Walker Art Center has announced the appointment of David Galligan as Deputy Director/Chief Operating Officer, effective April 15. He will oversee Finance, Operations, and a number of strategic initiatives for the institution. Most recently a management consultant with a number of high profile national nonprofit and financial services clients, Galligan returns to the Twin Cities, a community in which he served in executive roles with a number of arts organizations including the Walker where he was COO/Treasurer from 1986 until 2002.
To advance key institutional priorities around campus planning and fundraising, Executive Director Olga Viso has restructured her senior management team to include a Deputy Director position which will report directly to her. Beyond day-to-day operations, this position will focus on donor cultivation, board recruitment, government relations, and developing crucial new revenue streams that support the Walker’s mission.
While at the Walker between 1985 and 2002, Galligan oversaw a number of key initiatives including three different strategic planning processes, the planning stages for the 2005 Herzog & de Meuron expansion of the Walker facility, and the creation of the New Media Initiatives department that launched an early flagship project ArtsConnectEd, an online learning tool for arts educators. In addition, under Galligan’s leadership, the Walker greatly diversified its revenue streams which contributed to balanced budgets during all 17 years of his tenure—a feat that has continued in every year since.
Following his years at the Walker, Galligan served as President and CEO of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts where he restructured key partnerships with the resident arts organizations (Minnesota Opera, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Schubert Club), attracted the Ordway’s first public sector support of $8 million from the State of Minnesota and City of Saint Paul, raised $4 million in new endowment funds, founded the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists with then-Mayor Randy Kelly, and balanced the Ordway’s budget each of his four years. As a nonprofit management consultant his clients include Virginia Commonwealth University; the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the University of Utah; and the Guthrie Theater.
Viso will be the third Walker director Galligan will have worked for having been hired by Martin Friedman during a time of great institutional expansion including the building of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in 1988, and continuing through Kathy Halbreich with further advancement of Walker programs and vision for the campus. “I look forward to working with David as the Walker embarks on our latest campus planning projects and vision for the future,” said Viso.
Galligan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. – www.walkerart.org/