![\"John](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/John_Glaza-sm.jpg\")
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When Craig Watson took the helm of the California Arts Council back in 2011, the Arts Council for Long Beach appointed John Glaza to shepherd the organization through the selection of a new Executive Director. Filling that job on an interim basis, Glaza has drawn on a wealth of experience and expertise to support the board with its various efforts. The nation-wide search for a new Executive Director led to three candidates, but none ended up taking the job. <\/p>\n
Today, the Arts Council for Long Beach announced that Glaza has been appointed as the official Executive Director. I had the opportunity to speak with Glaza in mid-November and learned a bit about why the Executive Committee would give him the position. <\/p>\n
You\u2019ve been working as the interim for quite some time now, and you have a slightly different background from the arts and culture thing. How did you come to be here? <\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m a social worker by trade. I went to graduate school to be a social worker and went through a year of doing social work treatment working with clients, and that comes in handy every day. Anyone you talk to that\u2019s an old social worker like me uses his or her clinical skills on a daily basis to work with staff or constituents or other stake holders in the community. The communication skills, and those sorts of things, come in handy and, to this day, even though I\u2019ve had my social work graduate degree for almost forty years, I would go back and get a social work degree again, even though I\u2019ve had jobs in the private sector and public sector and public health. <\/p>\n I come to this job as an arts enthusiast, but not as an arts administrator or professional. I come to this job as a person who thrives on creating the best organization possible, and I see this organization as a service organization. The Arts Council, which is a staff and a board, is primarily in service to the community. Not just in service to the arts and cultural community, but service to the broader community. So I\u2019m very enthusiastic about running the best organization possible, applying the best practices to board work and staff work and fund raising. We have plenty of areas to improve on at the Arts Council. <\/p>\n I used to be at the Long Beach Non-Profit Partnership. The Non-Profit Partnership is an organization that exists to support non-profits. My job there was as Director of Consulting Services. My job was to identify with clients, meaning other non-profits, individually, identifying what areas of their performance they wanted to improve on, and then find the talent in the consulting community to deliver on what they needed. Sometimes, the talent or expertise was expertise that I had. Most times it wasn\u2019t. But I\u2019ve been around long enough to be a generalist; I know a little about a lot of things, which made me good at that job. <\/p>\n So I did some work for the Arts Council, plenty of pro bono work early on, primarily as a sounding board, for the board at times and for staff at times, in an informal way. And then the Partnership got hired to facilitate the panel processes during the time when Craig Watson was here. So, for two years in a row, I facilitated the independent review panels that the Arts Council uses to review applications from community based organizations, performing arts groups, professional artists, through the fellowship. So, that\u2019s how I got more familiar with the Arts Council. <\/p>\n Quite honestly, the way it happened was, I was in a meeting\u2014I was asked to attend a meeting\u2014by the president of the board who had just told me that Craig Watson, the Executive Director of the Arts Council, had been appointed the Executive Director of the California Arts Council. I said, \u201cOf course, I\u2019d be happy to help. What\u2019s the purpose of the meeting?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, we want to talk about our transition from Craig to whatever we\u2019re going to do next. We\u2019d like to talk to you about the search.\u201d It was Kamran Assadi, at the time. <\/p>\n And I said, \u201cKamran, we\u2019re happy to help. I\u2019m happy to lay out for you what I think your choices are as far as process, whether you use a consultant to help with your search, whether you hire a search firm, whether you do it all internally or whether you do a hybrid of that, I\u2019m happy to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n So, I went to that meeting on a Friday morning and we proceeded to have a conversation that I facilitated in identifying what the priorities were, what needed to be done, and this was with the Executive Committee. And it was during that meeting that someone said, \u201cWell, what would you recommend as our process for identifying an interim? Because the way I understand what you\u2019re saying, no matter how we do this search, it\u2019s going to take several months.\u201d And I said, \u201cYeah, to do it well it\u2019s going to take several months. There\u2019s no doubt about it. There no way to rush it. And the more orderly and disciplined you are you might shave off a few weeks. But it\u2019s really important that there\u2019s a set process.\u201d <\/p>\n Because that\u2019s how you produce a good result.<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s totally how you produce a good result. And I don\u2019t have any problem sharing my bias. My bias was that the Arts Council didn\u2019t need to spend $50,000 to hire a new Executive Director. That wasn\u2019t on the table, but we both know of organizations that have overspent for a search with a firm. Not to say the firms aren\u2019t worth it, but I do have a bias to say there are other ways to address that. <\/p>\n So, when the interim piece came up, I felt a responsibility\u2014remember this is on a Friday\u2014I felt a strong sense of responsibility, particularly since I used to work with these folks in this capacity\u2014to say, \u201cExcuse me, it just so happens I resigned from the Partnership last night,\u201d because I resigned on a Thursday, \u201cand it\u2019s effective in two weeks, so if you\u2019re going to have a conversation about interim, I would be interested in supporting you in some way.\u201d <\/p>\n And you know, I think, that I never campaigned for the job at any point. And I said, \u201cSo, this seems like the time for me to leave the room.\u201d And everyone said, \u201cYeah, you need to leave the room.\u201d About ten minutes later, they invited me in and said, \u201cWe\u2019re all in. Now let\u2019s get the business-side part of this done.\u201d And that\u2019s how it happened. And I\u2019m glad it did. <\/p>\n I committed to two things; one, being the interim Executive Director but in particular, shepherding the search process. In some ways, they joked about it, they were sort of getting a twofer. They were getting an interim ED\u2014and I have strong credentials as a non-profit administrator, and I feel comfortable in this environment\u2014and secondly, I was going to shepherd the process for the search. That\u2019s what I set out to do. The search committee did a great job. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t result in a new director. <\/p>\n How did that play out?<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t remember the exact dates, but I\u2019m just going to rough it out. We [created a Request For Qualifications], and we posted it just about everywhere. There are a lot of free sites that people in this community look to, not just the Long Beach community but the cultural community, and we used a great tool that allowed us to accept everything electronically. The search committee reviewed them electronically. So, I\u2019d say that the search was open for about six weeks. <\/p>\n We set out to do interviews. We had 68 applicants and got that down to 12. We did Skype interviews with all 12. By the way, this might sound a little crazy, but we did Skype interviews for even the local people in the first round because we wanted it to be a level playing field. We interviewed people on the East Coast, we interviewed people in the central part of the country, and we interviewed people right down the street, but we used the same methodology and that was important. <\/p>\n We went from 12 to 5. And when I say we, it\u2019s important to know, like every non-profit in Long Beach, we\u2019re owned by the community. And the Arts Council isn\u2019t any different in that regard. Of course, the City believes they own us, too, because they helped create us and birth us, and there\u2019s some truth to that in many ways. The search committee was made up of six people. I was the facilitator, and we had one board member, one staff member, and four community members. That was really important to the board, and it was really important to me. <\/p>\n We got to our three finalists. They all had decades of arts management credentials. I mean, any one of them could have done an exceptional job as the new Executive Director. We reached consensus on the first candidate. When I say \u2018the first candidate,\u2019 we reached consensus on a candidate who was fairly local, within a couple hours of here. He said yes on a Friday and no on Monday. We don\u2019t really know why he said yes on Friday, although he was exited, enthusiastic, capable, and we don\u2019t know why he withdrew on Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n I characterize it as his excitement was overrun by his apprehension. He did ask some questions about the budget, and about solid funding from the City. Also, at the time, the RDA dissolution was pending in the Supreme Court. There was a lot of uncertainty, and he had a job. So, uncertainty sometimes impacts people. <\/p>\n The second candidate had an offer already from an institution in Texas, and he accepted that. We weren\u2019t able to reach consensus on the third candidate. [At that point,] the Executive Committee made a prudent decision to wait and see how this city budget is going to go. <\/p>\n At the time, the City was wringing its hands about a budget shortfall, and people in the arts and cultural community were thinking, \u201cAre we going to get $354,300, which we\u2019ve gotten the last two years,\u201d which is far less than they used to get years ago. Far, far less. \u201cShould we be making a decision about an Executive Director right now when we\u2019re two months away from knowing what\u2019s going to happen with the City?\u201d <\/p>\n Fortunately, the City Council voted 9 to 0, and we got level funding. In this environment, I\u2019m fine with level funding. We could always use more funding in the arts and cultural community, no doubt about it, but we need to find that funding somewhere else right now. It\u2019s part of the conversation, internally, now as to whether I am going to stick around and we\u2019re going to take the \u201cinterim\u201d off. And we\u2019re not going to call me permanent, which everyone keeps asking me. \u201cAre you the permanent Executive Director?\u201d I\u2019ve learned in my work with non-profits, particularly with HR people, to never say permanent. <\/p>\n Still, it has been fourteen months, and we are talking about the future. But I can tell you this\u2014and I think you know this as you\u2019ve experienced me\u2014certainly, in the most prudent way, there were tasks that needed to be attended to that any director would attend to, whether he or she was an interim or not. I just naturally knew what those were. <\/p>\n Because we\u2019re reworking the job description for the Executive Director, I told the board the other day, \u201cWell, I have to tell you, honestly, I only looked at it once because I inherently know what to do.\u201d It\u2019s not about looking at the job description and saying, \u201cWhat\u2019s my job today?\u201d There\u2019s a reason we don\u2019t call this ‘acting.’ It\u2019s interim, between the old and the new, because I haven\u2019t been acting at all. I\u2019ve known what to do, but there are certain things I haven\u2019t been able to do that went on what I call the \u201cpark list\u201d because the organization is better served for the new director to do those. <\/p>\n We thought the new director would be here last March. There was some consternation for me deciding what, on that park list, I need to accomplish during whatever set of months I\u2019m going to be here as interim. There\u2019s no formula for that. Some of it\u2019s intuitive. <\/p>\n Larry Rice has been a great President, by the way, because he\u2019s been so available and so supportive. I said to him, \u201cIn the Fall, I know we want to get after doing some board recruitment and some board development, but I would recommend we not do that yet because I don\u2019t think we want to do that a month before we hire a new director.\u201d <\/p>\n Shortly after March, I said to Larry, \u201cI think we need to do this because we can\u2019t put it off any longer.\u201d Boards are meant to rotate. People are not meant to serve forever. We have a lot of integrity in our by-laws; with three-year terms, max. And so, we did an open call for board members. We\u2019ll be ready to appoint those board members in the next couple weeks. We had 18 applicants, 18 people, super stars, in my opinion. We thought to select six to eight, and we\u2019ve got seven. But that means that there are 11 that I would love to put to work in a constructive, thoughtful, important way. And there are ways to do that. [We have] about 20 now, and it\u2019ll be about 27, and the by-laws allow for up to 31. <\/p>\n Now that you\u2019re moving things from the park list to the more active list, other than the board, what are some of those other things that you\u2019ve been tackling?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the biggest opportunity for us right now is financial stability, nurturing the current relationships with funders that we already have, and making sure that they\u2019re comfortable with where we\u2019re headed. Those funders include the LA County Arts Commission, the Miller Foundation, which is a strong supporter, and two NEA grants. We can never forget that our biggest funder is the City, so we need to always maintain a good relationship with Pat West and his staff, and the Council offices. <\/p>\n Our greatest opportunity now, that I and the board are focused on, is planning for the NEA grant that we received. We received a two-year grant from the NEA. There were 80 grants awarded, nationwide. And there were, I think, five or six that were in the $150,000 range, and we were one of that small group that got that. So, this is a two-year grant and it\u2019s to do performance-based art, and we\u2019re going to pursue this in a multi- disciplinary way, in non-traditional venues and locations throughout the city. It\u2019s a great opportunity. <\/p>\n The [Request for Qualifications we’ve issued] is meant to identify artists, artist groups, organizations, and other performers in the greater Long Beach area that are interested in programming for the NEA grant. We\u2019ve done some of that work in the past. It\u2019s called ALOT. We\u2019ve done some A LOT work and we revised the approach to A LOT and submitted that to NEA, and they said yes. It\u2019s a huge deal. We\u2019re up to it. We\u2019re very capable of it. <\/p>\n What we\u2019re looking for is qualified people, as opposed to requesting a proposal, because we think that, once we look at the qualified people, we\u2019ll be able to create together the programming that will work. The broader it is, the more multi-disciplinary it is, the more spread out into the community it is, I think the better it will be for everybody. So, that\u2019s one of our biggest. <\/p>\n I parked, and then moved off the \u201cpark list,\u201d a closer look at our grants allocation program. We have a few things we need to fix. So, we did a fairly significant overhaul in our application so it would be easier to complete. One of our primary responsibilities is to allocate the City dollars to arts and cultural organizations, and professional artists, throughout the city. Before I was with the Arts Council we sought and got feedback about the application. We improved the quality of the application; made it easier to complete. We\u2019ll need to revise the application again, and I think that\u2019s fine to do every year, actually. <\/p>\n If we\u2019re really paying attention to our constituents, and if there\u2019s a disconnect somewhere, or if there\u2019s a guideline that\u2019s incongruent with our direction, then we ought to look at that. We have a fixed amount of dollars in our operating grant program, for example. If you were to guess who gets operating grants, you would be right. The symphony, the opera, Musical Theatre West, and ICT all get operating grants. This year, the pot of money was the same size as last year, but we had two additional applicants that were eligible. <\/p>\n Which ones?<\/strong><\/p>\n Arts and Services for the Disabled, who has been receiving a community grant but the operating grant is based on size of budget and they reached a new threshold on size of budget because of their success in growth, and so they were now eligible for an operating grant. Actually, it was a stroke of brilliance, I think, in some ways, for them to say, \u201cWell, let\u2019s apply for this because there\u2019s more money available over here.\u201d Very smart. <\/p>\n The second\u2014and this is a story in itself, is the Long Beach Museum of Art, who hadn\u2019t applied in the past and who applied because they hit a threshold. There used to be a threshold where, if you received this much in City dollars, you couldn\u2019t apply for the Arts Council. But [their municipal funding has] dipped, and they became eligible for Arts Council funding. <\/p>\n The operating grant has a formula for how the allocation gets determined, and that\u2019s based on merit. So, the higher you score during the independent review translates into a higher multiple for the dollars. It\u2019s an excellent process. It\u2019s modeled after some of the best practices around the country but, like I said earlier, you can always improve it. So, some people got less and some people got more. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve actually officially released that yet, but the grantees have received their letters. <\/p>\n I did what I think is my job, which is to write a letter, explain how this all came about. Here\u2019s how the independent review panel works. Here\u2019s what your score was. Here\u2019s how you ranked with your score. And by the way, a personal note that says if you want to talk about this, call me, which they have. Because if I got less money I\u2019d want to have a conversation with the Executive Director, or the interim Executive Director of the Arts Council of Long Beach. I happen to believe we can be more transparent \u2014 nothing we do should be a mystery. <\/p>\n That\u2019s the nice thing about the way it\u2019s structured. It\u2019s very formulaic. It\u2019s not arbitrary. It\u2019s very balanced. I was involved as a panelist in the grant review process for the Professional Artists Fellowship Grant, and it was an amazing experience for me to go through that process. I was pleased and proud to see how well it had been structured. I know you guys take great pride in that, and rightfully so.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m glad you mentioned the Professional Artists Fellow. We had nine applicants this year and, although it\u2019s an unrealistic expectation, we feel like we should know who every artist in our community is. But after all, we are the 36th largest city in America, with more than 460,000 people, so how can we know every artist in the community? <\/p>\n We have quite a well-respected group of panelists. It is a different group every year. They know the community, and they know a lot of artists in the community. Still, five of the nine artists were not known by anyone in the room, which I think is great because we uncovered five new artists that are doing fabulous work in Long Beach and have chosen, deliberately chosen, to make their home in Long Beach. So, we got nine, we selected five, meaning five ended up in the first tier and received a professional artist fellowship. <\/p>\n One of great things about the Professional Artist Fellowship is the cash reward. They can stop being an artist when they can get the check, if they want. They probably don\u2019t, but they could because the panel is recognizing them for their body of work. <\/p>\n The other four, who also submitted applications, we wanted to reinforce their efforts. Some would classify them as emerging artists, so we made a commitment to them to support professional development activity for them this year. I sent a note to them that said, \u201cAlthough you weren\u2019t selected, this time, to get a professional artist fellowship, we want to encourage you to continue to do great work. And you have until September 30, 2013 to tell me what professional development you\u2019d like us to support and we\u2019ll support it up to $250.\u201d They might want to go to a workshop, or some training, or go to a conference. So, $250 will help. <\/p>\n One last point about this. We have this gallery called The Collaborative down on Broadway. We have four exhibits there each year, typically, in ten-week cycles. One of the other acknowledgments we could offer to the professional artist fellows is to show their work at The Collaborative. I\u2019d love to see that happen. Just make it a matter of routine that, if you\u2019re selected as a professional artist fellow, then we\u2019ll exhibit your work for a period of time in the following year at The Collective. Why not? Especially if one of our goals, which I think it is, is to continue to encourage solid work in the community and to encourage local artists. <\/p>\n One of the rolls of the Arts Council, which has been a bit nebulous, is this idea of building an audience, of finding creative and interesting ways to reach out to the larger community and help them to understand what it means to be a resident in Long Beach, from an arts and cultural perspective. When you talk to people about arts and culture, a lot of them have this idea that it\u2019s somewhere else. Is there a vision for addressing this?<\/strong><\/p>\n We need to be vigilant, I think, about making arts accessible. And when I say accessible I don\u2019t mean necessarily, although I think this is good, loading kids in buses and bringing them to the symphony. That\u2019s okay. But it might be the public art piece right outside their door. It might be two blocks from their house. And that\u2019s why I think this NEA grant is such an opportunity for us. Because the closer we can deliver performance to people\u2019s homes, the better. We can activate a vacant lot in any district in the city with these resources. You need not only talents and treasures and all that, you need money, and we\u2019re going to get some of that money. It has to be matched, but we\u2019re going to get that money from the NEA. We can deliver some great programming so people don\u2019t necessarily have to come downtown. We have a big city. <\/p>\n Our goal at the Arts Council is to have a board meeting in every district in the city every year. We have nine districts. So our last board meeting was in District 9, and it took me 35 minutes to drive there. It took a lot of the board 20 or 30 minutes to drive there. It took some of them five minutes to drive there. It reminded me, and the board, that we have a big city to cover, and that arts and culture are represented throughout the city. <\/p>\n We can\u2019t know everything that\u2019s going on, but the more accessible we make it, the better. You know the Museum of Latin American Art has free admission one day a month, supported by Target, so there\u2019s some accessibility there. So, to answer your question, it\u2019s a high priority for me. It\u2019s part of our vision, and I think it fits nicely into being in service to the community. <\/p>\n If residents in the city recognize the value they get from investing in arts and culture through their tax dollars, it becomes an opportunity to turn them from consumers into advocates. That\u2019s a very delicate process. I know that the city is often resistant to that kind of thing because they really don\u2019t want people wandering in and pounding on the table and saying, \u201cWe need to do this.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n Well, some would argue that\u2019s one of the reasons they created the Arts Council, right? So the Arts Council could create the process and the infrastructure and the governing responsibilities for distributing the City\u2019s dollars. A lot fewer knocks. <\/p>\n Rather than asking for more money by the organizations themselves, I think there\u2019s an opportunity for people in the community to go to their elected leaders and say, \u201cThis is a priority for me. I care about this. And I want my passion to be reflected in the budget.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Absolutely. I haven\u2019t talked about this at all, but I\u2019m an old lobbyist, and political wonk, in some ways. Not partisan. Social causes. I worked in at least three legislatures in the country. I loved that work. It\u2019s exhausting, but I loved it. Some would say that the ultimate advocacy is money. A contribution is a demonstration of what you\u2019re passionate about, and then that gets translated into some kind of action. For those people who are willing to spend money on something, then they generally are interested in the advocacy aspect of that. And I don\u2019t think we can ever do enough. I really don\u2019t think we can ever do enough on that front. <\/p>\n We\u2019re dipping our toe in that a little bit. We\u2019re going to be doing more around advocacy. We\u2019ve partnered with Arts for L.A. If someone goes to our website, they\u2019ll see there\u2019s always some advocacy-related action on our website now. We\u2019ll do another forum for the City Council, when the seats are open on the City Council. <\/p>\n Bringing it back to the NEA grant again, if we can do some quality events that not only highlight but also drive business economically in the areas of the city where people do events, I think that\u2019s powerful. And the other thing you know is, and I know that you read a lot, there\u2019s all this talk about the creative economy and the latest Otis Report. I was just at a fund raising meeting, actually, in the city, and we talked a lot about the Otis Report and what the next report\u2019s going to look like. <\/p>\n In Southern California, I think the statistic is one in eight jobs can be tied to the creative economy. I don\u2019t think most people get that. I think there are all kinds of opportunities with business. I mean, I had the opportunity to talk with the COBA Group in town. That\u2019s the group of business improvement districts. They are so welcoming and so terrific and they saw a connection between their local neighborhood areas, business improvement districts and the arts. I was there to talk to them about Long Beach Arts Month. They get it. It\u2019s just a matter of doing more and more and more of that, so people get it. <\/p>\n There\u2019s also finding creative and interesting ways to utilize the resources that are available. One of the things that many neighborhoods, especially downtown and Bixby Knolls, are doing is taking empty store fronts and using them for programming; using them for exhibitions and performances.<\/strong><\/p>\n We were able to do some of that prior to the dissolution of the RDA. We were able to do that in North Long Beach, north of the Atlantic corridor. We had five or six sites. Those have all been closed since then. But I also happen to believe, if there is a commitment to do certain things, then we need to\u2014and I don\u2019t mean just the Arts Council, I mean the arts and cultural community, the advocates, need to find the money to get it done. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not necessarily even an issue of money. Sometimes it\u2019s an issue of thinking.<\/strong><\/p>\n Or an issue of will. <\/p>\n Right. Because a property owner who owns a property that isn\u2019t leased is focused on getting it leased. But when you put something in that empty space and people see it as a dynamic, exciting, interesting environment, all of a sudden, people who are looking for properties to lease look at it in a different way.<\/strong><\/p>\n Part of making it happen, then, is having the will, sharing the desire to get it done, and then creating the plan to make it happen. I agree. Sometimes it doesn\u2019t require that much money. Sometimes it just requires time, and expertise. <\/p>\n I wanted to come back to another point about the City Council. As of today, our goal is to stay in touch with the City Council members, and we have partnered with at least three offices in the last two months on arts related programming, which is terrific. Eventually, in fact, I\u2019m confident that I will one day be able to say we regularly partner with all nine district offices. I think that\u2019s great. We\u2019ve tried to saturate the community, but this is a big community. <\/p>\n There\u2019s a call for artists out right now for professionally drawn, painted, mostly painted, birds and other duck species for El Dorado Park that we\u2019ve partnered with Gerrie Schipske on, in District 5. So, the intention is to put out the call to artists, get work from them, we\u2019re getting it electronically, impaneling a group of professionals to review the work, selecting the work in partnership with Councilmember Schipske\u2019s office, and then that work is going to get translated to a banner, and those banners are going to be raised up on light poles in the park with a little story bar about the bird. What a great thing to do. We\u2019re acknowledging and recognizing and seeking artists, some of whom we may have never heard of, and giving them an opportunity to show their work. Sure, it would be nice to be able to provide a cash reward, but we\u2019re not in that position right now. But sometimes recognition has value, too. It does, to me. Appreciation has value to me. I\u2019m not sitting on a pile of money but I\u2019d much rather you appreciated me than hand me a dollar. <\/p>\n In 2011, and the year before, when Craig Watson was doing his Global October Arts Month thing, he said (and I’m paraphrasing poorly), \u201cWe\u2019re not here to produce, we\u2019re here to promote and support,\u201d but at the same time, the Arts Council wound up producing a number of exhibitions and other events. I\u2019m wondering where are you on that balance?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think less is more when it comes to producing and programming. I actually, deliberately, was focused on unwinding, even though we ended up doing some of the exhibition, supporting some of the exhibition stuff. I see our role not purely promotion but more promotion than producing. So, I hope, as long as I\u2019m here anyway, to continue to unwind the desire on the part of our organization in the area of some board advocates as well as community advocates, I want to move us away from producing, because there\u2019s a lot of great things going on here, and I see our role as promoting what\u2019s happening. That doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t be a catalyst for certain things. We can certainly be a catalyst for things. <\/p>\n The Arts Council has a long history of supporting our larger institutions with grant funds. That is still true today. However, if one looks closely at our budget one would see that, in FY2013, we will expend more funds in artist fees then in our largest Operational Grant category. We haven’t reduced expenditures to larger institutions overall as a grant category. We’ve increased funding for artists through other sources. <\/p>\n We\u2019ve contracted quite a bit as an organization over the last eighteen months, and some of that\u2019s been driven by our financial condition. Those are all the right decisions to make, because the Arts Council needs to be healthy, financially. When you\u2019re in the programming and producing business, it\u2019s a huge drain on human resources. I\u2019d rather put resources into promoting what already is being a catalyst on the producing side, and do less and less programming. <\/p>\n We have five primary roles\u2014promote, support, fund, educate and advocate. Opportunities for us to make a difference exist in each of these areas. We’ve had to get really smart and efficient about how we spend our time. I’d rather we did a few things really well rather than several things in an average way. The lens, for me, is service.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n
![\"John](\"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/John_Glaza-sm.jpg\")
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