Nat May, executive director of Portland’s SPACE Gallery, is leaving the Portland arts organization he has led for 13 years to pursue other arts-related work. His last day at SPACE will be Nov. 18.

“I am at a place where I have completed a bunch of projects that I had on my goal list,” he said Friday. “There’s a great team here working now. The staff is good. The board is good. We have a growing base of supporters and funders. I feel confident that SPACE will move forward in the directions we needs to move forward in.”

May joined SPACE as a volunteer in 2003, a year after the alternative art space opened in downtown Portland. He became an administrator and then executive director.

SPACE is Portland’s leading alternative art space. It hosts bands, screens movies and shows contemporary art.

During his tenure, May helped SPACE purchase its building and establish the Kindling Fund, which supports artists and art projects with grants.

In addition to his work with SPACE, May has served on the contemporary art committee of the Maine Arts Commission and the board of the Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance. He has served as a juror for the National Endowment for the Arts and is a founder of Hewnoaks Artist Colony in western Maine and Common Field, a national visual arts network.

He plans to continue his work with Hewnoaks and Common Field, he said.

This story will be updated.