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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2010 > February > 07
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Losing a local arts-scene leader, alas…
Since you’re reading an arts blog, you probably know Cityfolk, the Dayton arts organization that has been bringing folk music, dance, jazz, world and Celtic music to local stages since 1981.
You might not know, however, that its executive director, John Harris, has given the word that he’s moving on. His departure is a real loss.
Harris, who arrived in Dayton in 2003, has emerged as a mainstay on the local arts scene, a quiet and effective leader whose legacy will be that he stabilized and very likely saved one of Dayton’s most important arts groups.
“I think the biggest concern was the finances,” he says of the Cityfolk he found. “They were pretty precarious.”
Cityfolk, after dazzling local music lovers with a great three-year of the National Folk Festival in the late 1990s, fell on tough times. A leadership vacuum, layoffs and interruptions in programming left some people wondering if the group would survive, let alone thrive.
Over time, Harris and a stronger board calmly turned things around. He rebuilt relationships around town, strengthened the annual Cityfolk Festival that is the organization’s biggest event, and raised Cityfolk’s education and outreach efforts — notably, the “Culture Builds Community” program that brings folk art and music to local schools, churches and neighborhoods.
“We expose people to new things,” says Harris, 47. “That’s what we do. Our No. 1 obligation is to put on programs that represent the cultural traditions in our communities — Appalachian, African-American, Hispanic, among others.
“Our second obligation is to give people the opportunity to learn about cultures other than their own; that’s where world music and other things come in.”
There are plenty of metro areas that don’t have an organization like Cityfolk to do such things, and Dayton has always responded well to it. The group operates on an annual budget of about $900,000 with five full-time staffers and several part-time consultants, and things are steady for now.
Harris is sorry to be leaving, but family needs are calling. His father died last summer and he wants to be closer to his 77-year-old mother, who lives in Lexington, Ky. Harris’ wife, Natalie, has taken the job of leading the Coalition for the Homeless in Louisville, and Harris will look for work when he gets there. He admits it’s both “cool and exciting” and “a little scary” to be plunging into the unknown at mid-life, but looks forward to doing something creative.
Mainly, though, he’ll miss Cityfolk. “I’m sad to go, and I’ll miss everybody,” he says. Harris is staying through the next Cityfolk Festival, in July, and the hope is that he will be around to train his replacement. He’s about to start a spring fundraising campaign for the festival, and hopes to leave the group on a solid footing. “I’ll tell him, or her, that there are a lot of people here who care about Cityfolk and what it does, and that he should listen to what they say and consider the support they offer, because there is a lot of it.”
What does he see, down the road, for the city he’s leaving and its arts community? “I think there are going to have to be changes in the ways arts organizations are funded,” he says. “The arts community here was built on money from corporate entities and their employees, and that is going to have to shift to small- and medium-sized companies, or individual support.” The recession, he says, “will force systemic changes” on the arts.
“But overall, the future is bright. People here think the arts are important, and they won’t let the organizations they love fail or let the arts scene diminish — because they know it’s one of the best things about this community.”
Harris, who politely brushes aside suggestions of his own importance, has been a big part of making that true.
