As Highpoint Center for Printmaking celebrates our 20th year, Co‐founder and Executive Director Carla McGrath has announced her retirement. HP will start a new era with Interim Director Patricia Wilder in Dec. 2021 while searching for the next Executive Director. Co‐founder, Artistic Director and Master Printer Cole Rogers will continue in his role at HP.
McGrath and Rogers founded the only printmaking center of its caliber in Minnesota in 2001 to nurture the art of printmaking, support artists and to be accessible to the community. Previously, public access to printmaking was virtually nonexistent in the Upper Midwest. As executive director, McGrath managed wide-°©‐ranging functions at HP, including operations, finance, marketing, fundraising and personnel. With a background and dedication to hands‐on community arts education, McGrath designed and integrated community programming and education into HP’s mission. As a notable highlight, she led the capital campaign which enabled HP to purchase and renovate their permanent home. It is this combination of HP supporting both artist projects and accessible community education which makes the printmaking center so unique.
“It has been a great privilege and joy to see the impact HP has had regionally, nationally and internationally during these past twenty years,” said McGrath. “I have had the amazing opportunity to help start and grow an organization that serves so many: artists, youth and our community benefit from HP’s diverse programs. I am especially grateful for our staff, board, members and funders, who have helped make these twenty years possible. As I move on to my next adventure, I know that Highpoint will continue to further the art of printmaking in exceptional ways."
HP’s 20‐year archive of published prints was recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) and is on view at Mia until Jan 2022.
Patricia Wilder will serve as HP’s interim director until summer 2022. Her four‐decade career includes interim nonprofit leadership, strategic consulting, arts organizations, and serving as an Interim Executive Director at the James J. Fiorentino Foundation and Museum. She has a Bachelor’s in Social Work and Criminal Justice, as well as a Master’s in Public Administration.
“Wilder brings a broad array of experience in leadership, finance and grant writing, and organizational management which will help her lead HP to our next chapter,” said Board Chair Colleen Carey, President of The Cornerstone Group, Inc. “We are confident that she will provide the needed leadership during the transition while we search for our next Executive Director.”
HP has hired a national search agency to identify the best possible candidates for the Executive Director and hopes to have them in place by summer 2022.