Page 47 - the NOISE October 2013

cultural partners:
gettIng the joB done for the arts
It was a rainy, even soggy September it’s not just a fundraiser — it’s also an awards directors. When I visited, Ms. Vogler had
Monday afternoon when I visited Flag- staff Cultural Partners (FCP) to chat with John“JT”Tannous, executive director, at his office in the Coconino Center for the Arts.
“I’ve been in Arizona for over 25 years,” said Mr. Tannous when I groused some about the rain. He reminded me it’s always good when it rains here.
Since 2007 Mr. Tannous has been a driv- ing force at Flagstaff Cultural Partners — dreaming up, collaborating and putting together a modern renaissance that is poised to bloom through a diversity of art, events and a wide variety of cultural pro- grams for Northern Arizona.
“FCP has gone through a lot of changes,” said Mr. Tannous. “What happened was the Coconino Center for the Arts had been go- ing since the mid 80s, and in the 90s it shut down, closed their doors and ceased to operate as a nonprofit.” Mr. Tannous added that directly following, a group of artists, the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, NAU, the Community College, the Flagstaff Chamber and FUSD got together to form an arts council for Flagstaff. “So they cre- ated FCP — it was born out of that group; in 1999 it was born.”The County offered up the then-defunct Coconino Center for the Arts to house staff and specifically to pro- mote arts and cultural programs.
One of the big events for Flagstaff Cul- tural Partners is its annual Viola Awards. “The Viola Awards is a big gala event; it’s
probably our most important event of the year,” said Mr. Tannous. “It’s a fundraiser but
program.” Mr. Tannous recalls an intense hair- raising scene leading up to the 4th Annual Vio- las a couple of years ago.
“We were working with a videographer who did short interviews of all the nominees,” said Mr. Tannous. That video was to be shown dur- ing the Viola gala and it came out to a little more than an hour. “The week of the event our videographer disappears. As a result, I’ve lost about an hour of my program. And so we did a PowerPoint slide show with all 66 nominees,” said Mr. Tannous, explaining that he and a staff member put that together during a five-to- six-hour, day-of-the-event session. “You just go with it when you’re running a nonprofit. It’s whatever it takes to get the job done.”
That spirit of “getting it done” has also come with thoughtful strategic planning and man- agement in which Mr. Tannous and the Board have carefully gone through and evaluated not only each FCP program but also staffing.
“In the last year we realized we needed to change things,” said Mr. Tannous. “It’s a beauti- ful thing. We went to the drawing boards and tore the organization down into all of its parts. We started from scratch.” So from that stra- tegic revisioning, many of the programs still shine as part of FCP’s impressive arts and cul- ture array – the Flagstaff365 online events cal- endar, the Viola Awards, First Friday ArtWalk, a new Art Box Institute and more. Mr. Tannous admitted with a laugh that FCP didn’t really jettison many programs.
Two major and much anticipated additions to Flagstaff Cultural Partners are Elizabeth Vogler and Elizabeth Hellstern as deputy
been on the job for six weeks; Ms. Hell- stern joins the staff on October 1. “For me, I’m excited to have two other strong vi- sionary leaders working with me,” said Mr. Tannous. “We can brainstorm and draw up the next steps for FCP.”
Also during my visit, artist Shawn Ska- belund was curating and setting up for “Virga: The Hunt for Water” at the Center. Mr. Skabelund was sprinkling pine needles with many big bags situated below his ladder. I wondered if they needed more bags since my wife and I live in an adjacent neighborhood. This brought a chuckle
from Mr. Tannous. “Virga” opened Septem- ber 17 and runs through October 30th.
Also coming up at the Center is a Navajo rug Auction on Saturday October 19th. “One of the things I love about the Navajo
rug Auction is it supports a lot of Navajo artists directly,” said Mr. Tannous.
Flagstaff Cultural Partners at the Co- conino Center for the Arts is a shining ex- ample of nonprofit leadership, leadership from a dynamic Board of Directors and teamwork that’s well positioned to en- hance the quality and spectrum of cultural experiences available to residents of and visitors to our community.
| Steele Wotkyns is an aspiring writer and principal of the public relations firm, WotkynsPrplus. steelewot3@gmail.com
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • october 2013 • 47