{"id":181838,"date":"2026-02-26T21:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181838\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:16:19","slug":"the-coolidges-executive-director-rolls-credits-after-13-years-in-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181838\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coolidge’s executive director rolls credits after 13 years in leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note:\u00a0This story is an excerpt from WBUR’s weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox,\u00a0sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a wall of fame inside Katherine Tallman\u2019s office on the Coolidge Corner Theatre\u2019s second floor. It\u2019s populated by posters of film legends who traveled to Brookline\u2019s beloved independent movie house to receive its annual Coolidge Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I’ve been here, some include Viggo Mortensen, Jane Fonda, Werner Herzog, Michael Douglas, Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke, Francis Ford Coppola, Liv Ullmann,\u201d Tallman said. \u201cThis has been an extraordinary part of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left: Beth Gilligan, Ethan Hawke and Katherine Tallman in 2025. (Courtesy The Coolidge Corner Theatre)<\/p>\n

Tallman has been the theater\u2019s executive director and CEO since 2013. Now she\u2019s about to wrap this highly personal chapter of her working life on Saturday, Feb. 28. The denouement is bittersweet for Tallman. Her relationship with the Coolidge stretches back to 1987. That\u2019s when she moved from Detroit to Brookline for a job in financial services.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t know anybody except the people that hired me,\u201d she recalled. \u201cBut I always loved movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out Tallman lived just two blocks away from her version of heaven. \u201cI was here all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Coolidge was my first friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u2019s entered the Coolidge knows it\u2019s a glorious temple of cinema. But the antique theater wasn\u2019t always the shiny gem that it is today. Tallman remembers having to pick up a cushion on the way into the main movie house because there were holes in the seats. \u201cIt was definitely a little funky at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out the Coolidge was also \u201cgoing down,\u201d as Tallman put it. The owner was planning to sell the historic building to developers in 1988. But a passionate community rallied to save their little theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look back, the thing that’s most inspirational about it is that there was no internet,\u201d Tallman said. \u201cThese people were knocking on doors, holding up signs, and collecting donations in buckets. They really took it to heart.\u201d Hundreds even formed a human chain around the theater. That grassroots effort led to the Coolidge\u2019s 1989 transformation into a nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n

Then in 2006, Tallman jumped at the invitation to join its board of trustees. \u201cAnd I started to really get with my people, shall we say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CoolidgeCoolidge Corner Theatre executive director and CEO Katherine Tallman standing in the new foyer of the cinema in 2024. (Robin Lubbock\/WBUR)<\/p>\n

But becoming executive director in 2013 was an unexpected plot twist. She\u2019d taken an early retirement package from her job in finance when the Coolidge\u2019s former executive director stepped down. \u201cI had done an organizational assessment, so I knew everybody on the staff and everybody knew me,\u201d Tallman said.<\/p>\n

Her financial service experience came in handy. \u201cIt\u2019s more common now to understand how much a business background applies to organizations,\u201d Tallman said, \u201cbut I looked at all the metrics driving things at the theater.\u201d Special curation and the staff\u2019s encyclopedic film expertise were major strengths. \u201cThey had ideas \u2014 and I was all over those ideas \u2014 like, ‘Yes, let’s do it!’\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Mark Anastasio was programming director. \u201cI think one of my fortes is to see the talent in people and let them run,\u201d Tallman said. \u201cAnd he’s a great example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among Anastasio\u2019s lengthy list of innovative, now signature events at the Coolidge is the \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d series. Now the film guru has been promoted to artistic director. When asked about Tallman\u2019s departure, he admitted, \u201cI\u2019ve been doing the ostrich thing and sticking my head in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CoolidgeCoolidge Corner Theatre artistic director Mark Anastasio stands in the cinema’s old foyer. (Robin Lubbock\/WBUR)<\/p>\n

More seriously, Anastasio said he\u2019ll miss Tallman terribly. \u201cWorking with Kathy has been wonderful, and she\u2019s been instrumental in putting this team together. The team we have is truly the reason for all of our success.”<\/p>\n

The Coolidge has blossomed into an internationally known independent cinema. In 2014, revenue was $3.3 million. Now, according to Tallman, it\u2019s more than $9 million. \u201cAnd our ticket sales in 2013 were about 200,000 \u2014 now they’re over 300,000. So it’s very rewarding. It’s a nonprofit, but it’s also a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

But everything ground to a halt in 2020 because of the pandemic, and the Coolidge closed its doors for 14 months. Furloughing staff was painful for Tallman, and fundraising efforts shifted to keeping staff paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time, we got a check for $50,000,\u201d Tallman recalled. \u201cIt was kind of out of the blue, I couldn’t believe it. And the note with it said, \u2018You’ll need this.\u2019\u201d Another time she received $5 and a piece of paper that said, \u201cThis is all I can afford. I hope it helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those memories are enough to make Tallman cry. \u201cThat says what people think about the Coolidge. People are so personally entwined here.\u201d<\/p>\n

While shuttered, the team continued to plan for the theater\u2019s facelift that was already in the works. Ultimately, more than 1,000 people contributed $15 million to the capital campaign. In March 2024, the gleaming 14,000-square-foot addition debuted<\/a> with a new lobby, two state-of-the-art movie houses and an education center.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new red movie theater at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. (Robin Lubbock\/WBUR)<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my goals that I emphasized to the board was that we need to be perceived as a cultural institution,\u201d Tallman said, \u201cFilm is a serious art form \u2014 it also happens to be a very accessible art form \u2014 and I think education helps with that so people can really understand a movie, it isn’t just a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Longtime deputy director Beth Gilligan has been instrumental in the Coolidge\u2019s education programs and was tapped unanimously to fill Tallman\u2019s shoes. She pointed to the new lobby as a testament to Tallman\u2019s leadership and legacy. \u201cTo have raised funds for the expansion through COVID \u2014 when people were questioning the future of movie going and communal spaces in general \u2014 really speaks to her persistence, her fearless fundraising and her vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tallman, who\u2019s 72, is grateful for the opportunity to foster a cultural treasure like the Coolidge. “It really brought out the best in me,” she said.<\/p>\n

As for Tallman\u2019s next chapter, she\u2019s still figuring it out, but said she knows one thing for sure, \u201cI\u2019ll still be here a lot for movies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s note:\u00a0This story is an excerpt from WBUR’s weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-181838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}