The Brooklyn Academy of Music announced on Thursday that it had appointed Tamara McCaw, a longtime New York arts leader, to serve as its president as the center emerges from a period of shrinking audiences, declining revenue and turnover in its upper ranks.
McCaw, 49, who has served as interim president since last June, was selected unanimously by the organization’s board of trustees from a field of 60 applicants, Diane L. Max, the chairwoman of the board, said. McCaw is BAM’s third president in the past decade; Gina Duncan left in June 2025 at the end of her three-year contract, and Katy Clark stepped down in 2021 after five years in the job. By contrast, Clark’s predecessor, Karen Brooks Hopkins, was president for 16 years.
BAM officials said that attendance was recovering after a downturn that — like those at other arts organizations — began before the coronavirus pandemic but intensified because of it. During that difficult period, many arts leaders suggested that BAM had lost some of the spark that had long drawn patrons from across New York, particularly as it competed with venues like the Shed and the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan. In 2025, BAM said, it had 700,000 visitors, as attendance returned to prepandemic numbers, while ticket revenue for the year was, at $15.5 million, the second-highest in the last decade.
McCaw and Max said the programs of dance, music, film and theater planned for the center’s four venues — including a presentation of “Hamlet” from England’s National Theater, directed by Robert Hastie (“Operation Mincemeat”) — would assure BAM’s appeal in the years ahead. “We are very happy with our strategic plan,” Max said.
McCaw said that she intended to stay longer than her immediate predecessors. She had worked there from 1999 to 2016, including as director of government and community affairs for eight years. She left for the Shed, where she served as its inaugural chief civic program officer.
“We are focused on stability,” McCaw said of her coming tenure at BAM, and the future of the center. “If you look at who I am, I am definitely a lifer. It’s my community-based roots. It takes times to do anything.”
BAM, she said, “made me,” adding, “It’s where I found my friends and my wife.”
Max played down the changes that had preceded McCaw’s arrival, including the departure of the artistic director David Binder, in 2023 after just four years. By contrast, his predecessor, Joseph V. Melillo, served 35 years.
“I think it’s the world,” she said, when asked about BAM’s instability. “But I will be honest that much of what we felt we could value in Tamara is that she has stayed in her two long-term positions.”
There are still tough times ahead. “The struggles out there are real,” McCaw said. “But we are resilient. We are structured to meet those challenges.”
McCaw was born in Jamaica and came to the United States when she was 2.
She’ll have an easy commute to her new job. “I live in Flatbush — Little Caribbean — and absolutely love it,” she said. “Brooklyn is in my soul.”
Adam Nagourney is the classical music and dance reporter for The Times.
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