Orcas Center will soon be welcoming its new executive/artistic director Kara O’Toole, the former executive director of Seattle’s Velocity Dance Center. O’Toole and her family will move to Orcas in March.
O’Toole said she’s looking forward to “change, adventure, something new; the unexpected, whatever that may hold.”
“I’m looking forward to getting to know the community, hearing ideas and inspirations,” she said. “I hope that people feel comfortable approaching me and getting to know me. I hope I’m going to be offering some enticing art for people to enjoy.”
O’Toole has spent many years in the performing arts community, both in Seattle and nationally, and said she has many strong bonds with established and emerging artists.
“I’m really looking … to see how I can bring some of that fabulous work out to Orcas Island,” she said. “I hope to infuse the artistic offerings with some new ideas and inspiration.”
But first things first: “The first thing I need to do is spend a good amount of time learning, listening to the board and the staff in order to understand the organization deeply,” O’Toole said. “Then I’ll have a sense if ideas of mine dovetail with the course the organization is already on. I want to make sure new ideas are supported and supportable. I have a good feeling that a lot of the things I am imagining might be feasible and welcomed. The center has to continue to be guided by the community’s needs and interests, or it’s no longer relevant.”
The Orcas Center board and staff spent three days engaging three finalist applicants in interviews and discussion with community members before deciding on O’Toole by vote.
“The strength and commitment of the community was really astounding,” O’Toole said. “The general friendliness, openness,
that feeling that lots of great things could happen, have been happening and continue to happen. [The interview] was grueling but really satisfying.”
O’Toole is a professional dancer, educator and artistic administrator. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and History from Holyoke College and a Master of Fine Arts, Dance, from University of Washington. O’Toole has been on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts, George Mason University and University of Memphis, and taught for 10 years in the UW Dance Program. She has also performed professionally with the Pat Graney Company and the UW Chamber Dance Company.
She served as executive director for Velocity Dance Center, Seattle’s primary center for contemporary dance, from 2006 through 2010. Prior to that, O’Toole was a founding director of two non-profit dance organizations: Seattle’s d9Dance Collective and Kick.
O’Toole received the 2010 Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award after five successful years of leading the Velocity organization through a capital campaign and relocation. She said she decided to leave Velocity on a high note and look for a new challenge.
O’Toole comes to Orcas with her family of four and a pug named Hoodoo.
“He’s got a magical personality,” she said. On a recent visit to Orcas “he was a major magnet – we met everybody … He’s aspiring to be the mayor of Orcas Island one of these years.”
O’Toole and her partner, KT Hendrie, a visual artist, have two boys: Serei, 11 and Gus, 6.
“They’re ready to take the island by storm,” said O’Toole. Serei is a traditional Cambodian boys’ name meaning “freedom,” while Gus is named after O’Toole’s grandfather.
