Center Elects New Officers

Washington, DC -- The Center for Arts and Culture today announced the elections of new officers for its Board of Directors. A nonprofit organization, the Center is an independent think tank on arts and cultural policy. Elected as new President is Frank Hodsoll, who replaces James Allen Smith. Elected as Vice President is Marcia Sharp, who replaces Alberta Arthurs. Treasurer James Fitzpatrick was reelected. Dr. Smith and Dr. Arthurs will remain as members of the Board.

Frank Hodsoll was Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts from 1981 to 1989 and was the first Deputy Director for Management of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Government (1989-93). He is currently a consultant to government and private interests on federal management and policy and a speaker and advisor on arts policy and arts education. In May 1997, Mr. Hodsoll co-chaired the 92nd American Assembly, "The Arts and the Public Purpose," with Alberta Arthurs, as well as American Assembly meetings in 1998 and 1999 on the interaction between the for-profit and not-for-profit arts. He is currently working on another American Assembly project involving the arts, technology, and intellectual property. Before his work in the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Mr. Hodsoll was a Foreign Service officer, a lawyer, the principal of a trading company in the Philippines, and an infantryman in the Army. Hodsoll has received numerous management and arts awards, including an Oscar for the Arts Endowment, an Emmy Special Award, and two honorary doctorates. Mr. Hodsoll was until January 2001 a commissioner of Ouray County in Colorado.

Marcia Sharp is a founding principal of Millennium Communications Group, Inc., a strategic communications consulting practice targeting growth and change issues in the non-profit and philanthropic sector. She is a research fellow of the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, and is presently working with the California-based James Irvine Foundation on its statewide Cornerstone arts organization initiative. She also leads the "Marco Polo's in a New Landscape" project, an exploration of the new work of communications in foundations. Ms. Sharp is co-author of "Communications as Engagements: The Millennium Report to the Rockefeller Foundation," and "Reasons for Hope, Voices for Change," the March 1998 report of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform on public engagement for public education.

James Fitzpatrick is a senior partner in the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter where he specializes in constitutional and public policy issues. Mr. Fitzpatrick is Vice Chairman of the Board of the Phillips Collection, and is a board member for the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, Shakespeare in Santa Fe, SITE Santa Fe, and chairman of the British-American Arts Association. He has taught at the London School of Economics, Trinity College Dublin, Georgetown University, and has lectured widely on constitutional and policy issues involving censorship and federal funding of the arts.

The Center's Board of Directors also announced that it is are conducting an executive search for an Executive Director for the Center, to replace Gigi Bradford. Candidates are encouraged to submit their name and resume or c.v. to edsearch@culturalpolicy.org.