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Letter to the editor

Palladium lands new executive director

By JOHN FLEMING
Published July 12, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Paul Wilborn has frequently appeared on the stage of the Palladium Theater, performing the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and other Tin Pan Alley songwriters.

Now Wilborn is set to take charge of the Palladium. Wednesday, he was named executive director by St. Petersburg College, which acquired the downtown St. Petersburg theater in February.

Since 2003, Wilborn, 54, has been manager of creative industries for the city of Tampa, charged with promoting the arts as a spur to economic development. He was laid off recently as part of Mayor Pam Iorio's cuts in response to property tax reform.

"I had started looking for a new job early on, and this seemed like an ideal opportunity for me," said Wilborn, who will start at the Palladium on July 23 at a salary of $83,000. He was paid $103,000 in Tampa. "It's kind of an extension of what I was doing in Tampa."

Wilborn, a former reporter with the Times and Tampa Tribune, is also a pianist and singer who presents an "American Songbook" series at the theater.

He succeeds Dar Webb, a Palladium board member who became acting executive director after Mark Spano resigned from the job in 2005.

The Palladium, converted from a church by a nonprofit group in 1998, was taken over by SPC as part of a plan to create an "arts hub" in downtown St. Petersburg. Wilborn and the theater's staff of 10 are all employees of the college.

On Wednesday, Wilborn said it was premature to discuss his programming approach at the theater, which has had success with opera, chamber music and community presentations such as this coming weekend's performances of Disney's High School Musical. He did offer that "if I had a model, it might be the 92nd Street Y," a New York City institution revered for its eclectic, intelligent programming.

Wilborn says he doesn't make a lot of distinction between the arts scenes of Tampa and St. Petersburg. "I see us as one big arts community," he said.

John Fleming can be reached at 727 893-8716 or fleming@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 12, 2007, 00:49:30]