Rosewall named Arts in Crisis Mentor

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Associate Prof. Ellen Rosewall will serve as an Arts in Crisis Mentor for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Taking a cue from their counterparts in the business world, the arts community is creating mentoring programs in which successful arts managers can share their experience, insight and guidance with organizations in need. Rosewall will be one of those mentors.

Kennedy Center Executive Director Michael Kaiser developed the Arts in Crisis program in response to the growing list of arts and cultural organizations that are being hurt by the struggling economy.

“When the economy is in bad straits, like in other types of business, there is no room for error in managing arts organizations. Organizations must be able to adapt to the 21st century conditions,” said Rosewall, who chairs the Arts Management program at UW-Green Bay and is nationally known as an advocate for the arts and as an arts management specialist. “This will be a network of experienced arts managers who can offer mentoring assistance.”

Open to non-profit performing arts groups, the program will offer free and confidential counsel for fundraising, budgeting, marketing and building more effective boards of trustees.

“In the past most non-profit arts groups have relied on dedicated volunteers who could give lots of time and serve on the boards of directors,” she said. “But volunteerism is changing. Many no longer can rely on that traditional corps of stay-at-home moms and retirees, so they need to learn new ways of working within their budgets.”

For more information about the Arts in Crisis program go to www.artsincrisis.org.

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