Samantha Ortega

Greetings WESTAF Trustees: This bi-weekly update is coming at you a few days late (apologies) as I’ve been on the road visiting arts organizations, WESTAF friends and constituents in Phoenix (thank you, Teniqua Broughton!) and Reno (thank you, Dana Bennett!). A more complete update on the outcomes of these visits will be forthcoming in the next bi-weekly. In the meantime, here’s a slightly abbreviated one, because we’ll be diving into lots of WESTAF goings-on at the Board of Trustees meeting in Bozeman, MT next week:   BAR CAT and STRAT PLAN We’ll be giving a complete progress report on items…

Dear Trustees: It’s hard to believe that with all of the gorgeous weather we’ve had recently, that the last “bomb cyclone” snowpocalypse hit Denver in one last (!) gasp of snowy winter within the period of this bi-weekly update! The WESTAF office was closed April 10-11 due to horrendous driving conditions, and thanks to email, slack, etc., team members again did a great job of coordinating WFH schedules, maintaining customer support and keeping the business of WESTAF up and running in spite of the elements. Hopefully that’s the last of it and now summer is well and truly here! I…

Hello WESTAF Board of Trustees: Thanks for all the positive feedback for these Bi-Weekly Recaps. As always, your questions and responses are warmly welcomed and much appreciated. We are busy at WESTAF and love the work we’re doing! Thank you for your stewardship. May 15-16 Bozeman BOT Meeting We’re in the process of fleshing out the agenda for the BOT meeting on May 16 in Bozeman, MT and in determining guests to invite to our working dinner on the evening of May 15. Thanks to trustee and treasurer Cyndy Andrus for helping us with this, and thank you for working…

Hello again Board of Trustees: Lots of good things happening at WESTAF — here’s a bi-weekly summary of activity. Thank you as always for your good work with WESTAF! Director of Public Policy On 3/22, we released the Director of Public Policy posting and job description. We sent the posting out via email to various WESTAF stakeholder groups (hopefully you received an email), on WESTAF social media channels and on some arts-related job posting sites. Our target date for identifying a successful candidate is 7/26. We’ll keep you posted on progress. You should have already received this notification in email…

  Greetings WESTAF Board of Trustees: Trust you all made it back safely from the BOT meeting in Salt Lake City. Thanks again for making the journey and participating so fully in the whirlwind of activity! I really loved it and I learn a lot. Welcome Victoria Bourns We’re thrilled to welcome Vicki Bourns, Director of the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, on to the WESTAF Board of Trustees, effective immediately. Welcome, Vicki — we’re so glad to have you! Public Art Archive Mentioned in TIME Magazine Some of you might have seen the “Chiseled young Abraham Lincoln Statue”…

Greetings WESTAF Board of Trustees: Hello again from Denver! Here’s a brief bi-weekly update before we head to Utah next week for our first meeting of 2019. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again! Hopefully, you have all received your Board Book by now — thank you to Samantha Ortega for her great work putting this together. Don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions at all about our time together in Salt Lake City. State Arts Agencies I was able to reach out to each of our thirteen member state arts agencies (SAAs) this week….

Greetings WESTAF Board of Trustees: Hello again! Checking in with a brief bi-weekly update after my second fortnight at WESTAF and it’s been fun, exciting, a little overwhelming but always action-packed: Onboarding More valuable onboarding sessions happened these past few weeks for me, including an IMTour session and a series of sessions with Anthony, where we went over how WESTAF works with the state arts agencies in the West; how WESTAF works with the national arts service organizations; how WESTAF works with the National Endowment for the arts (NEA) and how WESTAF works with private foundation and non-government entities, among…

Greetings WESTAF Board of Trustees: Hope this message finds you well and happy. I thought I would check in with you after my first two weeks on the job here at WESTAF to offer a very brief update on how things are going. Onboarding As you probably know, I am about two thirds of the way through a rigorous WESTAF Onboarding process. In the past two weeks, I have had immersive meetings generally comprised of history, overviews and discussions around most of the major WESTAF products and services. Since January 14, we’ve covered General WESTAF Operations, Budget Management, Multicultural Programs,…