Saskia Maxwell Keller will succeed Howard Karren as arts editor of the Provincetown Independent, beginning with the issue of May 13, Publisher Teresa Parker announced this week. Karren is retiring from his full-time position at the newspaper, but he will continue to write regularly on movies and other arts and will have the title editor at large. He says he looks forward to spending more time at Alden Gallery, which he founded in Provincetown’s East End with Stephen Syta in 2007.

“Howard’s contributions to the Independent since its beginnings have been enormous,” said Parker. “His writing, his editing, his knowledge of the Outer Cape’s arts community, and his ability to pull all-nighters brought our hopes for an engaging and original arts section to life each week.”

Before joining the staff of the newly launched Independent in October 2019, Karren was the arts editor of the Provincetown Banner, and previously was a writer and editor at Premiere magazine, a senior editor at People Weekly, and an assistant editor at New York magazine. He lives in Truro with his husband, the artist Ed Christie.

Maxwell Keller grew up in Truro, and from childhood explored painting and visual arts at Castle Hill and in Provincetown at PAAM. She plays the cello and viola da gamba. She graduated from Nauset Regional High School and Harvard University, where she studied music and art history, and earned a master’s degree in musicology from the University of Edinburgh. “We’re thrilled to have Saskia on board, bringing her talents and devotion to the arts into this new role,” Parker said.

Maxwell Keller joined the Independent in 2020 as a staff reporter and was named assistant arts editor in December. She lives in Provincetown.