Happenings in Arts Administration

Bridget McCracken (MPA, 2004) , Director of Academic Services for the MPA Department and Managing Director of Trash Mash-Up, attended the 2011 Americans for the Arts Conference in San Diego, California.  Her attendance to this conference was supported by the Department of Public Administration and the San Francisco State University Retirement Association. The Americans for the Arts Annual Convention is most extensive gathering of arts leaders and professionals from across the field of arts administration. This is the only national arts meeting that assembles leaders from multiple disciplines with a wide range of experience and with different perspectives for advancing the arts in America.

Bridget attended two panels exploring the role of technology in connecting arts organizations with their communities and a session the arts as an creative economic engine oversees.   In addition, she went on a behind the scenes tour of Balboa Park’s most treasured arts institutions.

More about the panels Bridget attended:

Rich Mintz, Vice President of Blue State Digital, and Molly Surno, Outreach Director of Kickstarter, lead a panel regarding how mobile technology, micro-giving, and entrepreneurship are wrapping.  These innovators shared how they have built engaged digital communities that want to make a difference in our society.

David Dombrosky, Executive Director of Center for Arts Management and Technology; Matt Lehrman, Executive Director of Alliance for Audience, and Laura Weigand, Director of Programs & Technology of Texas Commission on the Arts, lead a panel discussing new ways to for arts organizations use technology to better serve their constituents, and in turn give them the skills to grasp technology more fully.

Stephanie Madden, Arts and Culture Program Manager of Bank of America, and Jean Bonilla, Senior Office Director, Economic Bureau (EEB/TPP/IPE), Department of State lead a panel discussing how the arts are changing the way people look at each other and contribute to peace, security, human rights, mutual understanding, and respect worldwide. Cultural exchange programs introduce the American public to international communities they often have little access to or information about. Conversely, America’s creative industries number among the country’s top three exports and our creative products can positively shape foreign views of America.

Bridget also attended a tour of art education programs located in Balboa Park. She met with the leaders of the education programs offered by the Museum of PhotographicArts, San Diego County Office of Education, San Diego Unified District, Young Audiences, and The Collaborative Arts Resources for Education (CARE) program. She got a behind-the scenes peek at the education complex at The Old Globe and observed rehearsals by young artists at Civic Youth Ballet, the San Diego Junior Theatre, and the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory.

Besides attending these engaging panels and tour, Bridget met and mingled with the leaders and emerging leaders of arts organizations large and small across the U.S.A and Canada.  She looks forward building deeper connections to these leaders as the MPA Department explores the development of a certificate in arts administration with the College of Extended Learning.

2011 Graduation and Year- end Reception!

The Department of Public Administration ended the year with pre-commencement “hooding” of the 2010-2011 MPA graduates and recognition of newly inducted members of Pi Alpha Alpha, the national public administration honorary society.    First, the Pi Alpha Alpha induction…here are the newest members of our Chapter.

We “hooded” our graduates and congratulated them and their families.   Here are just a few of those pictures– see more at our Flickr site!

We presented our Community Service Award to Assistant City Manager Brian Moura of San Carlos and our Alum of the Year Award to Bonnie Hough (MPA 1985), Managing Attorney of the Center for Families, Children and the Courts / Administrative Office of the Courts.   We said goodbye to our Dean, Joel Kassiola, who is going back to the faculty to teach full-time after the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences has been split up into other colleges. Congratulations to all of our graduates,  new Pi Alpha Alpha members and award recipients!

We also said goodbye to Dr. Eric Zeemering, leaving use for another position and to Dr. Carol Edlund, who is retiring after 20 years of teaching with us.

Good luck to everyone– keep in touch!

May – June 2011 Student, Alumni, Staff and Faculty Activities

• Dr. Sheldon Gen has been promoted to Associate Professor and granted tenure!   Congratulations and Great Job to Sheldon!

• Minden Bennion (MPA, 2002) is being promoted from Director, Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs– San Francisco to Senior Director of Programs and Training for the Coro Center for Civic Leadership– San Francisco.

• Bridget McCracken (MPA 2004 and staff person) recently attended the annual conference of the Americans for the Arts connecting her arts nonprofit Trash Mash-Up with arts administrators from across the nation.

• Faculty member Sheldon Gen just returned from Spain, where he attended the 9th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities.  He delivered a paper on “The Dilemma of Environmental Valuation: Ethics and U.S. Policy,” which is already under review for publication in the International Journal of the Humanities.

• Michelle Railsback (MPA, 2010) has just started a new position as Program Coordinator at the American Institute of Architects- San Francisco.

• In March, Doris Padilla (MPA, 2011) moved from an internship position at San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management to a new position as Public Outreach Assistant for the same department.

• Taraneh Arhamsadr  (MPA, 2010) is now Outreach and Marketing Manager, California Youth Energy Services (CYES) at the Rising Sun Energy Center, a “leading green workforce development and retrofit services organization”. Rising Sun Energy Center is headquartered in Berkeley.
  

• Rebecca Rothschild (MPA, 2002) has moved to the East Coast and is now Executive Director at National Estuarine Research Reserve Association in the Burlington, Vermont area.

• Patricia Aleman (MPA, 2007) is Manager of Public Policy for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

• Tim Seufert (current student) is Managing Director of NBS, a consulting firm that works with local governments.

• Lily Madjus (MPA, 2010) has been named Deputy Communications Director at the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco.  She joins Christine Falvey (MPA, 2002), who moved from a position as Communications Director for the Department of Public Works to be the San Francisco Mayor’s spokesperson and Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the City.

• Phillip Boutote (current student) has gotten a new job as Probation Assistant at the San Francisco Department of Adult Probation.

• MPA student Chris Rosenlund won first place state-wide representing SF State in the CSU-wide student research competition in Fresno in May.  Chris’ research, titled “Examining Possible Effects of Telework Upon Career Advancement”, was developed during his PA705/706 coursework and is one of just ten student research projects at SF State that is advancing to the state-level competition.  Congratulations to Chris