At Arts & Ideas, A Longtime Champion Passes The Baton

Judy Sirota Rosenthal Photos.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas submitted the following citizen contribution after the organization's CONNECT Gala at the Hotel Marcel in late September. Find out more about the festival here.  

During over a decade as chair of the Board of Directors, Gordon Geballe helped steer the International Festival of Arts & Ideas through an economic recession, multiple leadership transitions, and a global pandemic. He did it with keen leadership, infectious joyfulness, and an extraordinary commitment to the Festival. Now, he is preparing to pass the baton to an arts leader in the city. 

Laughter, conversation, almost a dozen toasts and fond memories flowed through the Hotel Marcel on a recent Friday night, as hundreds of attendees gathered to celebrate Geballe’s retirement as board chair at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Rev. Kevin Ewing, founder of Baobab Tree Studios and pastor at United Church on the Green New Haven, will take the position over this month. 

A&I Founders Roslyn Meyer Anne Calabresi and Gordon Geballe. Judy Sirota Rosenthal Photos.

“Gordon rallied support for Arts & Ideas for years,” said Festival Executive Director Shelley Quiala, who began her tenure in 2020. “He invited people not just to believe in the promise of the organization, but to make it a fixture in their lives.  I count myself among those people who have been affected by Gordon’s love of this incredible organization.”

Since Geballe’s arrival in New Haven in 1972, his curiosity, open-mindedness, and generosity have made him a quiet force in the arts, environmentalism, and education. He was a steady hand through a number of large transitions at Arts & Ideas, including reduced state funding, multiple changes in both city and organizational leadership, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the tenure of three executive directors. 

“Every time Arts & Ideas faced class five rapids, Gordon was there to make it class two rapids; he turned very tumultuous scary situations into a much more doable situation,” said Stocky Clark, former Arts & Ideas board member.

Arts & Ideas has thrived under Geballe’s leadership, establishing itself as an anchor arts organization in the state of Connecticut and expanding to collaborate with diverse communities more fully through its neighborhood festivals and growing slate of year-long programming.

He, with festival staff and fellow board members, has embraced the City of New Haven’s Cultural Equity Plan and worked with young people through innovative programs like Arts & Ideas’ High School Fellowship. 

New Board Chair Rev. Kevin Ewing and outgoing Chair Gordon Geballe. Judy Sirota Rosenthal Photos.

“I want to say thank you so much to Gordon and Arts & Ideas,” said Adrian Huq, a former fellow who graduated from Metropolitan Business Academy and is now studying at Tufts University. “The high school fellowship is a wonderful opportunity for teenagers who are interested in the arts, and because it can prepare them into the field, allowed them to see what it’s like to be part of an artist nonprofit and to give them valuable experience.”

Geballe has diligently served organizations including Dwight Hall at Yale, Urban Resources Initiative, and Yale School of the Environment, where he retired as Associate Dean for International Engagement in May 2022 after almost 50 years of service.

“What people don't see it's the incredible dedication and commitment, the time and energy and heart that Gordon puts into everything he does,” Ewing said. “I count myself blessed to know Gordon and to be able to watch him in the Festival and how he manages such as a hectic and wonderful, powerful significant organization.”

“I’m not an artist, and I’m not a performer, but I love the concept that we are part of the community, that we are part of the spirit of New Haven, and that’s why I hope I’ve contributed to,” Geballe said. “We got the young people, we got all the people, we got all sorts of different people, and we brought everybody together.”