In a span of 20 years, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center came to seem like home for Jim Baker.

Now Baker, who served the last 11 years of his two-decade tenure as executive director of the Snowmass Village fine arts organization, is leaving for another location that he considers akin to home.

The 54-year-old Baker on Monday announced his resignation from Anderson Ranch and that he has accepted the position of president of the Maine College of Art in Portland. It is an area Baker knows well; the Connecticut native spent his childhood summers in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 10 miles south of Portland.

"This is a school I know about," Baker said of the 130-year-old college, which has an enrollment of approximately 500. "I thought this would be a great spot for me. It's something new, something related to what I do, but different. And in a place that I'm familiar with and really like. Portland is a great city for arts and culture."

Baker's resignation will become official in early summer, and he will take over the duties of his new job in the second half of the summer. A search committee will find Baker's successor at Anderson Ranch. Anderson Ranch is a 40-year-old organization that serves aspiring and professional artists, and the larger community, with summer workshops, winter artist-in-residence programs, exhibits and more. Its facilities include photography, woodworking, painting and ceramic studios.

When Baker first came to Anderson Ranch in 1986 as a tenured associate professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, he was hired to manage the photography and digital imaging programs. Anderson Ranch was a more chaotic place than it is now.

"When I came on as director, the ranch was trying to re-establish its bearings a bit," said Baker, who will move with his wife, Laura Dixon, and their two children. "I figured I could help that," continued Baker, who accepted an invitation to become director in 1995.

Baker believes he was successful in stabilizing and expanding Anderson Ranch during the past 11 years. Most visible has been the upgrading of the campus studios and facilities under his leadership. Anderson Ranch is also notable for the quiet efficiency with which it runs. For Baker, the stable foundation on which the organization now sits makes this an opportune time to leave.

"The quality of the staff and the board are so solid now, it's easier for me to leave," he said. "If there were more serious challenges, I would probably think otherwise.

"And it's a good place for a new person to come into. It's going to be the ultimate dream job for the person who comes in."

In a statement, Paul Copaken, president of the Anderson Ranch board of directors, said Baker "has moved Anderson Ranch to new levels of excellence in workshop, resident and visiting artists programs. Because he is respected as an artist, manager and fundraiser, he will be a tremendous asset to the Maine College of Art."

Baker said there was nothing about Anderson Ranch that prompted his decision to move on. Rather, the years had just piled up.

"I'm kind of restless by nature, and this is a long time for me to be in any job," he said. "Eleven years as director is a pretty long time at an arts organization - in this town or anywhere else."

Coincidentally, a celebration of Baker's history at Anderson Ranch was already on the slate Snowmass Village. James Baker: A Photographic Retrospective, opens with a reception for Baker at 4 p.m. Thursday and shows through April 7. A graduate of the master of fine art program at the Rhode Island School of Design, Baker has specialized in landscape photography.

Baker concluded that his decision is not so much about leaving Anderson Ranch behind but building on his experience here by bringing it to a new place.

"So much of what I love in the ranch is what I love in the college," he said. "A lot of the things I learned here I can apply at the college."

Stewart Oksenhorn's e-mail address is stewart@aspentimes.com