Loose Leaf Notes

Meet David St. Lawrence, author, blogger, woodworker, husband of Loose Leaf reader Gretchen, and one of the most upbeat people I know.
The St. Lawrence’s are new to Floyd, but because they have been connected to Floyd for so long via blogging they don’t feel like newcomers to most of us. I see them regularly at our monthly Spoken Word Open Mic and at our monthly blogger meet-ups, which David spearheaded and which are likely to draw as many as a dozen regional bloggers. It’s also not uncommon to run into David and Gretchen at the Café Del sol, where David can be seen sipping latte and plugging away on his laptop.
But the St. Lawrence’s are out and about for more than those occasions. I know because David is a roving reporter who posts regularly about Floyd happenings on his blog, Ripples. I check it out daily so as not to miss anything.
David, who has a woodworking business called “Box-Carts” and a book about surviving corporate life called “Danger Quicksand Have a Nice Day,” now has a new incarnation to add to his resume. He was recently offered and accepted the newly created position of Executive Director at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts. Located just south of downtown Floyd in a restored 1940’s dairy barn, the Jacksonville Center is a manifestation of a grassroots effort to support the arts and local culture and promote them as viable economic boosts to our rural county.
Over the past 10 years, the Center has transformed from the dark and dusty place I remember to a bustling hub of activity. Incorporated as a non-profit entity in 1995, the barn and adjoining buildings are home to an art business incubator, an art gallery, artist’s studios, a retail shop, lodging for weekend and weeklong classes, and a folk school that is currently offering classes in blacksmithing, pottery, and glassworks. There is even a windmill on the property and a straw bale building under construction, both projects of The Sustainable Living Education Center.
Now David has been enlisted to help put all this on the map. He was kind enough to answer my questions about his new position, which are as follows:
1. David, Executive Director of the Jacksonville Center is a newly created position. How and why did it come about?
I have had an interest in the Center ever since we first visited Floyd two years ago and wanted to do something to support the mission of helping local artisans become more viable. I was asked to do a study of the current situation at the Jacksonville Center and to make recommendations which might lead to greater viability for the center and the artisan community it serves.
The study uncovered that the lack of an Executive Director placed an undue burden on the staff and the Board of Directors because everyone had to spend extra time trying to handle the traffic that an ED would normally handle.
I made a series of recommendations with the first one being that they should find and hire an Executive Director. They asked if I could fill that position and the rest was history.
2. What kind of changes do you envision happening under your direction?
We have incredible assets for a local non-profit group, highly dedicated staff members and volunteers, internationally known artists and artists who teach the courses, and a physical plant that offers plenty of scope for expansion. My job is to see that these assets are used effectively and are promoted in such a way that expansion of the Center and its offerings is made possible.
Non-profit art centers like Jacksonville depend on grants and donations in addition to paid services. All of these sources of income depend on providing excellent customer experiences and achieving goals that are real to the community and students.
My job is to provide the necessary support to the staff that will enable them to provide consistently excellent customer experiences. That means realignment of effort in some cases, rather than visible organizational change.
3. Where will you start? What will you zero in on first?
I have already started and our first priority is to get the word out about the new course offerings. You can see the latest 2006 Class Schedule online at floydcounty.com
4. Will blogging play a role? And with this new position, will you still have time to blog daily and come to our monthly blogger meet-ups?
Blogging is one way to spread the word rapidly and at very low cost. I will be starting a weblog at the Jacksonville Center which will have frequent stories featuring events, courses, and artisans of the Jacksonville Center. When the weblog goes live later this week, it will be called Jacksonville Center Online and the URL will be: http://jacksonvillecenteronline.info (This weblog is up and running now)
5. I’ve been very impressed with the range of arts and folk skills showcased at the Jacksonville Center. Do you think there will eventually be room to integrate the literary arts into the plans? I would love to see a small press available to the community.
There is room for that kind of expansion and I would certainly support any proposal which would lead to the establishment of such a program. The things you might want to include in such a proposal would include the size of the target audience, the cost of such a program, sources of instruction, and some idea of how contributions or grants might be obtained. In short, all programs require financing and a justification for their existence. Programs which are well thought out will get favorable attention.
6. How will your experience in the corporate world enhance your work at the Jacksonville Center and how might it hamper it, considering the Center’s small town roots?
Fifty years in the corporate trenches has convinced me that the make-break of any enterprise, including non-profits is whether the products and services are effectively marketed. You can have the best courses and products in the world, but if no one knows about them you will not succeed.
The Jacksonville Center has some amazing offerings. Not enough people know about them in a timely fashion.
I grew up in a small-town environment and I place great value on the culture that Floyd currently enjoys. Making Floyd, the Jacksonville Center, and local artists better known needs to be done skillfully and tastefully. The culture that built the Jacksonville center is one of its greatest strengths. Any changes to the center’s operation will be evolutionary, not revolutionary. An artist who evolves from selling at craft fairs to selling in international galleries learns to market more effectively, not to debase their work to meet a more commercial standard.
7. As a blogger, I can’t help but wonder and ask: Don’t you think the Jacksonville Center will make a good site for a future blogger convention?
I sure do!
Post Note: I got so involved in my interview with David that I forgot it was 13 Thursday! I guess I’ll be posting 13 on Friday this week. See you tomorrow.