Jeff Erbach Steps Down at Art Gallery of Grande Prairie

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Jeff Erbach

Jeff Erbach is stepping down as executive director of the Grande Prairie Art Gallery in northern Alberta, effective Feb. 4.

Erbach, originally from Winnipeg, took up the role in 2017. He has spent more than 25 years in community outreach and arts administration.

In making the announcement, the gallery's board of directors thanked Erbach for his contributions.

No replacement has been named.  A call for applications will be issued in coming weeks on the gallery's website.

Last May, Erbach told a city hall committee that the arts and culture sector had been decimated by COVID-19, and it was proving difficult to draw audiences back to galleries.

“People are very, very nervous to participate in things,” the Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune reported Erbach as saying. “I talked to some museums nationally that said even when they were open, their attendance was down 80 per cent. They simply struggled to get people to return.”

The Grande Prairie gallery's attendance had dipped to 415 people in the previous year, the paper reported, although more than 51,000 people accessed it online.

Source: Grande Prairie Art Gallery, Daily Herald Tribune