This winter, the 48-year-old Winter Park-based non-profit arts organization will begin the search for an Associate/Incoming Executive Director, with a start date in April, 2024. This temporary position is key to the leadership transition plan, which aims to replace Crealdé’s long-running CEO/Executive Director, Peter Schreyer, by January of 2025.

The Crealdé search committee, which consists of diverse Board and staff members, is looking for an experienced non-profit leader with a strong financial background in budget management and development, a love of community engagement and a broad understanding of the visual arts.

“The Board seeks a new leader who can maintain what has been created over the last several decades and continue to express the mission in innovative ways, as Peter has done,” says Dean Jennings, President of the Board.

In 1995, Swiss-American documentary photographer and educator Peter Schreyer took over as Executive Director after serving 13 years as Director of the Photography Program. At the time Crealdé was a small, 20-year-old arts organization and the Central Florida cultural landscape was just starting a dramatic expansion. Under his leadership, Crealdé‘s annual budget has grown five-fold to $1.5 million. The curriculum of 125-plus visual arts classes taught by a talented faculty of nearly 50 artists, its diverse exhibition program and its leadership in strengthening communities through the visual arts have earned Crealdé regional respect.

Annual Membership Meeting, September 1995: Peter Schreyer was announced as the new Executive Director after serving 13 years as Director of the Photography Program. Pictured: Peter Schreyer (left) Crealdé founder William S. Jenkins (seated), and Russ Russell, former Board member (right).

After 12 years of involvement with Winter Park’s African American community through his documentary photography and initiating free Crealdé programming at the old Winter Park Community Center, CEO/Executive Director Schreyer led Crealdé in partnering with the local community and the City of Winter Park to establish the Hannibal Square Heritage Center in 2007. Through photography, oral histories and public art, the nationally recognized cultural center pays tribute the past, present and future contributions of the historic African American community of Hannibal Square.

Schreyer brought his passion for history and community as told through the lens of documentary photography to Crealdé School of Art. As an internationally exhibited photographer and State of Florida Fellow, he has captured a dramatically changing Florida over the past four decades, often paying tribute to its marginalized communities.

In 2010, Schreyer formed a partnership with the City of Winter Garden to establish a teaching site 20 miles to the west, serving the fast-growing communities of West Orange and Lake counties.

Jessie Brock Community Center in Winter Garden

Crealdé annually reaches over 50,000 individuals, including 4,000 students of all ages from a seven— county region enrolled in the school’s multi-level curriculum of eight-week classes and workshops. All programs have grown in the post-Covid era, leading the organization to a multi-phase campus renovation and studio expansion on its main campus on 600 St, Andrews Blvd, where Crealdé‘s founder William Jenkins started the organization in 1975. In February of 2024, the school will dedicate two new art making studios and classrooms, helping to reduce the current 20% wait list for classes.

Crealdé campus, October 2023

As Crealdé approaches its 50th anniversary in 2025, the organization is preparing itself for an important and carefully planned leadership transition over the next 18 months. This temporary position is being established to ensure the organization’s continued growth and stability.

“We want to be sure the Associate/Incoming Executive Director candidate who will become the next CEO/Executive Director is fully supported and has the highest chances of success as the leader of the school. The Board and leadership team also want to be sure this candidate will be able to enjoy the organization as much as we all do,” says Schreyer.

Schreyer plans to spend nine months directly training and mentoring the candidate, together with Crealdé’s dedicated staff of artistic programming, marketing, customer service, development and financial professionals. He will continue to serve the school as an Executive Consultant, Senior Faculty Member and Program Manager of Photography.

Starting in 2025, the new CEO/Executive Director will have the unique opportunity to lead one of Central Florida’s most independent and highly rated cultural organizations—one that makes a difference in so many lives each and every day through community-based, visual arts education. The new position for the Associate/Incoming Executive Director will be posted on Crealdé’s Website after December 15th of this year.

About Crealdé School of Art

Crealdé School of Art is a nonprofit art organization supported in part by memberships; United Arts of Central Florida; the City of Winter Park; Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program; the State of Florida, Division of Cultural Affairs; The Florida Arts Council; The National Endowment for the Arts; and various private foundations.

Photos Credit: Crealdé School of Art

Date Posted: November 29, 2023