Tricia Baldwin, Director of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, will be stepping down from her role at Queen’s University to serve as the executive director of the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon, as of Sept. 19, 2022.

“Since joining Queen’s in 2014, Tricia has provided outstanding leadership to the Isabel, leading it through its formative years to become a world-class performing arts centre,” says Teri Shearer, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic). “Her expertise and passion for her work have enabled the Isabel to attract many leading artists, benefitting the Queen’s and local Kingston community immeasurably over the past eight years. We wish her well as she embarks on this new opportunity.”

In addition to attracting world-class artists to the Isabel, Tricia established the centre for new, socially engaged works, such as those included in the Isabel’s Ka’tarohkwi Festival of Indigenous Arts with curator Dylan Robinson and the Isabel Human Rights Arts Festival. Her leadership has also helped to advance Queen’s academic programs through her work in co-creating Queen’s University’s new M.A. in Arts Leadership program with the Dan School of Drama and Music.

Under Baldwin’s guidance, the Isabel has become an arts hub for the Queen’s and the Kingston communities and a critical resource to support the next generation of Canadian artists and arts leaders, such a through the Bader and Overton Canadian music competition and the IMAGINE Isabel Arts Incubator, which supports numerous artistic creations by diverse local and national artists.

“I am especially honoured to have worked with such a talented staff team who are now bringing the Isabel to the world and the world to Queen’s,” Tricia Baldwin says. “This entrepreneurial and expert team of arts professionals worked together during these important formative years to create a strong foundation to fuel an exciting future for the Isabel.  We are all grateful to Isabel and Alfred Bader for the inspiration to create this marvellous arts centre, and to Bader Philanthropies, Joan Tobin and Ballytobin Foundation, the Bernstein family, and the estate of Alexander Murray Jeffery and many others, all of whom have believed in the power of the arts to transform the university and society at large.”

In her remaining time at Queen’s, Baldwin will work closely with Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Shearer and Nicholas Mosey, Deputy Provost (Academic Operations and Inclusion), to assist in leadership transition planning for the Isabel. Arrangements are being put in place for an interim director, and details regarding the search to attract a leading cultural leader as the next director of the Isabel will be communicated in the coming weeks.