Our President and CEO, Philip C. Sneed announced his retirement, effective June 30, 2026.

As we begin celebrating our 50th Anniversary season, our President and CEO, Philip C. Sneed, has announced his plans to retire on June 30, 2026. His remarkable career here will come full circle during this milestone year for the Center, making the celebration of our past and future even more meaningful.

“Leading the Arvada Center has been the greatest achievement of my working life,” said Sneed. “I am honored to have been able to play a key role in the organization during times of both crisis and opportunity, and I am so proud that I can end my leadership career where I began my professional life in the arts, almost 50 years ago."

Philip’s history with the Arvada Center began decades before his hiring as President and CEO. His initial start at the Center was with his first paid acting role ever,  in the production of The Contrast, followed by Macbeth, South Pacific, Circus, and Twelfth Night.

His first foray behind the scenes at the Arvada Center was as a Scene Shop employee in 1983, and after spending many years in the California theatre scene, he returned to the Arvada Center 2011 to direct The Lion in Winter, then directed Twelfth Night in 2012.

During Sneed’s 12+ years of leadership, the Arvada Center has seen incredible success and growth, including:

• Transitioning from a department of the city of Arvada government, to an independent nonprofit organization governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, and negotiating a 20-year Cooperative Agreement with the City of Arvada

• Growing private philanthropic support from an average of $250,000 annually to $1.1 million

• Increasing the budget 36%, from $10.8 million to $14.7 million, despite pandemic-era reductions to $8 million

• Expanding Humanities programming, including events addressing controversial topics like the Israeli-Gaza war; other projects marked the centennial of the 19th Amendment and of America’s involvement in WWI, and the 25th anniversary of the FBI raid that closed nearby Rocky Flats (a key facility in the nation’s nuclear weapons manufacturing process)

• Securing over $6.2 million in federal pandemic assistance funds, allowing the Center to maintain almost full employment and to produce ongoing virtual programming during the COVID shutdown

• Creating an organization-wide IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) initiative, supported by a Board-approved policy which requires IDEA to be “a primary factor” in all decision-making

• Forming partnerships with diverse organizations, including the African Leadership Group, Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Chabad of NW Metro Denver, and others, including the Autism Community Store, and Access Gallery

• Hosting the African Leadership Group’s annual Day of African Culture, featuring local artists and artists from Senegal, and the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Arvada Powwow 

Sneed earned a BFA in Theatre from the University of Colorado Boulder, and started his acting career at the Arvada Center before moving to California to earn his MFA in Acting at the University of California San Diego. There he co-founded the San Diego Actors Co-Op (later renamed the Actors Alliance of San Diego), to empower actors by creating audition, performance, training, and networking opportunities for members. Here, he gained valuable experience in running an arts nonprofit, and working with a Board of Directors. 

After working for years as a professional stage actor, Sneed’s desire for an artistic home led to his appointment as Artistic Director, and later Producing Artistic Director, at The Foothill Theatre Company  in Nevada City, California. From there, he negotiated the contract for the company to become the producing arm of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival; he also started an international cultural exchange program with the Maxim Gorky Theatre of Vladivostok, eastern Russia’s largest theatre company. This exchange led to more than a dozen projects in two countries. Sneed left to freelance again as an actor and director, before being appointed Producing Artistic Director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, where he worked for six years.

While Philip won’t be stepping down until summer 2026, we wanted you to know now so we can celebrate him — and 50 incredible years of the Arvada Center — together over the next year. The search for our next President and CEO will begin in Fall 2025, and we’ll share updates along the way.

For now, please join us in congratulating Philip on an extraordinary career and thanking him for dedicating so much of it to making the Arvada Center a place where the arts truly are for all.