One Columbia seeks executive director
- APPLICATION DEADLINE: Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. ET
- COMPENSATION INFORMATION: $65,000-$75,000 with benefits
One Columbia for Arts and Culture is a non-profit organization working to promote collaboration among citizens, the cultural community, and city government through celebrations of Columbia’s arts and historic treasures.
The central goal of the organization is to enhance the quality of life for all residents, attract tourism to Columbia, and further build a vibrant and equitable cultural community. Located in the state capital city of South Carolina, the 10-year-old organization supports artists and cultural organizations, provides a variety of community participation activities, and serves as the primary commissioner of public art projects in the city.
One Columbia is dedicated to investigating ways that the arts can foster and inspire personal expression, the exchange of ideas, and creative entrepreneurship through a wide range of programs: exhibitions, internships, workshops, and special events. The organization receives state and local funding and is governed by an active board of directors who provide guidance and oversight for the organization.
One Columbia operates out of two properties, its primary office space in the heart of the downtown Columbia cultural district and a second neighborhood-based space for use by arts and cultural organizations.
The role
- Location: Columbia, South Carolina
- Reports to: One Columbia for Arts and Culture Board of Directors
Key responsibilities
- Provide innovative and visionary leadership in the planning, implementation, and operation of organization’s mission and strategic plan organization with a goal of advancing the role of the arts in the Columbia area.
- Advise the Board on institutional strategy, operations, and policy matters.
- Lead strategic planning.
- Contribute to ongoing fundraising efforts; ensure impactful evaluation of all short-term and long-term fundraising efforts with specific milestones necessary to ensure the financial health of the organization.
- Prepare and oversee operating budgets, ensuring appropriate levels of financial control and compliance.
- Cultivate and develop relationships with local artists, arts, heritage and cultural organizations, private-and public-sector partners, educators and public agencies, as well as the local and regional media.
- Remain cognizant and up to date on local, county and national issues that may to leverage opportunities to support the arts in Columbia and the surrounding areas.
- Enhance One Columbia’s reputation by being active and visible in the community and by working closely with other professional, civic, community based, and private organizations.
- Cultivate a positive organizational culture, committed to attracting and retaining a diverse employee base.
Skills & Experience
- The ideal candidate will be a dynamic, innovative, and visionary individual with leadership experience gained by working in the local arts agency sector or non-profit field.
- They will be confident and capable as the public face of the organization. A proven record in fundraising success is preferred.
- Demonstrated achievement leading a team in transformative environments will be key, bringing experience in project management, commissioning of public art projects, program development and strategic partnerships. Additionally, they will have an ability to assess and implement the infrastructure and operational requirements necessary to support sustainable growth.
- Required qualifications include a bachelor’s degree, demonstrated experience in arts administration, or at least 5 years’ experience in non-profit leadership.
Personal attributes
- A strategic and visionary leader who combines strong knowledge of the arts, institutional leadership, organizational management, and creative problem-solving skills.
- Exceptional relationship-building and interpersonal skills; actively seeks partnerships and collaborations that elevate the voices of Columbia’s diverse pool of artists and residents.
- Knowledge and experience working closely with elected officials, civic leaders, philanthropic donors and public sector funders.
- Demonstrates the highest standards of ethics, integrity, respect and humility.
Compensation and benefits
One Columbia offers a salary package of $65,000 to $75,000 and benefits that include paid vacation, sick leave, personal days, and holidays; health insurance stipend, professional development reimbursements.Applications and inquiries
Submit a cover letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments (electronic submissions preferred) to:- Margie J. Reese Interim Executive Director margie@onecolumbiasc.com
One Columbia for Arts and Culture does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, class, creed, physical or mental disability.
Location: Columbia, South Carolina
As the day nears for the 2022 South Carolina Arts Awards, The Hub is focusing on this year's recipients: four receiving the 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) is happy to announce four recipients who are to be honored in 2022 with South Carolina’s highest award for exceptional achievement in practicing or supporting the arts.
The SCAC presents the South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts annually each spring. The appointed members of the agency’s board of directors vote on panel recommendations for the award. In 2022, the SCAC board approved the recommendations of the following honorees from their respective categories to be recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina:
DARION MCCLOUD (Artist Category) is an actor, director, storyteller, educator, arts activist, and children’s literature advocate from Columbia. He is also the founder and creative director both of NiA Theatre Company and Story Squad. McCloud is a Riley Institute Diversity Fellow and the 2019 recipient of the Theatre Artist of the Year Award from The Jasper Project. A formally trained visual artist with a bachelor’s in art studio from the University of South Carolina, he found his way to the stage via telling stories and stayed, acting and teaching there for more than 20 years. He enjoys crafting theatre, storytelling, and art experiences for old and young and the initiated and the un-initiated in environments as varied as classrooms, corporate settings, libraries, campfires and, of course, theatres; he is a company member for Columbia-based Trustus Theatre and the South Carolina Shakespeare Company. McCloud has numerous statewide partnerships to his credit in higher education, the humanities, and the arts. He considers himself as having committed his life to the transforming power of art.
ED MADDEN (Individual Category) is a poet, activist, and a professor of English, with a focus on Irish literature, at the University of South Carolina. There, he is also director of the women’s and gender studies program. His academic areas of specialization include Irish culture; British and Irish poetry; LGBTQ literature, sexuality studies, and history of sexuality; and creative writing and poetry. In 2019 he was named a Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and a visiting artist fellow at the Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil. In 2015, Madden was named Columbia’s first poet laureate, a post he maintains today. Madden has been a South Carolina Academy of Authors Fellow in poetry twice and was South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow in 2011. He has been writer-in-residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Garden and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston as part of the state’s African American Heritage Corridor project. He also was 2006 artist-in-residence for South Carolina State Parks. His numerous publishing and editing credits include four of his own: Nest, Ark, Prodigal: Variations, and Signals, and his chapbook So They Can Sing won the 2016 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. Photo by Forrest Clonts.
CARRIE ANN POWER (Arts in Education Category) has been an arts educator and advocate in South Carolina for more 30 years. Beginning in 2004 she was the fine arts department chair, grant manager, and visual arts teacher at East Aiken School of the Arts (EASOA) until 2015. During that time, she transformed EASOA by adding full-time dance and theatre programs, developed and implemented all aspects of the EASOA after-school arts program, and secured donations to fund scholarships providing low-income families access to programs. During that tenure she coordinated the Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts, which improves and enhances arts lesson plans based on the 2010 S.C. Visual and Performing Arts Academic Standards. She then served as the education associate for visual and performing arts at the South Carolina Department of Education from 2015 until 2019, where she oversaw the development of K-12 Design Standards for visual and performing arts and later coordinated their revisions. Power served an active role on notable state arts or arts education boards and, in her community, supports educational outreach programs that bring professional artists into schools.
Founded as a non-profit in January 2012, ONE COLUMBIA FOR ARTS AND CULTURE (OC) (Organization Category) served as de facto office of cultural affairs for Columbia until being officially named as such earlier this year. Its mission is to “advise, amplify and advocate for strengthening and unifying the cultural community of Columbia” and does so by promoting cultural activities taking place in the city through various means. In 2014, OC facilitated the formalization of Columbia’s public art program, which has resulted in the creation of more than 60 public artworks and an online directory of public art throughout the city of Columbia. The organization facilitates other projects related to tactical urbanism, creative placemaking and enhancing public space. When Columbia established the honorary position of city poet laureate in 2015, it tasked OC with creating the selection committee that resulted in Dr. Ed Madden being awarded the title. OC is responsible for Amplify, a comprehensive cultural plan approved by city council in 2020. In recent years, it undertook the lengthy process of developing of a modern flag for the city adopted by city council in 2020.
The AEI virtual series is a collaboration between the South Carolina Arts Commission and One Columbia for Arts and Culture. It’s available to artists across disciplines who live and work throughout South Carolina.
Location: Columbia, SC