Cheryl Carter is new Executive Director Of Arts Collinwood
Cheryl Carter. Photo by Bridget Caswell.
Some of you were no doubt present a few months ago at the opening of the annual Members’ Show at the Arts Collinwood Gallery, when Sarah Gyorki announced her approaching resignation from the position of Executive Director of Arts Collinwood. Whereupon Councilman Mike Polensek read from a certificate that Cleveland City Council had authorized to commemorate the wonderful service that Sarah has performed in bringing Arts Collinwood to life and building its numerous programs that so much enrich our neighborhood. Not to be outdone, Representative Kenny Yuko then read a motion passed by the Ohio Legislature that similarly recognized Sarah’s many accomplishments.
At first the Board of Arts Collinwood was in a state of shock. How could they possibly replace the founding director? They approached the Cleveland Foundation, who were optimistic and provided funding to cover the transition and support the search. Janus Small of the Mandel School at Case was retained as a consultant to help manage both the transition and the search. A subset of the Board was appointed to a search committee, advertisements were placed and to their pleasant surprise, more than forty applicants expressed an interest in the position. A review of resumes enabled the committee to narrow the field; five highly qualified applicants were interviewed and the field was further narrowed to three extremely good possibles. On closer examination, they found that Cheryl Carter, one of the three, was all they had dreamed of. In a special meeting, the full board unanimously approved her selection. Question was – would she accept? Fortunately, Cheryl had heard high praise for Arts Collinwood from all the referees she consulted, so the attraction was mutual.
A reputed photographer herself, Cheryl has a great love of the field of the arts – Studio Art was her undergraduate major at Hiram College, with minors in photography and English Literature. And it is the heart of the MA program, interdisciplinary studies, which she will complete at Hiram in 2011 (as a part-time student).
But there’s also a very practical side to Cheryl -- she was co-founder of Art House, and as a board chair, saw it through the first years of its life (always the most difficult). For the last twenty years or so she has worked at several non-profits as development director and, in that capacity has helped raise several million dollars of grant support.
These are the skills and passion that Arts Collinwood needs as it moves forward. Under Sarah Gyorki, a strong base of programs was developed – the summer camp, Weekends on Waterloo, Parade the Circle workshops, the Sand Sculpture Contest, after-school programs for kids, classes and clubs for adults in the new Community Center and, most recently, the Café at Arts Collinwood -- not to mention the diamond in the crown – the Waterloo Arts Festival. These programs have grown to the point where the Executive Director position is now a very full-time job. And the budget has crept north of two hundred thousand, so that fundraising has become extremely important.
Besides building its own programs, Arts Collinwood has partnered with other entities on Waterloo Road, such as the Beachland Ballroom, St John’s Lodge, Waterloo Seven Gallery, Music Saves, Blue Arrow Records, UpStage Theater, the Waterloo Sculpture Garden and the Slovenian Workmen’s Home. This group, working with Northeast Shores Development Corp, has truly put the Waterloo arts district on the map. We’ve been covered as an exciting new arts center by the Wall Street Journal, no less. And just the other day Channel 3 ran a segment on how the Waterloo district is attracting artists from Boston, New York and even Australia.
Given the solid foundation that has been developed over the last seven years, Arts Collinwood is now poised for dramatic growth. As Nan Kennedy, the chair of Arts Collinwood’s Advisory Board, put it: “Sarah Gyorki created a terrific programming base; now we need an equally terrific fundraiser to see to it that Arts Collinwood not only continues, but expands. We’re extraordinarily lucky to have found a new director with strong experience on both sides – plus restaurant experience!”
Bridget Caswell, President of Arts Collinwood puts it this way:“We need a visionary to fill our community center with vibrant new programs, but we also need a person skilled and experienced in fund raising. It’s truly miraculous that our Board of Trustees has managed to find in Cheryl Carter a person with a very strong track record in both of these requirements.”