Arts & Science museum’s executive director leaving

PINE BLUFF — Rachel M. Miller has announced her resignation after seven years of leading the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.

Miller has accepted the position of executive director of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History of Monterey Bay, Calif., according to a news release from the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas on Tuesday. Her last day at the Pine Bluff museum is Feb. 28.

Lindsey Collins, the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas’ theater programs manager, will assume the interim director role until a more permanent replacement is found.

One of Miller’s biggest accomplishments in her tenure is leading the $5 million adaptive-reuse project of two historic buildings into the arts and events facilities to complement Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas’ main building.

The ARTSpace on Main and ART WORKS on Main opened in 2021 and doubled the Arts & Science Center’s footprint. The project received numerous architectural awards, including Main Street Arkansas’s Outstanding Adaptive Re-Use Project (2022) and the American Society of Interior Design South Central Chapter: Bronze Award for Adaptive Reuse (2021).

In September 2023, the center launched an all-inclusive brand — the ARTx3 Campus — to converge the center’s three facilities into a single identity.

The Pine Bluff museum and its executive search committee are accepting applications for the next executive director. Potential candidates may apply at artx3.org/careers/executive-director.