The former head of New York’s Dance Theater Workshop, David R. White, last week joined the Yard as consulting artistic director.

An award-winning performing arts producer himself, Mr. White founded the dance and performance awards known to many as “the Bessies.” The awards were named for his longtime mentor, the celebrated dance educator Bessie Schönberg, who also had close ties to the Yard and its founder, the late Patricia Nanon. The Yard offers competitive residencies each fall for choreographers and dancers, in Ms.Schönberg’s name.

In a written statement, board president Sarah Jane Hughes called Mr. White an extraordinary choice to carry the Yard’s mission and vision for the future along a vibrant path.

A $230,000 deficit was announced quietly in the Yard’s holiday newsletter late last year, along with the news that artistic and executive director Wendy Taucher had left the organization.

Mr. White is working to help finalize programming for the Yard’s summer season as well as beginning plans for the Yard’s 40th anniversary season in 2012 and will lead both short and longer-term planning for financial stability and facility improvements.

As the executive director and producer of Dance Theater Workshop in New York city from 1975 to 2003, Mr. White oversaw the construction and financing of that organization’s move to its current home, the Doris Duke Performance Center, which opened in 2002. He also expanded opportunities for artists to create and present new works through the National Performance Network and the Suitcase Fund, which promotes artist-led cultural networks in East Central Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Japan.

In 2010, Mr. White was appointed a member of the presenting and commissioning panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received numerous honors, including a Chevalier of l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), the 2002 Dance/USA Honors, the highest award made by the United States dance community, a Capezio Ballet Makers Dance Foundation Award and an Obie Award.

Mr. White is married to Betsy Gardella, the president and chief executive of New Hampshire Public Radio.