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Arts
July 19 - August 1, 2014
57
Changes in CCA personnel coincide with 25th anniversary BY TRACY HOUSE
There’s plenty to celebrate at the Chandler Center for the Arts, including the 25th anniversary of the city’s cultural Mecca, and joining in on the festivities are Michelle Mac Lennan, the new CCA general manager, and Rich Frazier, recently elected Chandler Cultural Foundation’s board chairman. Mac Lennan is replacing Katrina Pappas, who retired in June after 25 years with the center.
New GM Mac Lennan recently celebrated her 15th anniversary with CCA, working in many capacities there including nine years as assistant manager. “Primarily, I have overseen the programming of the center, which is selecting the artists,” Mac Lennan says. “Then I oversee the operations of the center, so I’ve had a chance to really dig into all the details of the center over the last 15 years.” Now that she is general manager, Mac Lennan says she and the board of directors will be setting the organization’s mission and vision. “I’m the liaison for the Chandler Cultural Foundation, which is the nonprofit arm for the Center for the Arts,” she says. “We just spent the last year with a consultant developing a strategic plan for the next three years, so my role is to execute that plan and to connect the
PASSION FOR THEATER: Michelle Mac Lennan is the new general manager of the Chandler Center for the Arts. Mac Lennan brings 25 years of theater experience to the position. Submitted photo
partners of the center—the cultural foundation, the staff and the community—with our goals for the future. We’ve identified those, and that’s the road map I’ll be using.” Mac Lennan says although her position is administrative, she understands the center’s inner workings. She’ll still be involved in the center’s programming, depending on who is hired for the assistant manager position.
“It really does depend on the person because it is such a creative place, but then we also have identified as part of our goals in the plan, is broadening our impact in the community, so presenting will have a major part in that.” She sees her primary goal as connecting the community served by the CCA. SEE CCA PAGE 58