The Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) will reopen this month under the leadership of a new executive director.

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In an announcement released yesterday, Craig Sumberg is the new executive director of the 93-year-old facility on Irving Street, succeeding Brian Remo, who left earlier this year. He previously was executive director of the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC), hired in January 2020 but became a casualty of pandemic-related budget cuts by October.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan Law School, Sumberg also has fundraising experience, serving as senior vice president for resource development for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. He also was executive director  of the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, a 900-seat arts and culture center in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Prior to SOPAC, Sumberg led the Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation in downtown Tucson, Ariz., where he was credited with growing from a $600,000 budget to almost $5 million.

SOPAC is a newer facility than UCPAC, built in 2006, and has a budget of about $2 million. UCPAC typically has annual revenues of closer to $1 million. In 2017, RahwayRising examined the financials of several performing arts venues in the region, including SOPAC.

UCPAC has been closed  since April for maintenance and renovations to its Main Stage with staff furloughed or laid off. Renovations were expected to include repainting and partial reconstruction of the ceiling, columns and other items. It’s unclear what the total cost was of renovations. A review of agendas for the Union County Board of Commissioners through August did not show any contract awarded for UCPAC renovations but a spokesman said in April that the cost was expected to be in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” The first scheduled event at the facility is a concert featuring Bowling for Soup on Sept. 25.

UPDATED, SEPT. 15: Pax Mundus Enterprise, LLC in Monmouth Junction was awarded a $226,500 bid for “restoration and painting work,” according to a spokesperson for Union County.

Union County appropriated $10,000 (Res. 2021-318) at its April 22 meeting to UCPAC “for the purposes of developing support for the arts in Union County and creating cultural and educational opportunities for Union County residents” for 2021. Commissioners also entered into a $250,000 contract (Res. 2021-171) in February with UCPAC “for the purpose of talent acquisition, booking and event days’ of facilitation” for the 2021 Drive In Concert Series from March through December.

Opened in 1928, the 1,334-seat arts center was acquired by Union County in 2006 for $1.3 million and leased it back to UCPAC. The facility underwent a $6-million expansion and renovation in 2008.

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