Cortland Standard .net

By KATIE KEYSER
Living and Leisure Editor
Emily Gibbons has an artistic flare, but she also has strong organization skills.
Both will be put to work in her new job as head of the Cultural Council of Cortland County.
The manager of the Cortland Picture House the last five years, Gibbons, 29, of Cortland, replaces David Beale, who has headed the non-profit private Cultural Council for the last ten years.
“I really like Cortland. I want to stay here as long as I can,” said Gibbons. “I want to help out the art scene. That’s really important to me.”
Gibbons, who has been helped organize Cultural Council events side by side with Beale, her boss and owner of the Picture House the last five years, took over the post on Wednesday.
An award-winning painter and frequent watercolor exhibitor, she has been a member of the council’s board of directors for four years.
Gibbons will serve as director on an interim basis for a year, since the 15 member board didn’t do a formal search for the post, Beale said.
After they assess her work, they’ll likely approve her as executive director, said Beale.
“As a board member, Emily was a great addition to the Cultural Council,” said Sheila Cohen of Cortland, outgoing president of the board (Sherry Dann will be new president of the board of directors starting this month).
“She is very talented as a visual artist and as a musician and she has excellent organizational skills ... I am delighted to see her stepping into the position as interim director,” Cohen said.
The council, with close to 100 members, promotes and sustains arts and culture in Cortland County. It organizes the Cortland First Friday monthly, which promotes artists at area businesses, organizes the Art and Wine Festival held in August, creates exhibits at the first floor of the Beard Gallery on Main Street, organizes bus trips to museums and co-sponsors the annual Community Arts Challenge with the Center for the Arts of Homer.
Gibbons will oversee programs, marketing and grant writing as director and work with the council’s board of directors.
“David was so good at it and put a lot of his heart in it for so long,” Gibbons said. “He spent hours and hours at it. He’s very selfless and he has good ideas,” she said.
Beale will serve as a member of the Board of Directors. He feels he is leaving the post at a good point. When he signed on in 2004, there wasn’t enough money for his salary. And the board considered dissolving the CCCC and hoped it could be absorbed by the Center for the Arts of Homer, which was just getting started under Daniel Hayes direction at the same time.
But the CCCC was able to build support by getting the word out about its mission and creating good programs, Beale said.
He is excited about the Cortland First Fridays, which Gibbons has overseen from its start two years ago, and how it’s gotten people downtown on Friday nights. He’s also proud of the exhibits, the last one a national juried photography exhibit, held at the Beard Gallery. These two programs are ongoing. The council’s Arts and Wine Festival has blossomed and is now the chief fundraiser for the council, Beale said.
“I am turning 70 in a few weeks. It’s nice to have someone young to take over and I know we have someone ideal for the job,” Beale said.
Beale is especially excited about the council’s new space, called The Vault, on the first floor of the former Superintendent’s House of the Cortland Rural Cemetery at 110 Tompkins St.
Gibbons will spend 20 hours there and 20 hours at the Picture House in her manager post.
“I think she’s going to be great,” said Ann Finamore of Cortlandville, who has served on the board for eight years. “She has helped out at all the projects the Cultural Council has done over the last several years since she’s been in town and on the board ... She’s very quiet but she’s organized. She is extremely diplomatic and she has a handle on business ... She knows about doing books, ordering materials, keeping tabs on projects.”
“She has a lot of attention to detail,” said board member David Blatchley, an area photographer. “And I think she will be a great community person, too,” Blatchley said.