New in Town

CATCO, Wexner Center and CMA all name new directors to lead programs

By Rachel Karas

MUCH LIKE THE city itself, the arts and entertainment organizations in Columbus are always growing and changing with the times.

Three arts organizations have named new administrative team members to help lead the future of arts in Columbus and bring new ideas to the table.

Leda Hoffmann

Artistic Director at CATCO

After moving countless times, Leda Hoffmann is excited and ready to call Columbus her new home.

With a father from Illinois and a mother from Toronto, Hoffmann has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada and spent time in both countries and several others.

She graduated from Grinnell College in 2009 with a degree in theater and went on to pursue an apprenticeship with Hartford Stage in Connecticut – then a second one with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in Wisconsin.

At the Rep, she fell in love with the education and literary departments and eventually founded the group’s community engagement department.

This love of theater education is what drew her to CATCO – which offers many classes and camps – where she now serves as artistic director.

Hoffmann joined the team in summer 2020, so her first season was very unusual due to COVID-19 restrictions. She made the most of this period by getting to know the company and personally connecting with her team so they could hit the ground running when they could put on shows again.

“We were planting the seeds (and) figuring out what those things could do when we were able to produce in-person again,” Hoffmann says.

Some of the seeds she hopes will sprout are the growth of smaller theater programs such as CATCO, and the theater scene in Columbus in general.

“We have this huge metro area, and the theater scene, honestly, is way smaller than makes sense,” Hoffmann says. “I’m really interested in the growth potential of being able to serve more people and getting theater artists working in Columbus.”

In March, the Columbus Museum of Art named Brooke A. Minto as its new executive director and CEO. Succeeding Nannette Maciejunes, who served as executive director for 20 years and retired this past November, Minto will take on her new role starting May 15.

Minto studied art history at Dartmouth College and earned a master’s degree in modern art and critical studies from Columbia University.

She brings leadership and educational expertise with her from over 20 years of experience as an arts administrator, art historian and educator in the U.S. and abroad.

To reach the goal of anchoring a local theater ecosystem, Hoffmann says, CATCO plans to continue connecting with younger community members and strengthen the infrastructure for artists living and working in Columbus.

From residency programs in local elementary schools to camps and classes for all age groups, CATCO’s education programs are not only a major part of its identity, but can have a huge impact on the community.

“CATCO is really rooted in work that relates to Columbus. That’s the power of good regional theater,” Hoffmann says. “CATCO’s history and its values and the things that all the people connected with it really care about are doing work specifically for Columbus.”

Gaëtane Verna Executive Director at Wexner Center for the Arts

Growing up with a love for ballet, cello, opera and modern dance, Gaëtane Verna says that, since she was young, she has loved and understood the importance of multidisciplinary arts.

Verna was born in what is now the Republic of the Congo, but moved to Canada at a young age and spent most of her life there before moving to Paris to study art history and museum studies.

From there, her career took her from the curator of the Foreman Art Gallery at Bishop’s University in Quebec to director and artistic director of the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto in 2012.

She was also appointed to the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government in 2017 and taught in the art history departments of Bishop’s University and the Université du Québec à Montréal for several years.

Verna’s work at the Power Plant had ties to the Wexner Center for the Arts, but what drew her to Columbus was the center’s support of artists and its unique position within The Ohio State University.

“(I am) very much interested in the relationship between higher education and the arts as something that should be important in everybody’s lives, whether you will be an artist or not,” Verna says. “I am very much interested in artists as an audience for us, but I’m (equally) as interested in everyday people and the impact of art in (their) lives.”

In her new role as executive director, Verna says, she hopes to help people – especially artists – connect more with the great resources within the university and Columbus at large.

While she and her team are still working on their three-year strategic plan, Verna says they hope to reflect on the center’s past to find ways to connect with their audience and continue to provide amazing experiences for all.

“You can reproduce all the artworks in the world on a phone, but it’s nothing like seeing the object,” Verna says. “It’s nothing like collectively looking at a film together and (sensing) the bodies of everyone else. Whether it’s fidgeting, or laughing or crying, this emotion, this shared emotion –you can’t replace that.” CS

Rachel Karas is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at rkaras@cityscenemediagroup.com