Bob Kinsey, the CEO of Dunwoody’s Spruill Center for the Arts, is retiring after 16 years of leading the nonprofit organization. His replacement is Alan Mothner, former executive director of the Dunwoody Nature Center.
The Spruill Center offers a wide variety of art classes and events at the city-owned North DeKalb Cultural Arts Exchange on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road. Mothner is slated to begin his new job on March 2 and will work with Kinsey for several weeks as part of the transition. Kinsey’s official retirement date is March 31. Kinsey will be honored March 21 at the Spruill Center’s annual Artistic Affair fundraiser.
“Everything achieved over the years has been the result of the incredibly talented and dedicated Spruill Arts staff, the support of the board of directors, our large number of very talented artist instructors, our tremendous students, the wonderful Spruill Arts Volunteer Guild, and the countless other supporters throughout Dunwoody and metro Atlanta,” Kinsey said in a news release.
Mothner has served on the Spruill Center board of directors for the past year. He recently started the CREATE Dunwoody nonprofit group to promote public art in the city. He also had his own consulting firm, Town Square Collaborative.
“I am so incredibly honored to continue in the tradition of what Bob has been able to accomplish at Spruill,” Mothner said in the news release. “I’m thrilled to be back in Dunwoody to lead the partnership with the city, to support the board in its vision for the arts center and to bring the arts to our entire community.”
“It has been a tremendous honor working with Bob,” said board president Dianna Suggs in the release. “He has accomplished so much during his time at Spruill and has been a wonderful asset to the arts community.”
Kinsey was instrumental in negotiating a 99-year ground lease with a developer for the approximately 5 acres the organization owns at 4681 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, where the Spruill Gallery and Gift Shop is located. A Fogo de Chao restaurant and hotel have been built out on the site, and the ground lease ensures long-term financial stability for the Spruill Center, according to Kinsey.
The gallery and gift shop land was donated to the Spruill Center by the Spruill family with the caveat it could not be sold. The Spruill family were early settlers of Dunwoody and owned the land where Perimeter Mall is now located.
For the past few years, Kinsey has been working with the city to try to get funding to expand its cramped quarters at the North DeKalb Cultural Arts Exchange, a building it shares with The Stage Door Players and Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild.