Help shape the future of the performing arts in Chicago’s western suburbs as the founding Executive Director of the Encore Center for Performing Arts. With a state-of-the-art theater complex planned in DuPage County, we’re seeking a visionary, entrepreneurial leader to bring this bold project to life. As our Executive Director, you’ll play a pivotal role in turning this vision into reality. With significant donations secured, key contracts in place, and a passionate Board supporting the mission, you will lead strategy, fundraising, and community engagement from the ground up. The Executive Director will be responsible for overall leadership, fundraising, and operations. A key focus of this role will be leading fundraising efforts, including the capital campaign, through donor relations, sponsorships, grants, and strategic partnerships. This is a highly visible role requiring a strategic thinker with strong relationship-building skills and a passion for the performing arts.

The ideal candidate will hold a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and possess experience in more than one of the following areas: nonprofit management within a growing organization; at least five years of management experience in sales or customer service; or a minimum of five years in nonprofit or corporate management, including three years in a supervisory role. Additionally, candidates with experience working in the arts discipline as an executive or senior member of a leadership team are strongly preferred.

About Encore Center for Performing Arts

A small group of like-minded residents met to discuss the viability of opening a performing arts center in downtown Elmhurst. While the idea had been considered many times in earlier years, three factors convinced us that the time was right to make a move: a groundswell in talent among theater, music, dance, and comedy already active and on the rise in the western suburbs; rapid growth of the city, both in terms of increase in residents and business development; and the drive of an experienced group of professionals and business executives who shared a life-long passion for the performing arts. Led by a board of dedicated professionals with experience in establishing similar ventures in the city of Chicago, commercial architecture, the arts and business, the group set to work on an initial needs survey and business plan to ensure the initiative could work. Fast forward to Spring 2016, and Encore Center for Performing Arts (ECPA), previously known as the Elmhurst Centre for Performing Arts was established as a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 organization in the state of Illinois.

Connections working at Encore Center for Performing Arts