Rachel Moore, executive director at the Current in Stowe, will step down at the end of the year, the organization announced on Friday. Moore has been with the art center since 2011, when she was invited by what was then called the Helen Day Center to curate the annual “Exposed” show of outdoor sculpture and the “Habitat for Artists” project along the Stowe Recreation Path. She has led the organization as executive director since 2016.
Back when she started, Moore said in a phone call, then-director Nathan Suter, who died last year, was the only full-time employee. She has been instrumental in growing the organization, which now has six full-time and four part-time staff; Moore said she is especially proud to have ushered in an era of livable wages and benefits, something fairly rare for arts nonprofits.
During her tenure, Moore has tripled the organization’s budget. The Current has recently hired a major gifts and campaign officer and is embarking on an endowment campaign to ensure long-term financial stability. “We’re in a really good place. We have really strong partnerships and programs coming up, and we have a really strong core team here,” Moore said. “It just feels like the right time.”
The Current has already set its 2027 exhibition schedule, she said, and she envisions plenty of time to help the organization with a transition in the coming months. On her recommendation, she said the Current board plans to hire both a new executive director and a full-time curator — an administrative structure she called “more sustainable.”
As the art center’s curator, Moore has created dozens of thoughtful, heavily researched and often provocative shows with artists from Vermont and all over the world. She is most proud of those that have sparked conversations about social justice, such as 2014’s “Unrest: Art, Activism, and Revolution” and last year’s “It often rhymes.” Her goal with those shows, she said, has been “presenting individual perspectives so that we can connect with each other with more understanding, more humanity, about topics that have been so divisive.”
Building relationships with local educators and bringing in students for in-depth explorations of the exhibitions has also been a cornerstone of Moore’s time at the Current. When school groups started visiting, she said, “most of them had never been to a gallery or museum. They looked at all the work. They couldn’t believe that you could be an artist or that you could make your voice heard through artwork.”
Moore said her future plans include more time in the studio — she is a practicing artist as well as a curator — and focusing on her family. “I’ve put 200 percent into the Current,” she said. “This is an amazing opportunity for me to kind of step back and start to dream about what’s next.”
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