By CAROLYN BROWNFor the Valley Advocate After 18 years at the helm of the Academy of Music, executive director Debra J’Anthony has announced her retirement. J’Anthony started in her role at the Academy of Music in March of 2008. Her previous role was executive director for the Shea Theater A rts Center in Turners Falls for 16 years. By the time she decided to leave, she said she felt she’d done everything at the Shea that she could. Now, as she prepares to retire next summer, she feels the same way. “I have enjoyed it all, truly,” she said. “There’s truly a love for the arts in this community that is unmatched.” The beginning of J’Anthony’s tenure at the Academy overlapped with the early stages of the Great Recession. At thetime, there wasn’t any programming because the venue was still being used as a movie theater, not a performance space, she said. “We did not have any of the resources, the technical equipment, and the building had a lot of deferred maintenance,” she said. Fortunately, the Academy was able to apply for funding through a federal stimulus package, the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund and the Community Preservation Act. The money they received allowed them to start renovations that would come to define J’Anthony’s impact at the Academy of Music.  Since J’Anthony taking the lead at the Academy, she has been responsible for raising significant capital for and overseeing improvements to the venue, including renovating the restrooms, lobby, hall and salon area; replacing the seats; painting and stenciling the walls; painting the proscenium opening; refinishing the hardwood floors, replacing the velveteen on the opera boxes; installing a fire suppression system; updating the venue’s theatrical equipment, including a projector, LED lights, light boards and sound boards; and restoring the venue’s original main curtain from 1891.  “I think her legacy will be, she will have left that building in much better shape than it was when she started,” said Jim Olsen, president of the Northampton record label Signature Sounds. Olsen first met J’Anthony when she was the executive director of the Shea. Signature Sounds started producing events at the Academy in 2013, and the two have worked together on events like Back Porch Festival, which has expanded from one day of headliner programming at the Academy to three. “Her strength is, she’s a very forthright leader — accountable for everything and has done a good job attracting a lot of outside promoters,” Olsen said. Olsen noted that the Academy of Music has an unusual situation for an arts venue: the city owns it, but it has a nonprofit board, yet it has to make a profit. “It takes a lot of skill to balance all those things, and I think Debra’s done a really great job with it,” he said. J’Anthony’s legacy also includes overseeing numerous additions to the organization’s programming, including the creation of the Valley Voices Story; Slam; the Regional Youth Poetry Slam; and the Season Series, which includes youth classes, youth productions, “Stitch ‘N Flix” film screenings and original shows. One particular project that stands out in J’Anthony’s mind is the Academy’s production of “(IN)Dependent: The Heroin Project,” a play about the opioid epidemic. To accompany it, the Academy also hosted writing workshops featuring people in recovery or otherwise impacted by addiction. The venue turned their work into a chapbook, and some participants got to read their writing before specific performances of the play. “It was extremely moving,” she said, “and it was something that touched the community.” In 2020 and 2021, J’Anthony faced another economic downturn, this time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She had to lay off nine part-time employees and cut three full-time staff members’ schedules down to two hours per week. For 18 months, J’Anthony was the Academy’s only full-time staff member. Still, she allowed artists to use the space for free during the venue’s closure to allow them to perform virtual concerts. In September 2021, the Academy was able to reopen and rehire staff, thanks to the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venues Operators Grant. Talent buyer John Sanders said J’Anthony has a way of “dealing with the crises and the chaos that comes with working in this business with a laugh and a good nature.” “I think that she’s taken this cultural, iconic building in Northampton and really set it up for success for a long time in the future,” Sanders said. “That’ll be her legacy.” Sanders works for the production group Dan Smalls Presents, which brings 25 to 30 shows to the Academy of Music each year. When he began working with J’Anthony about 10 years ago, the Academy “wasn’t really used to doing the kinds of touring productions that we brought in, so there were some early learning experiences,” he said. At the start of her tenure, he said he wasn’t sure if the Academy could survive long-term, but since then, under J’Anthony’s leadership, the venue’s operations have improved and evolved to make shows like touring productions possible. “Now,” he said, “it’s a gem of a place.” The search for J’Anthony’s replacement is slated to begin in January 2026, featuring a search committee led by Andrew Crystal, president of the Academy of Music’s board of trustees in partnership with LJN Advisory. Crystal recruited J’Anthony for her role at the Academy nearly two decades ago. When he looks for her replacement next year, he hopes to find “someone that’s going to take the Academy where it is and continue to help us grow it and discover new markets and expand our audience,” he said. “We’re sorry to see her go,” Crystal said. “She’s put in a lot of years, but she’s done a wonderful job helping us bring the theater back to what it’s always meant to be for the community — a hub for the community and a hub for Greater Northampton.” J’Anthony will retire in June 2026, but she’ll be around for five weeks (and, after that, as needed) to help onboard her successor. “I love the Academy,” she said. “I love the people that are here and those that support the Academy, those that perform here, so if there’s anything I can do to keep the Academy thriving and growing, I’m happy to jump in.” When the Gazette asked J’Anthony about her retirement plans, she admitted she hadn’t had much time to consider it — she was too busy booking acts for next year and working on the transition plan for her successor. Still, she has one plan in place already: she’ll be going on a solo hike in Acadia National Park in Maine in September. “No one will be able to get a hold of me,” she laughed, “and I’ll have a little bit of space!” For more information about the Academy of Music, visit aomtheatre.com. ...read more read less