After serving at the helm of Vashon Center for the Arts for 11 years, Executive Director Molly Reed has announced she will retire in March.

Reed, who will be 68 when she leaves the island arts organization, said she had wanted to stay until the center’s new building was open and the agency was honoring its promises. She added she has known for some time retirement was coming, even if she did not know exactly when it would be.

“Everybody in their life goes through this if they have been in the work force. It is not easy, but it is the natural evolution,” she said last week. “It is time for someone else to come in and take it to the next level. It is just time.”

Her largest accomplishment, she said, was what many people likely would expect, the building of the new Katherine L White Hall, which required prolonged effort and 60 hour — or more — work weeks. Beyond that project, she spoke about her appreciation for what the center and its programs do for people, including young islanders, who she said she loved seeing run in after school.

“It has an emotional impact on some people,” she added. “Parents will say, ‘Thank you. You saved my kids,’ which is what the arts do for people, but not everyone understands that.”

There is not a downside to working in the arts, she added, other than it is difficult — more so than it might appear.

“Things look easy, but it takes lots of hours to make these things happen,” she said.

Reed began at the agency in 2006 and said she had no idea the building of a new arts center would be in her future, though early on in her tenure, a couple of women from Vashon Island Chorale spoke with her about a new facility.

“I thought, ‘Why are they talking to me about this?'” she laughed.

One and a half year’s later, she got a call from Kay White’s attorney —and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, for Reed’s replacement, the Vashon Center for the Arts board will conduct a search, led by board president Denise Katz and board member Karin DeSantis.

In an agency press release, Katz commented on the change at hand.

“We are so thrilled for Molly and what’s next, and yes, more than a little sad that we won’t see her nearly so often,” she said.

Reed began her career as founding managing director in the early days of Seattle Children’s Theatre. She later held marketing positions in broadcasting and banking, including serving as vice president of community relations for U.S. Bank, where she advocated for nonprofit groups. In 1997, she returned to her roots and rejoined Seattle Children’s Theatre as chief development officer. In 2006, she joined what was then known as Vashon Allied Arts as its executive director.

Looking ahead to the coming months, Reed said she has some things she wants to accomplish yet before she leaves and is certain the months will go by quickly. She is not sure what retirement holds for her yet, though she knows it will include travel. Her husband, Rick Reed, is retired and highly involved with VashonBePrepared and CERT, and she said she will remain involved in the community in some way.

“When people retire on Vashon, they do not disappear,” she said. “They just roll up their sleeves and do something to contribute to the community.”