The Board of Directors of the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region (COPPeR) is pleased to announce that they have chosen Angela Seals as the regional arts agency’s next Executive Director. Seals takes the lead of the nonprofit in its 17th year of serving El Paso and Teller counties of Colorado and the City of Colorado Springs, a fast-growing region and creative sector.
The search process this winter was led by a task force of the 14-member Board of Directors. They were seeking a visionary leader for the organization’s next chapter, who would embody its mission to “champion the diverse creative community as a vital part of the region’s identity and economy through service, connection, and advocacy.”
They didn’t need to look very far. Seals joined the staff of the Cultural Office in 2013 and advanced to Deputy Director over 9 years before launching her own consulting practice last spring, where she continued working with the Cultural Office along with other local arts organizations large and small. The Board invited her to return in December as Interim Executive Director.
“The momentum Angela built quickly in the short time she has served as Interim Executive Director has already illuminated her exciting vision and enthusiasm for this important work,” says Erin Hannan, Board President. “The trifecta of her experience, vision, and heart are extraordinary, and her plans to build upon her previous work at COPPeR align with the trajectory of our organization in fundamental ways.”
Seals served as project manager for the creation of the ten-year cultural plan for the Pikes Peak region, Arts Vision 2030, which was led by COPPeR and the Bee Vradenburg Foundation with broad participation by the community.
“Angela carries the clarity and power of Arts Vision 2030 like perhaps no one else does, because she was so close to it,” says Hannan. “She stewarded it through the pandemic and the racial reckoning of 2020 to cast a bold vision for our creative future. We know that she will build the next chapter of COPPeR to drive those goals forward.”
Angela Seals is a creative leader, project manager, program designer, and speaker with 20 years of professional experience working with nonprofits. She built a reputation for dynamic and collaborative impact at the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs, CO, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust / Pittsburgh Dance Council and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, and Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. She will be the first Executive Director of the Cultural Office with direct experience working in the field as a nonprofit arts manager.
“Our region is growing, our arts community is evolving quickly, and the Cultural Office will rise to meet the moment,” Seals says.
She has been re-envisioning COPPeR’s programming and staffing to best serve its unique role in promoting cultural life & cultural tourism, building capacity for creative industry, and amplifying the way the arts function and contribute in our community.
“A strong Cultural Office – one that is a unifier, a bridge-builder, a thought-leader, and catalyst – supports the creative ecosystem across our region and directly impacts our community’s quality of life, unique identity, and economic development,” Seals says. “I believe in this work because I believe in what the arts can do for the Pikes Peak region’s future.”
