County supervisors bid Inyo Arts Council director a happy retirement
Lynn Cooper steps down after more than 20 years
Inyo County supervisors on Tuesday congratulated retiring Inyo Council for the Arts Executive Director Lynn Cooper for her accomplishments during her 20+ years leading the organization that advances the arts in the area through a wide variety of events, such as the Millpond Music Festival, and educational programs.
Cooper, who has been the ICA director since 2001, was on hand at the board’s Tuesday meeting to provide her “State of the Arts” report to supervisors and introduced her replacement, Sharon Freilich.
Cooper, during her report, said attendance and participation numbers for the Millpond Music Festival, the Memorial Day and Labor Day arts and crafts show, and community art days held in Bishop and Lone Pine, continue to grow.
She said ICA continues to work with the Inyo County Office of
Education to bring art programs, including afterschool activities to every school throughout Inyo
County for kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
Cooper said ICA recently partnered with the Inyo County Probation Department, which provides staffing resources to help supervise students during art events.
Freilich said she is looking forward to taking the reins of ICA, adding that Cooper has been an “amazing” mentor.
Praises from supervisors
Second District Supervisor Jeff Griffiths, who also serves on the ICA board, focused especially on how, in Cooper’s 23 years as director, she took the Millpond Music
Festival from an event that was losing money to a successful weekend of music and art that continues to flourish and grow.
Griffiths also noted that as arts in schools continues to diminish, ICA “has stepped in to fill that void.”
“I think it’s really important that the Arts Council is able to provide programs for all of the kids (in the county) because all the kids need art,” Griffiths said.
He said ICA’s partnership with the Probation Department allows opportunities for at-risk youth to experience art and provides mentorships for
those youth.
“It really is building them into better humans,”
Griffiths said, adding that the arts programs serve as prevention programs for atrisk youth “for not that much money.”
Griffiths said while ICA isn’t the only arts organization in the county, it is designated as the state local partner, which helps it support and enhance other arts organizations and artists in many different ways.
Third District Supervisor Scott Marcellin said the arts were important when he was attending school and he wanted to thank Cooper for “building these programs back into the schools.”
Marcellin said arts programs as well as vocational and technical programs, “should never have been taken out of the schools.”
Marcellin said as Cooper turned the Millpond Music Festival around, it gave the county more confidence to invest and support the event to its present iteration.
Cooper returned the compliment, saying the festival wouldn’t be what it is today without continued county support.
First Supervisor Trina Orrill recalled how she met Cooper for the first time back in 2008 when Orrill was on the Bishop Unified School Board and Cooper was serving on the Inyo County Board of Education at the time.
“We both watched as the state relentlessly cut money and forced (school) boards to make decisions that impacted technical education but, most insidiously, our arts for our kids,” Orrill said.
Orrill said while Inyo County schools continue to fight to keep those programs, she is grateful for ICA and Cooper’s leadership to
“step up and tangibly fill that role.”
She said she watched ICA’s art docent school program from its inception and admired how, when volunteerism seems to be down, Cooper continues to be able to grow the program to 50 K- through fifth-grade classes.
“My kids grew up in the art docents program, they remember their art docents and the impact art has had on them,” Orrill said. “There’s an impact, like I said, and it’s tangible. I appreciate what the Inyo Council for the Arts has done for education in Inyo County.”