For Immediate Release
Toni Robin                                                                                         Marianne Gregson
San Diego Performing Arts League                                               NTC Foundation

619.238.0700 ext. 14                                                                       619.226.1414

www.sandiegoperforms.com                                                           www.promenadecentre.org

 

 

 

Arts League Executive Director’s Exit Coincides

with League’s 20th Anniversary

 

Ziter to Lead Naval Training Center Arts District

After 18 Years of Service

 

San Diego – November 4, 2003 - Alan Ziter, founding executive director of the San Diego Performing Arts League for nearly 18 years, has announced that he has accepted a position as President and CEO of NTC Foundation, where he will oversee the conversion of 26 historic buildings at the former Naval Training Center into a new arts, civic and cultural district called Promenade Centre.

 

Ziter will step down at the League’s Annual Meeting of the membership on December 8, 2003, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the League’s founding, a symbolic moment for a change in leadership. A search is now underway to secure a new executive director.  In the interim, the League is assuring its members and patrons that all current programs and services will continue.

 

"Alan Ziter is a San Diego treasure,” said League board president Osborn Hurston. “I am very thankful for the knowledge, energy, passion and organizational skills he has brought to his job. His dedication to and efforts on behalf of art helped to securely place San Diego on the national cultural map. “

.

"Alan's experience and expertise in the nonprofit arts arena is second to none. For almost twenty years, he's been instrumental in building San Diego's arts community," said Murray L. Galinson, chair of the NTC Foundation Board of Directors. "His stature in the region, combined with his experience in building organizations from the ground up, makes him the ideal leader for the NTC Foundation's future.  He brings the strength and stability of successful leadership and prudent fiscal and program management to the job. Alan's focus will be to raise funds for the renovation of the historic buildings, bring in tenants to fulfill the Centre’s vision and continue the Foundation's outreach into the community for input all toward the Centre opening in 2005. “

 

Phase I is expected to open in early 2005.  The entire project is expected to cost $30-35 million over several years, of which $5.88 million has been secured.

 

According to Ziter, “I now have the opportunity to lead a new project that will also have a significant impact on the arts and culture scene in San Diego for decades to come. I am proud to leave the League in sound financial health, with a strong staff in place, an enthusiastic board, growing support from the business community and a roster of programs that promote and advance San Diego’s performing arts. The League is positioned well to move forward for at least another 20 years.  I can only wish the next director the same success and satisfaction that I have had.  In the short time I have left, we will present our 5th annual BRAVO San Diego on November 22, and I want to secure key program sponsors for 2004 to leave the League well-positioned to serve our members.”

Ziter was the first staff person hired by the San Diego Performing Arts League in April 1986.  Since then, the League has grown to 11 staff members serving a membership that grew from 32 to over 140 theatre, music and dance companies in San Diego County.       

 

The strength and stability of this "chamber of commerce for the arts" is the result of nearly 18 years of successful leadership and prudent fiscal and program management under Ziter’s direction.  While at the League, he has created and overseen the implementation of programs that develop new audiences for the arts, increase community access to underserved audiences and lower operating costs for arts organizations.   These include the ARTS TIX half-price ticket booth, Business Volunteers for the Arts, Technology for the Arts, Family Theatre Days, the What's Playing performing arts guide, BRAVO San Diego and the STAR Awards honoring arts volunteers.  These programs have sold over 600,000 tickets, generated more than $11 million in ticket sales, and provided over $2 million in donated consulting services.

 

“Alan’s longevity at the League has been an extraordinary boon for the League, the arts, the community, and the State of California,” said William Purves, League founder and the one who “discovered” a young Alan Ziter behind a ticket window at Chicago’s Hot Tix booth in 1982.  “He breathed life into an organization that had existed only in concept, and built it into one of the most respected of its kind in the nation.  He has extended himself to similar organizations throughout the country, the State of California’s arts coalitions, and has put his oar in the water all around our bay, be it with the Arts Coalition, or the Chamber of Commerce, or with any number of charitable causes. Alan’s enthusiasm for his tasks brought energy to all with whom he came in contact. “

 

One of the leading arts advocates in California, Ziter is a founding board member of the California Arts Advocates, for which he is a past Chair.  He is also a former 5-year board member and officer for the California Confederation of the Arts and a founder and past co-chair of the San Diego Arts and Culture Coalition.  He recently finished a 3-year term on the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce board where he chaired the Arts & Business Committee.  He also served on Mayor Susan Golding's Naval Training Center Citizens Implementation Advisory Committee.

 

Prior to coming to San Diego in 1986, Ziter was Marketing Director for the League of Chicago Theatres and worked in the Chicago office of the Shubert Organization.

 

The San Diego Performing Arts League is a non-profit organization that sponsors programs that promote and advance San Diego’s performing arts.  Its membership includes more than 140 theatre, music and dance companies in San Diego County.  Programs include ARTS TIX-San Diego’s half price ticket booth, What’s Playing (the ultimate guide to the performing arts), Business Volunteers for the Arts and BRAVO San Diego. For more information, log onto www.sandiegoperforms.com

 

The NTC Foundation, a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation, is responsible for rehabilitating 26 buildings at the former Naval Training Station into a destination site for San Diego’s art, science and culture to be called Promenade Centre.