The executive director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Paul Sacaridiz, will soon leave his post at the Deer Isle nonprofit to take a leadership position at a school in Michigan.
Sacaridiz, who joined Haystack in 2015, will become the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art in late April, according to a news release.
Ellen Wieske, a metalsmith who has been involved with Haystack for more than 25 years, will begin serving as interim executive director in May while the school’s board of trustees searches for a successor.
Haystack is a nationally prominent school that provides intensive studio-based summer workshops, conferences and symposia to craftmakers and visual artists. Founded in 1950, the campus sits atop 40 acres on a granite hillside overlooking Jericho Bay.
Under the leadership of Sacaridiz, Haystack’s endowment multiplied nearly threefold, from $9 million to over $24 million. He also led the development of the school’s long-term strategic plan, launched free online programs with more than 4,000 views from participants in 38 countries, and completed major studio and infrastructure upgrades.
A former student and later a teacher at Haystack, Sacaridiz had served as a professor and chair of the art department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He stepped in as Haystack’s fourth director after the retirement of Stuart Kestenbaum, who had served as director for 27 years.
“Paul Sacaridiz has been a visionary and tireless leader at Haystack. Under his directorship, Haystack has expanded and thrived, while maintaining a tradition of intimacy and community building,” said Ayumi Horie, the school’s board chair.
Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is the country’s top-ranked, graduate-only program in architecture, design and fine art. According to the release, Sacaridiz will be the academy’s 11th director since Finnish-American architect Eliel Saarinen first held the role in 1932. Cranbrook shares historic ties with Haystack, one of whose founders, Priscilla Merritt, had spent time at the Michigan school.