Albright Steps Down as School 33 Director
Longtime arts administrator and fund-raiser Jody Albright has stepped down as director of Baltimore’s city-owned School 33 Arts Center. Staffers at the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts say they were told two weeks ago that Albright was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. On Tuesday, they were informed that Albright would not return as director.
Today, BOPA communications director Tracy Baskerville said she could not comment on Albright’s departure “because it involves a personnel issue.” She added that Randi Vega, BOPA’s director of cultural affairs who oversees the agency's visual arts and education programs, was temporarily supervising School 33’s day-to-day operations.
Vega, reached at School 33 late Friday, said she could not comment on Albright's departure, also citing a "personnel issue." She said she would be filling in for Albright "for the immediate future."
In the late 1980s and early ’90s, Albright, a former arts advisor to Gov. William Donald Schaefer, was at the center of a dispute between the administration of Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Baltimore Arts Festival Inc., a group set up to raise money for Artscape that Albright led when Schaefer was mayor of Baltimore. After years of legal rangling and a lawsuit by the city, Albright’s group agreed to repay approximately $266,000 of the $666,513 that was raised for the summer event.
In 2003, BOPA director Bill Gilmore hired Albright to explore turning Baltimore’s historic Bromo Seltzer Tower at 15 S. Eutaw St. into artists studios. Albright worked on the project, but in 2004 she was asked to head up School 33 when the gallery’s previous director, Jan Angevine, abruptly resigned.
Albright could not be reached on Friday for comment.
