State Arts Council Appoints Individual Artist Program Director

Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
(RISCA) announced the appointment of Mollie Flanagan as its new Individual
Artist Program Director. Flanagan, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, will manage the
Council’s programs and services for individual artists, including grants to
individual artists, professional development and community-building activities.
Within the State system the position is classified as a Senior Research Technician.

In announcing the appointment, Randall Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the Rhode
Island State Council on the Arts, said, «We are delighted to have someone with
Mollie’s knowledge and experience take charge of our work supporting our state’s
individual artists.» He went on to say, «Mollie is deeply invested in the success
of individual artists and the small businesses and organizations they build around
them. We believe her knowledge and experience will help our state’s artists
contribute to the economic and cultural life of our state.» Mollie begins her new
job on February 5th.

In accepting this position, Flanagan said «I am excited to work directly with Rhode
Island artists to help them develop their creative practices, connect with all of
Rhode Island’s residents, and to explore and experiment with alternative business
models.» She went on to say that, «as a lover of art, I am eager to explore the rich
and diverse culture of my new home and experience the wide variety of art being made
in the state.»

And, as a resident of Arizona, Mollie is really looking forward to experiencing
seasons for the first time. She asks that you «please be kind if you see her and
she is totally captivated by snow falling or leaves changing.»

About Mollie Flanagan

Mollie Flanagan recently completed an MFA in Arts Entrepreneurship and Management at
Arizona State University with a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Leadership and
Management. She was the inaugural Tremaine Fellow in Arts Entrepreneurship, for
which she conducted research about arts specific business training across the United
States. This research included a national inventory of what training is currently
being offered and by whom; three resource guides for artists about free training,
asset building, and social impact; what training artist service organizations feel
is important to artists’ careers and what business skills the artists themselves
feel they need to learn in order to further their professional practice; and
research on networking as applied to artists and the arts. Her thesis project
focused on creating a new method for developing services or programming for arts
organizations and artists within a specific community. To do this, she used an
entrepreneurial process to develop services and/or resources for performing arts
organizations with budgets of under $300,000 in the Phoenix metro area. Using the
Lean Launchpad method, she worked directly with representatives of Phoenix area
organizations to assess their biggest challenges and needs and create a plan for
implementing solutions. This method of developing programming can be translated to
any specific community, working towards creating education programs and assistance
that is based on what artists and residents need and want.

As a consultant, Mollie has worked with arts organizations on crowdfunding campaigns
and online fundraising, marketing plans, social media, community engagement and
audience development, small donor fundraising, capital campaigns, and board
development. Her focus has been supporting and working with small arts organizations
and arts businesses. As an artist, Mollie works as a lighting designer, production
manager, and stage manager in the performing arts. Her work includes several years
as the lighting designer at the Musical Instrument Museum’s music theater,
production manager for a touring contemporary dance company based in San Francisco,
and working in various capacities on large site specific theater projects.

About RISCA

The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts is a state agency supported by
appropriations from the Rhode Island General Assembly and grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. RISCA provides grants, technical
assistance and staff support to arts organizations and artists, schools, community
centers, social service organizations and local governments to bring the arts into
the lives of Rhode Islanders.