The longtime leader of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is leaving for a job with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation later this year.Ella Baff has been the executive and artistic director at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival for the past 17 years. Ten weeks of events created a record 96,000 visitor experiences last summer at the Becket-based festival.
“The influence of the Pillow is from down the road to all the way on the other side of the world,” Baff said. “So you might imagine that it’s a difficult place to leave. It would have to be something pretty great and something pretty great came along.”
Baff will finish out the Pillow’s 2015 Festival which runs through August 30. She will serve as the senior program officer for arts and cultural heritage, a new position at the New York City-based foundation.
