Executive Director

Centrum has been one of the Pacific Northwest’s most respected creative arts organizations for more than 50 years, fostering transformative arts education and artistic exchange from its home at historic Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington. Through immersive workshops, residencies, performances, and youth programs, Centrum brings together artists, educators, students, and audiences from around the world in an environment defined by creativity, collaboration, and lifelong learning. With programs spanning music, writing, visual arts, and interdisciplinary creative exploration, Centrum has built a reputation for artistic excellence grounded in accessibility, community engagement, and intergenerational connection.

Today, Centrum stands at a moment of extraordinary opportunity. Following the completion of negotiations for a renewable 35-year lease agreement at Fort Worden, the organization is expanding its role as a cultural steward and investing in facilities, infrastructure, and long-term sustainability. With growing revenue, including a significant facilities fund, and a deeply engaged Board and community, Centrum is poised to strengthen its impact locally and nationally while continuing to cultivate spaces where creativity can thrive.

The Opportunity

The next Executive Director will lead Centrum into this important new chapter, providing strategic vision, organizational leadership, and community-centered stewardship at a time of growth and transformation.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director will guide a talented team across programs, operations, development, marketing, and facilities while serving as Centrum’s primary ambassador, fundraiser, and advocate. The role calls for a collaborative and inspiring leader who can balance artistic credibility with operational effectiveness, helping the organization navigate expanded facilities responsibilities, deepen relationships across the region, and sustain a culture rooted in creativity, inclusiveness, and trust.

The successful candidate will strengthen philanthropic and earned revenue strategies, foster strong partnerships with artists and stakeholders, and help ensure Centrum continues to inspire audiences and participants for generations to come.

This is an opportunity for a dynamic nonprofit leader to shape the future of a nationally recognized arts organization while living and working in one of the Pacific Northwest’s most vibrant creative communities.

The salary range for this position is $165,000-$185,000.

Lindauer is conducting Centrum’s national search for this position.  Click Here for complete information or to apply or nominate someone for this position.

Artistic Director: Port Townsend Writers Conference

About the Port Townsend Writers Conference

Since 1974, the Port Townsend Writers Conference has brought together aspiring and master artists to talk about craft, ignite creativity, connect learners and mentors, and build community. 

The Conference includes a week of generative, craft-centered workshops, lectures, readings, open mics, and communal gatherings in an environment designed to de-privilege and diversify the literary art form and serve a multitude of voices from across nations. Whether you consider yourself a beginning or seasoned writer, our approach as one the most longstanding gatherings of writers in the American West is to provide an inspiring and inclusive space free of judgement and full of respect: where writers can share their perspectives, celebrate growth, take creative risks, and support and see each other as writer-peers.

Based at Fort Worden State Park on the Olympic Peninsula in Port Townsend, Washington, the experience provides many opportunities and moments of reflection on sandy shores and forested trails overlooking the Salish Sea, as well as space to get inspired and make friends who understand and support the human and writing journey.

The Opportunity

Centrum envisions a future where anyone from anywhere can nurture their creativity in an environment that is supportive, challenging and uplifting – building a world of greater connection and inclusion through the arts. Through the Port Townsend Writers Conference, the Artistic Director is vital to this realization. They are leaders and practicing artists in writing, publishing, and teaching. They work collaboratively with Centrum’s Program Manager for Writing, helping to set the overall artistic tone for the Writers Conference by playing a vital part in stewarding the Conference’s culture of community. They select faculty, recruit fellows for the Conference’s fellowship program, and they are a voice during the Conference, emceeing evening faculty readings, which are open to participants and the regional public.

Contracts for Artistic Directors are negotiated for up to five years, subject to annual review. Applications will be accepted August 1 – September 1, 2026. Please submit your cover letter and CV or resume through Submittable by clicking here for consideration.