Workplace of Cultural Affairs welcomes new government director Adriane V. Jefferson

For the primary time within the 21^st century, the town of Atlanta has a brand new government director of the Workplace of Cultural Affairs: Adriane V. Jefferson. She succeeds Camille Love, who was appointed OCA director by Mayor Invoice Campbell within the Nineteen Nineties. The everyday tenure of a metropolis’s cultural affairs director is eight to 10 years, typically coinciding with political administrations, which makes this passing of the baton lengthy overdue. 

Most not too long ago, Jefferson served as director of cultural affairs for the town of New Haven, Connecticut, the place she led the town’s cultural fairness and anti-racism initiatives. At a candy spot in her profession, Jefferson is imbued with youthful enthusiasm coupled with vital arts administration expertise. 

Jefferson’s mom served within the Air Pressure, so the household moved typically earlier than ultimately settling in New London, Connecticut. She later attended Florida Memorial College, a historic Black faculty in Miami, from which she acquired a bachelor’s in widespread music in 2009. On the time, she was inquisitive about music and songwriting, together with hip-hop and spoken phrase, and it was her intention to enter the music enterprise.  

From 2008 to 2010, Jefferson labored for Miami’s Overtown Youth Middle, the place she helped develop the drama program. This pivotal expertise shifted her ardour from music to nonprofit arts management, which led to her enrollment within the Savannah School of Arts and Design arts administration graduate program.

In 2015, Jefferson returned to Connecticut to function the manager director and senior director of applications for Author’s Block Ink in New London. Previous to her appointment as director of New Haven’s Cultural Affairs Division in February 2020, she additionally served as an artwork program supervisor for Connecticut’s Division of Financial and Group Growth. 

Jefferson’s profession is distinguished by her dedication to advancing cultural fairness — neighborhood by neighborhood. In 2022, she initiated New Haven’s Cultural Fairness Plan. As outlined within the plan, cultural fairness is the creation of situations by which all individuals can vibrantly categorical their tradition of their communities. Jefferson acquired nationwide recognition for this work, which, understandably, caught the eye of the town of Atlanta.

Jefferson has spent her first few months in Atlanta listening, in addition to experiencing Atlanta’s various neighborhoods and tradition. She understands that she has a lot to be taught in regards to the breadth and depth of Atlanta’s cultural belongings and subsequently is familiarizing herself with OCA’s historical past, construction and initiatives in addition to the function the town performs within the ever-expanding cultural ecology of the Atlanta area. She is studying the right way to successfully work with the mayor and Metropolis Council and establishing robust relationships with the Mayor’s Artwork Advisory Committee, which was launched in 2023 and whose members are consultant of the broad cultural neighborhood.

Jefferson has additionally been charged with collaborating with native, nationwide and worldwide companions to place Atlanta as a worldwide cultural powerhouse. She is challenged by the present nationwide political local weather that not solely has questioned the validity of cultural fairness but additionally authorities help for the humanities. Final, however not least, she has to determine the right way to enhance assets for the humanities — be it public, personal or in any other case.

With Jefferson’s appointment the town of Atlanta has the chance to take a recent take a look at its funding initiatives and cultural applications from soup to nuts, together with its grants for companies; help for artists; youth applications; public artwork tasks; and program initiatives together with the Atlanta Jazz Competition and Elevate. In accordance with Atiba Mbiwan of The Zeist Basis, who is also a member of the Mayor’s Artwork Advisory Committee and Arts Capital/Atlanta, Jefferson has indicated that all the pieces is on the desk for dialogue. 

Bem Joiner, the inventive entrepreneur behind Atlanta Influences All the pieces and a member of the Arts Advisory Committee, served on the search committee that beneficial Jefferson to Mayor Andre Dickens. He believes that she is a robust and efficient convener. 

And convening is precisely what is required now. To that finish, Jefferson is bringing her strategic planning expertise to the desk. Over the subsequent six months, she plans to launch a tradition motion plan, which she defines as “a shorter plan that will get you thru the primary one to 2 years that features precise strategic steps.” That plan will lay the groundwork for a full-blown strategic plan.

We mentioned the legendary management of Mayor Maynard Jackson, who established the town of Atlanta’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs in 1974. When he returned to workplace in 1990, he organized a summit that introduced collectively 500 leaders in Atlanta’s arts neighborhood for a strong planning course of. The ensuing doc, the Atlanta Blueprint for the Arts, steered the town’s cultural work for a few years. It was profitable as a result of Mayor Jackson empowered the humanities neighborhood and listened to what it needed to say, providing a unprecedented instance of collaboration between authorities and neighborhood. 

Right now, within the 21^st century, Joiner believes that Atlanta’s public infrastructure wants upgrades. “We’re three generational working methods behind,” he mentioned. 

Regardless of the promise and hope surrounding Jefferson’s appointment, questions stay. Will the town empower Jefferson to improve our cultural infrastructure? Will the town help inventive options, in addition to present the monetary assets crucial for achievement? Political will is a necessity. 

Laura Hennighausen of Arts Capital | Atlanta is keenly conscious of how under-resourced Atlanta arts organizations are, which has been not too long ago compounded by lack of federal funding. She factors to Charlotte, North Carolina, as a very good mannequin the place the personal and public sectors have been not too long ago capable of enhance that metropolis’s annual cultural price range to $11 million. In distinction, Atlanta’s price range is just $3.5 million, not together with the Jazz Competition. 

Hennighausen underscores the necessity for Atlanta to undertake a strong strategic cultural course of that brings collectively nonprofit organizations, people and the enterprise neighborhood with the town of Atlanta. OCA is 50 years outdated, and it’s time to look at its twin roles as a funding company and as a cultural producer. Atlanta touts itself because the tradition capital of the Southeast, nevertheless it must take steps to make sure a wholesome infrastructure to stay as much as that repute.

So what precisely are Jefferson’s pathways to success? Mbiwan believes that she wants “to maintain shifting round and out” and to expertise Atlanta’s extraordinary “tradition of neighborhoods.” She must advocate for robust private and non-private partnerships and determine the leaders who’re within the place who can stabilize and develop the humanities. 

For Joiner, Jefferson’s pathways to success ought to embrace an audit of OCA’s relationships, each internally and externally, a deep understanding of the area and cross-sector collaboration. She wants to attract upon her expertise as a convener so as to set up nice relationships with neighborhood and personal sector leaders.

My recommendation to Mayor Dickens is to empower Jefferson to do her job. Permit her to freely query and consider all the pieces — nothing is simply too sacred. Let her lead the hassle to craft an achievable and visionary strategic plan that’s grounded within the realities of our time. 

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Louise E. Shaw was government director of Nexus Modern Artwork Middle, now Atlanta Modern, when she served as a committee chair on the Mayor’s Blueprint for the Arts initiative in 1990. She not too long ago served as Curator of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum.