Jordan Peimer Selected as Next Lenfest Center Director The former executive director of ArtPower at the University of California, San Diego will begin his new role in July.

By Brian Laubscher
March 28, 2024

Jordan Peimer, former executive director of ArtPower at the University of California, San Diego, has been selected as the next director of the Lenfest Center for the Arts at Washington and Lee University.

Peimer will replace Rob Mish ’76, who has held the position since 2005. Mish will complete his role in June and he officially retires from the university in December 2024. Peimer will begin his new appointment on July 1, 2024.

“Jordan rose to the top of a strong pool of candidates from across the country,” said Chawne Kimber, Dean of the College. “He brings to us a creative approach to inclusive programming for active learning on campus and the broader community. We will also benefit greatly from his track record of strong and empathetic leadership in the arts.”

Peimer led ArtPower, UC San Diego’s performing and media arts presenting program for nearly 10 years, taking over as executive director in 2014. In his role, he was responsible for all aspects of the presenting program, which included hundreds of theater, dance, music and interactive performances.

Peimer established ArtPower’s first strategic plan and led significant fundraising and budget restructuring efforts that served to retire debts and establish ArtPower’s first two endowment funds. His programming received the 2016 Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award as a “UC San Diego Community Champion for fostering the spirit of diversity, equal opportunity and affirmative action,” and he was recognized as one of Musical America’s “30 Key Influencers in the Performing Arts.”

“I am excited to be joining the incredible people of Washington and Lee and to build upon the great work that Lenfest Center has already done,” said Peimer. “With almost a decade of experience working with students at UC San Diego, I look forward to bringing some of what I have learned and tailoring it to the needs of the university and community. I am particularly looking forward to bringing artists-in-residency so they can share their knowledge, experience and artistry with our students. One of my fundamental beliefs is that the arts raise the curtain on a world of experience beyond our own and help build empathy. I was taken with how welcoming everyone was at Washington and Lee and I look forward to joining the community and sharing ideas.”

Prior to his tenure at ArtPower, Peimer served as vice president and director of public programs at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles from 1996-2014, where he developed, researched and produced myriad festivals, films and cultural events intended to celebrate discovery and hope, and to foster human connections. He also spent five years as the co-artistic director at the Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California.

His diverse experiences also include serving as an advisor to a series of international programs such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the artistic counsel for the International Choreographers Society of Seine-Saint-Denis in France. He was also a member of several associated arts collectives, including Critical Mass, Radical Exterior Decorators and Artists Take The Action in Cultural Krisis (ATTACK).

Peimer was an early member of ACT UP Los Angeles and is a co-founder of the organization’s Oral History Project for which he also serves as a co-producer. To date, he has assisted in recording 75 oral histories that range from 90 minutes to eight hours in length.

Peimer earned a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies/affairs from the University of Pennsylvania and he also holds a Doctor of Law from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

The Lenfest Center for the Arts, home of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies, the Department of Music and Department of Art and Art History, is a multi-use facility designed and equipped to accommodate a broad spectrum of the performing arts, including theater, musical theater, opera and operetta, choral and band music, dance and performance art in one energizing complex. Since opening in 1991, the Lenfest Center has helped the university provide the fine arts component of an exceptional liberal arts education. Housing over 175 performances and events each year and hosting over 30,000 patrons, the center has become the region’s performing arts center.