EVERETT — Judy Tuohy, the long-serving executive director of the Schack Art Center in Everett, will step down from the position in May 2026 after 32 years in the role, the nonprofit announced Monday.
As executive director, Tuohy led the organization through a period of significant growth, including the construction of a new arts center in the city’s downtown core.
Until 2009, the Schack Art Center was known as the Arts Council of Snohomish County, a nonprofit founded in 1974 to support visual and performing arts in the county. The organization is named after John and Idamae Schack, whose philanthropic donations supported numerous artistic endeavors throughout the Everett area.
In 2011, the organization opened a 19,000-square-foot multipurpose building along Hoyt Avenue in downtown Everett, including an art gallery and affordable housing for artists, following a four-year capital campaign to support the project that raised $6 million. In a release Monday, the Schack Art Center called the project, which Tuohy helped oversee, “transformational.”
“Judy has left a lasting legacy in the region that is unparalleled. Countless generations of artists, patrons and members of this community will benefit from her vision and tenacity supporting the visual arts,” wrote the president of Schack Art Center’s board of directors, Rich White, in a press release Monday.
Along with the gallery and housing, the nonprofit provides classes in eight art studios for youth and adults, while also organizing local creative events like the Fresh Paint Festival. As executive director, Tuohy helped broaden the nonprofit’s exhibitions and educational offerings, while increasing attendance, membership and donor support to “record levels,” the Schack Art Center wrote in a press release Monday.
“I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead this amazing organization,” Tuohy wrote in a release Monday. “To help shape our footprint and witness its profound impact on our youth, local artists and our community at large has been a great pleasure.”
Tuohy has served as a City Council member in Everett for over a decade. She was first elected to a council seat in 2014 and currently holds one of two at-large seats on the dais. In 2017, she ran for the mayoral seat alongside Cassie Franklin after longtime mayor Ray Stephanson didn’t run for reelection. Tuohy narrowly lost that race against Franklin by fewer than 200 votes. Her term on the council expires at the end of 2027.
The Schack Arts Center’s board of directors will begin a regional search for a new executive director in the coming weeks, the organization wrote in a press release, with a leadership transition planned for the spring of 2026.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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