Explore & More Children’s Museum has hired a Chief Executive Director by the name of Douglas Love to oversee the new waterfront operation. Love comes to Buffalo with a wide range of experience, including maintaining the position of CEO of Walden Family Playhouse, a $27 million educational institution in Denver, which he both launched and managed. Love was hired as Chief Executive Director of Explore & More after the Buffalo-based firm of Performance Management Partners conducted a local and national search.
“Douglas Love has over 25 years of experience leading cultural organizations and developing educational content for children. He’s an expert at opening and running new institutions and creating destination venues for children and families. Central to all of his work is his unique and effective vision that sparks the fire of imagination in young minds,” said Sharon Randaccio, President and CEO of Performance Management Partners.
Among other accomplishments, Love is the creator of World Book Encyclopedia’s Dramatic Learning (the most popular online arts education program in the world with 11 million paid subscribers in 23 countries), the creator of World Book Kids at worldbook.com (the largest English-language based children’s reference site with over 20 million paid subscribers), and the Creator and Executive Producer of Out of the Box (Disney’s top rated daytime television series). He also created the animated series, Jammin’ Animals, for HBO.
“We were looking for a rock star leader to take us to the next level as a world-class institution on the waterfront and Douglas exceeded all of our expectations. He is not only going to be a visionary leader for Explore & More, but also a tremendous community asset and contributor to the new Buffalo,” said Matt Davison, Managing Partner of Martin Davison Public Relations and President of Explore & More’s Board of Directors.
Love is versed in major literacy and arts project, publishing (30 works under his belt), library systems, teaching (University of Miami Professional Theater Conservatory), myriad educational systems, television (Creativity Expert for ABC News and Lifetime), musical productions, and the development of programming for disadvantage and at-risk youth. He excels at educational programming, curriculum and arts education.
“Having spent the last two and a half decades creating experiential, arts-based educational opportunities for children, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to grow and expand Explore & More into an iconic and impactful institution for the City of Buffalo and beyond. The task ahead of us is monumental, but the impact will be, as well,” said Explore & More CEO Douglas Love.
The creation and growth of any museum or gallery is risky, and without the right person at the helm, the results can be grave. Establishing museums is usually not a priority for tourist destinations such as Canalside, as they can be tricky when it comes to building financially self-sustaining operations.
It sounds like Explore & More has found the right guy for the job. Hopefully Love sees the value of creating ties with the Buffalo Heritage Carousel group, which is looking for a property in close proximity to the museum. The two working in tandem would create a wonderful family oriented synergy and dynamic at the waterfront, and would go a long way towards establishing Canalside as a premiere family destination.