Los Angeles-based experimental opera producer The Industry has announced Tim Griffin as its next executive director. Griffin, former editor of art forum and former kitchen manager, comes to the organization as it expands its programmatic reach to include more free and low-cost performances. Founded in 2010, the industry has produced many site-specific performances around Los Angeles, creating new works by composers such as Raven Chacon, Du Yun, Andrew Norman and Anne LeBaron. He has also staged new productions of works by established composers John Cage, Lou Harrison and Terry Riley, among others.
“Everyone in the industry feels lucky and excited to have Tim Griffin as our next Executive Director,” said Founder and Co-Creative Director Yuval Sharon. “His expertise in supporting and advocating for a wide range of artists is part of what makes him an ideal candidate to guide our organization in its continued evolution. Just as the industry has always sought new combinations of artists to explore new expressions and expand what ‘opera’ can mean, we are all excited to see how Tim will lead the ongoing adventures of the organization.”
Griffin, who remains a contributing editor of art forumserved as editor of the publication from 2003 to 2010, before beginning his nine-year run at experimental art space The Kitchen. As director and chief curator of the New York nonprofit, he expanded his approach to interdisciplinarity and oversaw a program featuring Chantal Akerman, ANOHNI, Charles Atlas, Gretchen Bender, Abraham Cruzvillegas , Ralph Lemon, Aki Sasamoto and Tyshawn Sorey, among others. He LEFT his role there in September 2020, to accept a visiting professorship in the Art History and English Departments at Ohio State University in Columbus, after his wife, Johanna Burton, was there named director of the Wexner Center for the Arts. Burton in September 2021 was appointed executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
“Since its inception a decade ago, the industry has been an inspiring – even revolutionary – champion for opera as a perhaps surprisingly flexible art form, uniquely suited to meet today’s desire for new interdisciplinary approaches to art and a reimagined relationship of art to its diverse audiences,” Griffin said. “I am deeply excited and honored to join this incredible group of collaborators across the board, artistic directors and industry enterprise to continue the organization’s work with artists and the civic landscape of Los Angeles. .”
The industry will present in September the premiere of choir of stars, co-created by Malik Gaines—who, alongside Sharon and Ash Fure, is one of the organization’s three co-artistic directors—and Alexandro Segade. The event will take place atop the Mount Wilson Observatory.
