Linnell Bowen sits in her office among some of her favorite pieces of local art and awards she has earned as president of Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
Her eyes moving around the room, she settles on one award in particular: The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County Annie Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Bowen received the reward in 2011, 15 years after starting her tenure as Maryland Hall president in 1996. Lifetime achievement awards are often given to people who have completed their work, but Bowen continued on in her position.
Now that will be coming to an end.
"All my friends are retiring or dying," Bowen said. "You come to a point in life where you think ‘Huh, how many years do I have left and what do I want to do with them?’"
At a Maryland Hall board of directors retreat Friday, Bowen announced she would be retiring as president this year. She will continue working with Maryland Hall’s expansion and renovation efforts, dubbed the Campaign for Maryland Hall, but she is hanging up the day-to-day operations hat.
Linnell Bowen, President of Maryland Hall, is retiring after serving in her position since 1996.
With Bowen’s departure, the Maryland Hall board has hired a group to carry out a national search for a replacement. Bowen will stay on until June 30, working to help her successor before she relinquishes her duties.
For some the news will come as a shock. Bowen has been described as a "force of nature" and an "institution" and someone with the tenacity and endurance to convince the General Assembly to part with state money almost yearly to help renovate Maryland Hall’s theater and expand its production wings.
Bowen is also someone who can’t be told "no" and, in that same spirit, now she is asking for more time with her family. She hopes to take trips around the world, viewing art and spending time with her husband of 55 years.
"I have teenage grandkids, and I want to see them play lacrosse and basketball and sports," she said. "I just need more time to do the things I want to do and certainly what my husband wants to do."
Bowen’s legacy with Maryland Hall will be remembered for a zealous push for improvements and renovations to the old Annapolis High School building. Constructed in 1932, it was an all-white high school that went out of use when the new high school was built in the mid-1970s. The arts center was created in 1979 and brought the old building new life. Bowen attended the school and came back as a teacher.
It wasn’t until Bowen was hired in 1996 that Maryland Has, as it is known today, was created. The search committee that interviewed Bowen and recommended her to the board found that she had a great mixture of Annapolis historical knowledge on top of a great appreciation for the arts, said Tom Marquardt, who served on the search committee and later served as chairman of the hall’s board of directors. Marquardt is a former editor and publisher of The Capital.
Under Bowen’s leadership, Maryland Hall grew from a building with no air conditioning that couldn’t hold programming year-round to a flexible theater facility that has room for symphonies, ballet, educational classes and concerts. Bowen has been leading the most recent capital campaign, which will add a theater production wing to the building, making it easier to build up and tear down sets between shows. That wing will be the first addition to the building since 1932.
"(When Bowen was hired) it was a stagnant arts institution," Marquardt said. "There was so much promise it could fulfill. The task was daunting, but where we saw fear, Linnell saw promise."
"She is a legend."
While her retirement is a loss for the organization, it isn’t the end of Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, said Jeffrey Harris, the current chairman of the board.
When she first told him, Harris said, "Say it isn’t so." Now that the news has settled, Harris is certain Maryland Hall can continue its momentum with the right hire.
Programs will go on and Bowen will still work with Maryland Hall to secure the money for its construction campaigns. After the theater production wing, there are plans to build two more expansions as well as renovate the old gymnasium into a community theatre.
"We will miss her. We won’t let her get far," Harris said. "Maryland Hall has good DNA, a solid building and solid community. It will appeal to a lot of candidates."
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