by Stew Mosberg

When Sherri Rochford Figgs told the Durango Arts Center Board that she would be leaving, a search team was designated to find a replacement. To be sure, it would not be an easy task; Rochford Figgs achieved impressive results during her tenure as executive director. She helped bring the DAC back from the brink of financial disaster, pulled together a cohesive staff and team of volunteers, and returned the DAC to vibrancy.

 

Finding someone to fill those shoes would be daunting.

Following two months of investigation, the committee chose 10 candidates for closer scrutiny, and after checking references and conducting phone interviews, they presented three finalists to the Board and staff. Ironically, their ultimate choice had been there all along.

 

Peggy Zemach, a Durango resident since 1997, was previously director of DAC’s in-house Children’s Museum and has been on the DAC Board since 2011. She was also a founding member of the Discovery Museum. Born in Denver, Zemach received a Master’s Degree in museum administration from the University of Colorado/Boulder and has worked in several museums around the country, most notably Denver’s Museum of Nature and Science, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Utah Museum of Natural History and the Southern Ute Cultural Center.

 

Although her background in the arts is limited, her strength is in the much-needed fund-raising sector, which she believes is the most pressing challenge facing the Arts Center. For the immediate future, Zemach said she is interested in building a “strong community” and finding people with “passion for the arts.” In addition, the new executive director hopes to engage the Native American population and capitalize on the history of our area.

 

Knowing she can’t please everyone, Zemach intends to initially focus on the established DAC mission statement and to become thoroughly familiar with all the arts the Center promotes. In addition, she foresees education remaining a fundamental facet of DAC programming.

 

Acknowledging the remarkable job Rochford Figgs has done, Zemach admits to feeling a little anxious, but says she is, “mostly excited” by what lies ahead. Meanwhile, Rochford Figgs has agreed to ease the transition and bring Zemach up to speed. A similar alliance existed between Rochford Figgs and Terry Swan, who recently stepped down as Board president. That spot is being taken over by the former vice-president, Rochelle Mann.

 

“Shelly,” as friends call her, recently retired after 27 years at FLC, where she chaired the music department for nine years and also served as Interim dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. On the DAC Board since 2010, Mann is in a good position to cultivate an easy changeover for everyone.

 

Acknowledging that she would like to see the DAC continue to build upon the strong foundation Rochford Figgs created, Mann says she doesn’t see any drastic changes in the immediate future, “(Just) strengthening and building upon our existing programs and continuing to ensure the DAC’s financial sustainability through fund raising, membership and Board development.”

 

Continuing that same optimism, Mann remarked that Zemach will bring, “A strong intellectual perspective to the Executive Director position, and that she (is) familiar with the goals and objectives of the organization. Her (Zemach’s) firsthand experience as a volunteer and Board member clearly provided her with added insight into the culture of the DAC and a working knowledge of the demands of the job.”

 

So the stage was set, except for one other appointment, that of artistic director/ theatre manager. For that role, Rochford Figgs and Terry Swan choose Theresa Carson. Many will remember Carson as the director of the DAC’s highly successful “Always ... Patsy Cline,” which repeatedly filled the house throughout last summer.

 

Leaving her post at San Juan College, where she was chair of the Department of Fine Arts, and moving back to Durango, Carson has plans to continue the momentum of the DAC theater program. Accordingly, she hopes to build both a youth and adult theatre education program, which will incorporate a variety of components such as: dramatic and comedic acting; improvisation; areas of technical theatre like makeup, puppeteering, set and lighting design; and specialty areas like Shakespeare, playwrighting and stage combat.

 

Continuing the DAC tradition of staging a summer musical as well as a holiday offerings, the new artistic director’s first big project will be “Beehive,” the 1960s musical. “But,” she concedes, “I would like to supplement these productions with more classic, contemporary and experimental works.”

 

She expects to continue directing and also bring in outside theater companies and other local directors.

 

In her own words, having been involved in the Four Corners theatre community for more than 10 years, Carson has come to think of the Durango Arts Center, as a wonderful, inspiring place for the arts to thrive. “I want to be a part of an environment that offers a safe haven for artists to explore their creativity, and I believe the DAC is just that,” she says. “I am thrilled to be a part of such a diverse, energetic, committed arts center.”