ARTworks hires new business-focused executive director
According to The Island Packet, ARTworks in Beaufort has revamped its administrative structure, hiring new executive director Keith Mahoney and freeing current director J. W. Rone to take on the role of artistic director.
Keith Mahoney calls himself an unrepentant capitalist and says he can barely draw a line.
And now, ARTworks calls Mahoney its executive director.
The recent transplant from Florida said he has agreed to handle the business aspects of the gallery and performance space run by the Arts Council of Beaufort, Port Royal & Sea Islands.
"What I want to do is bridge the creative artist with the capitalist," said Mahoney, who also is CEO of The Human Factor LLC, an executive-search consulting firm, which he will continue to run.
Mahoney wants to create a more financially stable ARTworks that will become a model for similar organizations.
"What are we without the humanities?" he said. "Nothing. The humanities take the sharp edge off of life."
Mahoney assumes the title that until recently was held by JW Rone.
The organization's leaders recently decided to divide the responsibilities the executive director once handled alone.
Rone takes on the newly created position of artistic director.
Past board president Deanna Bowdish becomes gallery curator, also a new position.
Other local artists have agreed to teach and coordinate public classes, including Alana Adams of the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina and S.C. 2010 Craft Fellow Kim Keats. Keats is known for her basket weaving, Rone said.
"Each one of these people is going to help us expand our reach with the community," he said.
Board member Melissa Florence was to fill the executive director position starting Thursday, but declined the role.
Mahoney was contacted about it Thursday afternoon and accepted on Friday.
Mahoney's duties include combing through five years of finances, as well as identifying events that are profitable, such as the annual Mardi Gras celebration, and creating more of them.
Some events that run at a deficit could be eliminated, Mahoney added, but he doesn't know which ones yet.
He said he would seek the board's input before ending them.
Mahoney intends to move ARTworks' financial base from government funding toward business donations.
"If someone says they like what we're doing, I'm going to ask them for a check," he said. "... Be ready for my visits and be ready for my phone calls."
Via: The Island Packet
Bridging cultures and generations through gospel, blues and arts education
Storyteller-bluesman Guy Davis and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Spiritual Ensemble will share their creative process with high school students in Beaufort, S.C., and then release their joyful noises into the wilds of the Sea Islands in public concerts. This arts-education celebration is part of Bridging Cultures & Generations Through Music, an initiative developed by ARTworks, Beaufort's community arts center.
"We've observed that there are racial, cultural and generational audience diversity issues which could be addressed through creative music-based projects," commented ARTWorks Executive Director J. W. Rone. "Our Bridging initiative is our way of addressing both youth education and audience diversity, of race and age, by enlisting prominent musicians to perform and teach in Beaufort County."
The goals for the project are to introduce students and the community to the musicians and their art forms, to inspire young musicians regardless of race and socio-economic status, and to encourage audience diversity and assist in bridging cultural and generational divides.
The project is supported by a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts through its Arts Education in American Communities program.
Davis will be in residency and in concert at Beaufort Academy on Sept. 29. The son of actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Davis made his Broadway musical debut in the 1991 Zora Neale Hurston/Langston Hughes collaboration "Mulebone." Davis also arranged, performed and co-wrote the music for the Emmy-award winning film "To Be a Man." In the fall of 1995, his music was used in the national PBS series, "The American Promise," and in 2003 he toured with Jethro Tull.
Throughout his career, Davis has dedicated himself to reviving the traditions of acoustic blues through the material of the great blues masters, African-American stories and his own original songs, stories and performance pieces.
"I will conduct these classes in layers," Davis said of his plans for students in Beaufort. "Some students are there to hear the stories, some to see how I put the blues lyrics together, some are musicians I can teach the basics to, and if there's someone who's more capable, I can make it more complex. No one will be left out."
The Charleston Symphony Orchestra Spiritual Ensemble's residency includes two days of vocal music classes at Whale Branch Early College High School and Battery Creek High School. Their work will culminate Oct. 20 in a community performance of “Circa 1871: An Ode to the Fisk University Jubilee Singers" at the Battery Creek High School Performing Arts Center.
Now in its fourth season, the ensemble strives to honor the devout musical tradition that African-Americans formed as slaves after arriving in this country and in particular its relevant history in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The 2012-2013 season marks David Richardson’s debut as director of the ensemble. A noted baritone soloist, Richardson is a recipient of the prestigious Charleston Southern University Horton School of Music Senior Excellence Award for his exceptional work in choral music education.
Visit ARTworks' website for details and ticket information about both performances or call 843-379-2787.
Via: ARTWorks
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Guy Davis[/caption]
