With his red hair, flashy clothing and upbeat personality, Michael Bollinger is the type of person who can get things started.

After graduating from the Webster University Conservatory of Theatre Arts in St. Louis, Mo., Bollinger started his own theater. He then moved on to the Lyceum Theater in St. Louis, which built a new theater and scene shop under Bollinger’s direction.

Then, he moved to the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.

Bollinger was hired in February 2005, when the center was in its infancy. With nothing but an old high school building and a dream conceived by native Suffolk residents, Bollinger was charged with getting the center ready for opening and breathing artistic life into its halls.

“We just feel like he’s done an excellent job in getting the center ready over the course of the period of time he’s been here,” said Whitney Saunders, president of the board, in October.

Bollinger announced in October that he would leave the center at the end of the year. However, he still is working in Suffolk through mid-March, producing the center’s full-scale production of “Peter Pan.”

Bollinger said he is proud of the many accomplishments the center has achieved during his time, but he regrets that it struggled at times with attracting people to its performances.

“It’s the little things I take pride in,” he said.

For the first 16 months of his tenure here, Bollinger was helping with the transformation of the building from the old Suffolk High School to a cultural arts center. During that time, Bollinger himself was responsible for many improvements to the building – including the installation of interior storm windows to prevent drafts, an investment in state-of-the-art film equipment so the center could show movies on the big screen, and especially the correction of an error that caused the stage to be six inches higher in back than in front.

“Not one professional dance company would ever come here (if it was left that way),” Bollinger said of the leaning stage. “Now we have a level stage.”

Bollinger also takes credit for other progressions in the history of the Suffolk Center. He helped establish an online ticketing system so the center would not have to rely on a service such as Ticketmaster; helped develop the Web site and season brochures; and was responsible for the LED sign at the corner of Main Street and Finney Avenue, which announces upcoming events at the center.

He also served as the center’s ambassador to the city, the media and the community at large. He constantly found himself in meetings with city council members, talking to news reporters and trying to visit every civic league and school PTA in the city, all the while taking heat for the center’s heavy reliance on city funding.

“Hampton Roads is a very busy area for the arts,” he said. “You really have to work diligently and hard to keep the word out.”

But Bollinger’s biggest point of pride is the center’s performing arts series. Since the center opened, more than 100 performances, from children’s musicals to soul singers, have graced the stage of the SCCA. Bollinger said he worked hard to ensure that there was a show for everyone.

“You gotta try to have something for everyone, and I think we kinda succeeded in that,” he said. “One of the things I found really cool and refreshing is that you did have that diversity.”

In addition, the center now offers more than 35 arts classes, most of which wouldn’t be available in downtown Suffolk if it weren’t for the center, Bollinger said. In addition, he forged partnerships with local arts organizations such as Ballet Virginia, Todd Rosenlieb Dance and the Tidewater Winds.

Disappointments for Bollinger during his four years at the center included a combination of low attendance and what he terms “natural disasters.” The latter included a piece of cornice that fell off the building, a flood (the “Poseidon Adventure,” Bollinger calls it) caused by a miscue in the sprinkler system and a slow-smoldering fire that took nine months to fully recover from.

Bollinger estimates about a third of his administrative time in 2007 and 2008 was spent dealing with the misfortunes. The fire alone caused about $1.3 million worth of damage, he said. However, it could have been much worse.

“It could have been just a shell,” he said.

But perhaps the biggest letdown for Bollinger was that the center had trouble drawing people to its shows. Although some performances sold out, many did not, he acknowledged.

“It wasn’t bad,” Bollinger said of the attendance. “At the same time, it could be more.”

The exception, he said, has been the children’s and family series, which doubled in attendance in 2008.

Though Bollinger said he would like to stay longer to see the center “soar,” it is time for the next chapter in his life, he said. He has begun a national search for that chapter, and believes he has left behind a good framework for the next director.

“I feel very good about what I’ve left,” he said. “I do think the center’s going to have a bright future.”