:

It is unfortunate. Personally, I've been in professional situations in which one is expected to take sides (I'm sure a lot of us have). It's no fun. Lastly, it's interesting that Woetzel went after support from the big names. I suppose that's necessary, but I'd really want to hear what the adjuncts are saying.

Well they clearly weren't the ones being surveyed, which was very clear. Kovner cherrypicked just 49 out of 700 faculty and staff.

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1 hour ago, aurora said:

Well they clearly weren't the ones being surveyed, which was very clear. Kovner cherrypicked just 49 out of 700 faculty and staff.

Yes, all department heads and direct reports, according to the article.  Certainly no adjuncts.

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7 hours ago, Helene said:

Yes, all department heads and direct reports, according to the article.  Certainly no adjuncts.

It's not 100% clear to me, from the wording of the article, that all direct reports were surveyed:

Quote

Woetzel’s evaluation was sent to 49 members of the faculty and staff — including every department head and 18 direct reports — 43 of whom responded to it anonymously. There are about 700 full-time and part-time members of Juilliard’s faculty and staff.

That said, I wouldn't expect Woetzel to necessarily have many more than 18 direct reports, so it's possible that's what was meant.

In any case, I wouldn't describe this as "cherrypicking," even if it could be argued that a more representative cross-section of faculty at all levels might have been surveyed. It does seem that Woetzel had a good point in arguing that the review should not have been led by Kovner. But I'd also expect that department heads and direct reports would have a pretty good idea of how effectively Woetzel is performing in his role.

It's quite possible that Woetzel's DEI initiatives have been distasteful to Kovner et al. and that he has some serious problems as an administrator.

Edited by nanushka
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1 hour ago, nanushka said:

It's quite possible that Woetzel's DEI initiatives have been distasteful to Kovner et al. and that he has some serious problems as an administrator.

With respect to the latter, I wonder if this was the first evaluation of Woetzel's performance. In the corporate world, at least, it's generally considered best practice to evaluate someone's performance regularly and to provide them with the guidance and opportunity to improve any deficiencies before asking for their resignation. Very often it's a "360 Degree" review that seeks feedback from a person's supervisors,  reports, colleagues, and other constituencies, and is typically conducted by disinterested party using a professionally developed methodological apparatus—e.g., a consultant  or HR professional. And of course, the person being reviewed knows that the process is taking place and is counseled on how to digest and respond to the feedback. (I went through the process any number of times, both as the person being evaluated and the person providing feedback.) This is what the whole executive coaching industry is about. What I'd like to know is whether Woetzel's deficiencies as a leader and administrator had been surfaced and brought to his attention before this particular evaluation and whether he undertook an effort to improve matters. I'd also like to know how the junior faculty, the students, and the administrative staff feel about his leadership. I don't think I have enough information to really understand what's going on.

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On 3/15/2022 at 2:34 PM, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Well, yes and no. Feedback is a gift and a good leader listens to it. It may well be that he took the criticism to heart and appreciates the opportunity to address them. And it wouldn't be in his best interests as a leader to contend that the people providing (presumably) honest feedback were wrong. If he believes that the evaluation was undertaken in bad faith, or was poorly designed and executed, he has better cause to challenge Kovner's actions on those grounds.

Well...it would be in his best interest to defend himself against complaints that are truly biased, unjust, and/or mistaken. I suspect in this case Woetzel didn't contest the conclusions because there was fire in the smoke. (I'd give him brownie points for not, apparently, flying off the handle, as some leaders might in this situation.) It's certainly to be hoped that, if such is the case, he is taking the criticism seriously. The article also says:

Quote

Kovner and the executive committee expect Woetzel to address the problems raised in the evaluation with outside coaches and under the guidance of the trustee Reginald Van Lee, a former management consultant, according to the person familiar with the summary. But one trustee said no such course of action has been decided by the full board.

canbelto writes: 

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Others aren't used to managing this many people. 

Also, at a place like Juilliard I'm guessing the faculty are probably used to a certain kind of treatment and degree of autonomy.

cobweb writes:

Quote

However, I don't think that a Board member, however uber-wealthy he may be ($6 billion, really??), should be allowed to run things behind the scenes. That doesn't sound good for the health and integrity of the institution.

It could certainly be problematic, as they say.

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