Following a nine-month-long international search, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) has appointed Tamara McCaw as its next President. McCaw assumes the position after serving as Interim CEO since June 2025.
In her new role, she will work closely with the Board of Trustees and senior leadership to shape BAM’s strategic vision and lead the organization into a new future “focused on stability,” McCaw told The New York Times.
Selected from a pool of 60 applicants to permanently assume the role, McCaw is a longtime New York arts leader and holds over 25 years’ experience as a cultural programmer, producer, and community strategist.
Previously, McCaw served as BAM’s Director of Government and Community Affairs from 1999 to 2016, before joining The Shed as its inaugural Chief Civic Program Officer. In 2023, she founded the Public Assembly, a practice dedicated to advancing work at the intersection of culture and social impact.
She will now become BAM’s third president in the past decade. Gina Duncan left in June 2025 at the end of her three-year contract, and Katy Clark stepped down in 2021 after a five-year tenure. Before that, Karen Brooks Hopkins was president for 16 years.
McCaw joins BAM as audience attendance returns to prepandemic levels. BAM reported that in 2025 it received 700,000 visitors, while ticket revenue for the year was $15.5 million, the second-highest in the last decade.
As she begins her tenure, McCaw believes that BAM’s programs of dance, music, film, and theater planned, including a presentation of “Hamlet” from England’s National Theater, will strengthen BAM’s audience engagement and financial stability in the years ahead.
McCaw told NYT that she intends to stay longer than her immediate predecessors at BAM: “If you look at who I am, I am definitely a lifer. It’s my community-based roots. It takes time to do anything,” she said, adding that BAM “made me … It’s where I found my friends and my wife.”
As explained by BAM’s board chair Diane L. Max, the academy’s recent turnover of leadership, including the departure of artistic director David Binder in 2023, is not a point of concern.
“I think it’s the world,” Max said in NYT. “But I will be honest that much of what we felt we could value in Tamara is that she has stayed in her two long-term positions. The struggles out there are real. But we are resilient. We are structured to meet those challenges.”
“A dynamic and deeply collaborative leader, McCaw brings both a strong history with BAM and a bold, forward-looking perspective,” the academy shared on Facebook. “Her appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BAM, as the organization continues to expand its programming, welcome audiences back in full force, and deepen its impact across Brooklyn and beyond.
“With a legacy spanning more than 160 years, BAM remains a vital home for artists and a cornerstone of cultural life — energized by the creativity, resilience, and spirit of its community. The next chapter starts now! Congratulations Tamara McCaw!”