Lane Sugata to lead San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and queer arts center

Lane Sugata will take over one of San Francisco’s most visible queer cultural institutions on Aug. 24, stepping into the top job at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and the Chan National Queer Arts Center as the group faces pressure to raise money, grow audiences and hold its civic place in the city.

Sugata will succeed Christopher Verdugo, who is scheduled to step down June 30 after ten years leading the organization. The roughly seven-week gap between leaders puts a premium on continuity for an institution that now spans performance, real estate, membership and public programming at 170 Valencia Street.

The chorus says Sugata will be its second chief executive and the first nonbinary person in the role. The search, conducted with Arts Consulting Group, drew applicants from across North America, and board chair Tom Paulino said the board saw Sugata as a visionary fit for the organization’s next stage.

That next stage carries a heavy load of history. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus says more than 2,000 men, cis and trans, and non-binary people have sung with the group since the first 115 members performed on the steps of San Francisco City Hall in 1978. The organization describes itself as the nation’s first and oldest openly gay chorus, a legacy that has made it both a performing arts group and a visible marker of the city’s LGBTQ political life.

Sugata arrives with deep nonprofit arts experience. They are currently a senior program officer at the Ford Foundation, where their portfolio includes creativity and free expression, cultural and narrative change, civic engagement, and gender, race and disability justice. Before that, Sugata served for eight years as founding executive director of Dance/NYC, work that placed them inside the world of fundraising, arts policy and institutional survival that many cultural groups are navigating now.

The organization’s assets are also part of the mandate. The Chan National Queer Arts Center opened in 2023 at 170 Valencia Street, in a building the chorus bought in 2019 for $9.6 million. SFGMC calls The Chan the first national LGBTQ+ arts center, and says it is intended to serve as a community hub beyond choral performance.

Sugata inherits an active season as well. Season 48 includes Dolly! A Pride Show at the Curran Theatre on June 13, 2026, along with other concerts and special events. Verdugo’s tenure overlapped with a multimillion-dollar budget increase and the opening of The Chan, leaving Sugata with the challenge of preserving that growth while keeping the chorus and the arts center central to San Francisco’s cultural and civic life.