A Note from Risë Wilson, Our New Executive Director

I am honored to become the Painted Bride’s newest Executive Director.

In many ways, this is a homecoming. Although I spent two decades living and working in Brooklyn, I was born and raised in Germantown. And what few people know is that The Bride is where I began my career in the arts nearly thirty years ago. Fresh from a stint in the corporate sector, I interned with Laurel Raczka while Gerry Givnish was still at the helm. That experience changed my life—setting me on a course to develop my own socially-engaged artistic practice while championing fellow artists committed to community-based work. Returning to the Bride now, in this capacity, is both grounding and humbling.

I am stepping into this role at a time when we all need to protect and exercise our imaginations.

Freedom pivots on our sense of possibility. When our imaginations are constrained, so is our power. Artists help us unleash both. The Bride’s commitment to supporting artists and culture-bearers whose creative practice helps us navigate the present and imagine a shared future is one of the reasons this role resonates so strongly with me.

As we all navigate a moment in history that calls for courage and collective effort, I feel privileged to work for a cultural institution long committed to cultivating the conditions for artists to thrive, for dialogues to deepen, and for each of us to be the authors of our own story.

I look forward to meeting you and to all the things we can envision together.
Let’s get it done.

Sincerely,

Risë Wilson
Executive Director