BOSTON: Emerson College president Lee Pelton has announced that David Dower will leave his leadership role with Emerson’s Office of the Arts, ArtsEmerson, and HowlRound at the end of the year. After three decades in nonprofit theatre, Dower is relocating to San Francisco to serve as the executive producer of the U.S. operations of the Montreal-based company the 7 Fingers.

“Under the joint leadership of David Dower and David C. Howse, ArtsEmerson has joyfully become Boston’s leading presenter of contemporary world theatre and an organization that has strengthened the College’s expressed belief that arts can and should play a critical and leading role in civic transformation,” said Pelton in a statement.

David C. Howse, who has co-led the Office of the Arts, ArtsEmerson, and HowlRound since 2015, will assume the role of vice president of the Emerson College Office of the Arts on January 1, 2021. In addition to his new role at the Office of the Arts, Howse will continue leading ArtsEmerson as executive director. ArtsEmerson plans to launch a national search this January for a new director of artistic programming.

“Through the years David and I have led together, ArtsEmerson supporters have commented often to us about what appears to be our deep friendship and capacity for effortless shared leadership,” said Howse in a statement. “Though there is a bittersweet tinge to this transition for both of us, there is also joy and a tremendous sense of accomplishment.”

Dower added in a statement, “Like a director who knows when the show is ready to open, institutional leaders have to be able to recognize the moment where it is time to transition from the energy of building out a vision to the energy of sustaining it. When the vision moves from aspirational to actualized, new and different skills are needed.”