The year was 1999 and the world was poised on the precipice of a new millennium. There was no iPod or Twitter. The Internet was still brand new. When people wanted to hang out with friends, they actually met in person as opposed to simply “liking” each other’s status on Facebook. It was in that year that the tides of change spread to the Tennessee Arts Commission. It needed a new leader, someone who could sustain the work of the agency while also propelling it into the twenty-first century. Rich Boyd, who had served as Deputy Director for fifteen years, was appointed to take the helm.
When Boyd began his tenure as Executive Director, the Tennessee Arts Commission ranked toward the bottom of the pack in comparison to other state arts agencies. The commission primarily functioned as a grant-making agency with ten grant categories, awarding 219 grants in 1999. Now in 2012, the agency provides funding in twenty-one different grant categories and will award 1,300 grants to individual artists, arts organizations, libraries, parks, and public schools statewide.
As a former staff member from 2004 to 2011, I experienced the transformation of the agency firsthand as it gained national distinction as a leader in arts education, advocacy, and folklife preservation. On the eve of Rich Boyd’s retirement, I sat down with him to ask about his decision to leave the agency and what the future holds. Boyd leaves behind a legacy of success rarely accomplished by other state arts agency executive directors…
Click here to read the full interview with Rich Boyd in our online magazine!
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