4 August 2016
Lewiston, Maine
L/A Arts announces appointment of Louise Rosen as the agency’s new Director.
The board of directors of L/A Arts, the arts agency for the Lewiston-Auburn area, has confirmed the appointment of Louise Rosen as Consulting Director.
Said Board Chair Judy Vardamis “We are fortunate to have a leader of Louise’s caliber during this time and look forward to Louise’s in-depth association with L/A Arts and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn.” Continued Vardamis, “Louise will work closely with the Board and community members to assess and focus all activities of L/A Arts. In conjunction with the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council she will launch the important expanse of work being funded through the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts; Our Town grant to begin development of an “artist-maker economic model for the L-A area.” Rosen will also direct the design for the implementation process of the new L-A Cultural Plan, funded through a Maine Arts Commission grant and matching support from the Auburn and Lewiston city governments.
Said Rosen “The L-A area’s combination of visionary, sustainable development initiatives, compelling preservation goals and a legacy of arts and artisanal endeavors makes for a tremendous range of opportunities in education and enterprise.”
In addition, Rosen has been tasked to reshape the agency’s Arts in Education initiative and revamp its sponsorship and membership programs, defining enhanced benefits for sponsors and members. She commented, “The L-A community is wonderfully creative and diverse. I’m so pleased to be able to help support its rich cultural life, amplifying arts and culture as an economic driver and sharing it with a wider public.”
Louise Rosen has been working internationally in independent media and the arts for over 25 years and has extensive experience in business affairs, fundraising, programming, marketing and operations.
William Low, L/A Arts board member and Curator of the Bates College Museum of Art, said “Louise has an instinctive sense of our community. She understands the potential here that can come from the growing diversity of the population, the area’s manufacturing history and the roots of Franco culture in Maine.”
Louise previously served as Executive Artistic Director of the Maine Jewish Film Festival for four seasons, growing the festival from a largely single city/venue event to statewide status built on cross-cultural community and financial support. As a longstanding figure in the international film community, she teaches and speaks at conferences and film festivals, including Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, DOK Leipzig and Sheffield DocFest. In Maine Louise was the Founding Director of the Points North Documentary Forum, a professional development initiative for filmmakers, at the Camden International Film Festival and former Vice Chair of the Maine Film Video Association. Louise is on the Advisory Board of the Independent Feature Project/NY and is a Trustee of the Maine Media Workshops + College.
In 2015 Louise was profiled in Maine Magazine’s “50 People – Bold Visionaries Defining Our State” and that same year was a selected speaker for Maine Live 2015, a day-long series of TED-style talks hosted by Maine Magazine and Bank of America. She lives in downtown Brunswick.
FMI:
judyvardamis@gmail.com
L/A Arts: 207 782 7228