Courtesy / Maine Arts Commission
David Greenham.
January 19, 2023
New head of Maine Arts Commission tapped for creative leadership skills
Screenshot / Google Earth
Before joining the commission, new Executive Director David Greenham spent a decade working for the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine in Augusta and led the Theater at Monmouth for 14 years.
The Maine Arts Commission has an annual budget of $1.9 million via funds from the Maine Legislature and the federal government. The commission distributes about $400,000 in grants to artists and arts organizations statewide, promotes public art installations, arranges art exhibitions, and manages a range of popular programs, including apprenticeships, Poetry Out Loud, Percent for Art and Maine Poet Laureate.
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The new executive director of the Maine Arts Commission in Augusta was promoted from his position as the state arts agency’s interim executive director since January 2021.
Before that, David Greenham served as chairman of the commission to help lead the agency through the pandemic.
“David became executive director during a time of need and provided the leadership necessary to help the commission quickly distribute emergency funds and services to artists and organizations in need,” said Commission Chairman David Hopkins of North Haven. “We have a proven and skilled person at the helm, and we want to give him the chance to complete what he has just begun to build.”
Greenham, a Gardiner resident, was appointed to a five-year term as executive director.
The appointment, by a unanimous vote, is intended to provide continuity and stability to the arts sector during a time of continued uncertainty, as artists and arts organizations navigate the fallout from the pandemic, said Hopkins.
Among Greenham’s immediate tasks is implementing a five-year plan, which the commission expects to accept soon.
Greenham said the success of the Maine Arts Commission depends on collaborations across both the public and private sectors.
“As we complete our strategic plan, we’re excited that so many goals will include collaboration, professional and workforce development for creative workers, and a goal of helping state leaders to recognize that the creative problem-solving skills we need as a state are found in abundance in the workers of the cultural community,” Greenham said.
With funding from the Maine Legislature and the federal government, the commission operates with an annual budget of $1.9 million. It distributes about $400,000 in grants to artists and arts organizations statewide, promotes public art installations, arranges art exhibitions, and manages a range of popular programs, including apprenticeships in the traditional and folk arts, Poetry Out Loud, Percent for Art, Maine Poet Laureate, and others.
Greenham has been active in the arts community of Maine since coming to the state in 1985.
Before joining the commission, he spent a decade working for the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine in Augusta, including two years as the associate director. In addition to his administrative duties there, he arranged and curated exhibitions and created educational programming. Before that, Greenham led the Theater at Monmouth for 14 years, providing artistic and administrative direction.
“He understands the need to proactively seek out artists and organizations in all corners of the state to forge stronger relationships, collaborations and partnerships — a critical component to strengthening our arts and culture community,” said Commission Vice-Chair Cynthia Orcutt of Kingfield.
Greenham is a lecturer in drama at the University of Maine at Augusta and writes theater reviews for Arts Fuse, an independent online arts magazine.
Hopkins said commission members were pleased with Greenham’s creative approach to his work. He’s added new staff members and helped lead the agency and consultants through a strategic planning process, now in its final phases. Greenham’s experience in theater, which requires collaboration, and his ability to adapt to change equip him for the challenges and opportunities the commission faces in the years ahead, Hopkins said.
“David is an artist who also happens to be an administrator,” Hopkins said. “His background is theater, and out of necessity he is an adept problem-solver, a quick-thinker, and a natural collaborator.”
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