The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
WISE’S CHOICE
Fine Arts Association CEO Linda Wise retiring
With the Fine Arts Association in what she describes as a “good place right now,” the school’s CEO, Linda Wise, believes in her heart of hearts that she’s handing the institution over in good shape.
“I’ve been thinking about retirement for a while now,” the Concord Township resident said, who will serve until January. “I would like to spend more time visiting family, who are all over the country. I have two grandchildren in New York City and I’ve always want to travel more and do things I like to do.”
Wise has served as the organization’s CEO for the past 10 years. Prior to that position, she was the organization’s director of education for two years.
“We are extremely proud of Linda’s accomplishments during her term,” Board President Jeff Brauer said. “Fine Arts has thrived under her
“I’ve been thinking about retirement for a while now. I would like to spend more time visiting family, who are all over the country. I have two grandchildren in New York City and I’ve always want to travel more and do things I like to do.” — Linda Wise, Fine Arts Association CEO
leadership, enabling us to enhance even more lives in Northeast Ohio. She will be missed.”
Wise noted that she wanted to remain with Fine Arts until the building expansion (a 33 percent addition) and renovation project, which broke ground in last October and will host a grand opening Aug. 26, was complete. It seems divinely fitting that the last major endeavor undertaken during Wise’s tenure has been a construction project, one of many she’s seen.
“I’ve had such a good time and it’s been a lot of work,” she said. “We’ve had so many construction projects, major, in most of my time here as CEO. When the recession came, I wrote a grant to the federal government and got one of the stimulus grants under President Obama. We were really lucky to get that. That was one of the first grants that I did.
“Through the state, we applied for some capital improvement money to build the ceramics studio. That was one of my goals, to get it out of the basement which was not ADA accessible. We got some CDBG (Community Development Block Grant ) money from the county for the glass enclosure in front of the building. Then we put a new roof on, then the capital campaign. Three years ago was the parking lot and this year was the building, so it’s been a lot of facility and construction projects.”
Property independence was achieved through negotiations with Andrews Osborne Academy which laid the groundwork for the installation of the new parking lot and the construction of the additional 25 percent programming space to the building, the release stated. The capital campaign raised $2.95 million from more than 200 donors.
In addition to the physical projects, Wise pointed out the numerous programmatic projects also Fine Arts has introduced in her time as CEO.
“We grew the education department,” she said, “and offsite classes have more than tripled. We go out to four different counties now. We’ve configured the arts programming to fit the offsite students’ curriculum, too. Education programming is the biggest portion of what we do. And our theater has also grown. We’ve changed a lot of things, from the number of shows and types of shows to growing our concert series. There have been a lot of changes, and we hope to see 25 percent in student growth.”
Currently, offsite education impacts more than 7,000 students annually with another nearly 4,000 students studying onsite. Fine Arts’ offsite education offerings include the successful Theatre for Healthy Living program, created under Wise.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working at Fine Arts Association these last 12 years, it’s been a great place to work,” said Wise. “The organization has made incredible progress and is now poised for a successful future. I appreciate my excellent staff, talented faculty and wonderful board for all of the support they have given to me. Everyone here is like family and no two days are the same. I look forward to coming as a patron to this wonderful organization without having to worry about if the boiler broke.
“What I’ve loved the most are the students, seeing them grow and learn,” she added. “To see their progression is really satisfying. I see students out and about all the time in the community and it feels really good to hear their impactful stories. This is truly a community organization. It spans generations — many of our teachers are former students themselves. This is a unique place. Jim Savage (co-founder) always said, ‘It’s all the arts under one roof.’ He’s right. There’s no place like it.”