Henry Timms, who guided Lincoln Heart by means of the turmoil of the pandemic and helped shepherd by means of the $550 million renovation of David Geffen Corridor, will step down as its chief this summer season after 5 years, he introduced on Wednesday.
Timms will turn out to be chief govt of the Brunswick Group, a worldwide public relations agency. He stated he had at all times supposed to remain at Lincoln Heart for 5 to seven years, and that the Brunswick Group, which advises high firms and cultural teams, had approached him a couple of place there on the finish of final yr.
“I really feel pleased with what we’ve carried out,” he stated in an interview in his workplace above the Lincoln Heart campus. “However I additionally at all times consider that change is an efficient factor.”
Steven R. Swartz, the chairman of Lincoln Heart’s board, stated in an interview that Timms had been a “transformational chief” who had helped drive innovation and performed a vital function in accelerating the renovation of Geffen Corridor, residence to the New York Philharmonic, in the course of the pandemic.
“In our excellent world, we’d have him proceed to do the job,” Swartz stated. “However we definitely perceive that he sees this chance as his subsequent step and clearly want him all the perfect.”
Timms, 47, arrived at Lincoln Heart in 2019 with a mandate to revive stability to the group, which was grappling with monetary woes and years of management churn. He was additionally tasked with resetting Lincoln Heart’s fraught relationship with its constituent organizations, together with the Metropolitan Opera, New York Metropolis Ballet and the Philharmonic. The middle acts as landlord to these teams however has little energy over them, since every has its personal management, board and price range. The middle additionally presents its personal work, typically placing it in competitors with its constituents.
In his first yr on the job, the pandemic hit, forcing Lincoln Heart and its constituents to shut for greater than 18 months. Timms, working with Lincoln Heart’s board and the Philharmonic’s leaders, took benefit of the shutdown to complete the Geffen renovation a yr and a half forward of schedule, since building crews might work with out disrupting concert events.
Timms obtained about $1.5 million in complete compensation within the yr ending June 2022. He has drawn some criticism for his efforts to shake up Lincoln Heart’s cultural choices. The group decreased spending by itself programming and shifted its focus from classical music and worldwide theater to different genres, together with pop, hip-hop, social dance and comedy.
The previous Largely Mozart Competition was changed with a brand new, eclectic competition, Summer time for the Metropolis, with extra numerous choices. To challenge a extra welcoming picture, the middle hung a big disco ball over its primary plaza.
Some critics have urged that Timms has deserted Lincoln Heart’s values and conventional function as a champion of traditional artwork types below siege in the present day. Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker final yr that the brand new imaginative and prescient appeared “essentially out of step with Lincoln Heart and its public, each extant and potential.”
However Timms defended his strategy. He pointed to Lincoln Heart’s funding in Geffen Corridor as an indication of its dedication to classical music, however added that the group would wish to enchantment to a wider, extra numerous crowd to meet its mandate. The middle now affords choose-what-you-pay tickets for some occasions.
“We’re talking on to the tradition,” he stated, “which requires us to talk to some new individuals who traditionally haven’t been essentially the most comfy at Lincoln Heart.”
Timms additionally labored to diversify Lincoln Heart’s board and employees: Ladies make up about 60 p.c of its govt and senior administration groups, and folks of colour practically 40 p.c.
Timms’s departure will add to Lincoln Heart’s challenges. Although the middle is in a comparatively sturdy place — the endowment has risen to about $280 million, from $258 million in 2019 — it’s nonetheless working to recuperate from the pandemic. Lincoln Heart, which spent $23 million by itself programming in 2019, spent $14 million within the yr that resulted in June 2022, when Geffen Corridor was nonetheless closed, and $21 million within the yr that ended final June.
It’s unclear how the departure will have an effect on Timms’s plan to tear down the boundaries that wall the Lincoln Heart campus off from Amsterdam Avenue, a challenge nonetheless in early levels.
Swartz stated the middle would transfer ahead with the plan. He hopes the group can discover a new chief earlier than Timms steps down in August.
“We wish any individual who can proceed the momentum,” he stated, “and who can deliver management with regard to innovation, but in addition work collaboratively with our constituent organizations who’re, in any case, the lifeblood of Lincoln Heart.”
The British-born Timms, who beforehand led the 92nd Avenue Y, has lengthy had pursuits outdoors the humanities. He helped create #GivingTuesday and co-wrote “New Energy,” a guide exploring bottom-up management.
Timms stated it was tough for him to go away however felt each he and Lincoln Heart had been prepared.
“I did what I got here to do,” he stated. “I’m handing over the keys with the engine purring.”
