The northwest Iowa native who was hired nearly 31 years ago to lead Iowa’s largest theater has retired.
Until this week, Jeff Chelesvig held the title of president and CEO of Des Moines Performing Arts — which includes the Des Moines Civic Center and the Temple Theater a few blocks away. Chelesvig also expanded the organization’s reach over the past decade with educational programs, camps and stage shows for a million school kids from around the state.
During a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa PBS, Chelesvig said it all fits with the organization’s mission — to bring world class entertainment, education and cultural activities to the Midwest. “We feel like we have this jewel of a 2700-seat venue downtown. We have all the things you need with parking and restaurants and hotels nearby,” Chelesvig said.
Chelesvig was born in Eagle Grove, but his family moved and he went to high school in Belmond. During his senior year, he was cast as “Henry Higgins” in a production of “My Fair Lady.” Chelesvig went to college in Minnesota for a couple of years before enrolling at Iowa State. “I had this really great opportunity to work at the Iowa State Center and work on professional touring shows and then that led to a job in Peoria after college as a theater operations person,” Chelesvig says.
Chelesvig moved to jobs in Minnesota and Florida before returning to Iowa and the Des Moines Civic Center job in January of 1995. “We did not have a season ticket program like we have now…and the building at that point was 16 years old. Things were starting to wear out and needed to be replaced,” Chelesvig said. “Thankfully, my predecessor did a capital campaign and got some projects done, so there was still a laundry list of things to do, so we had to kind of pivot quick to figure out how to pay for all of those things that were needed.”
When he arrived, the organization was basically renting the Civic Center to a booking agency that picked which shows would be staged in Des Moines. In 1997, Chelesvig started what has turned out to be a very profitable season ticket series, featuring eight Broadway shows. Nearly 25 years ago, the Civic Center began investing in shows debuting on Broadway. It’s a move that has made the Civic Center among the first stops when a Broadway hit starts touring outside of New York. “I’ve loved so much of what we do and we have such a great team and I think it’s just time for somebody else to come in and have a new vision,” said Chelesvig, who officially retired on Friday, November 21.
The organization’s chief financial officer is interim CEO until Monica Holt takes over in January. She was an executive at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. for 16 years.