The National Endowment for the Arts announced today it is appointing Laura A. Scanlan, principal with Creative Cultural Strategies and former executive director of the Delaware Division of the Arts, as the agency's director of state and regional partnerships. Among her new responsibilities, Scanlan will provide direction concerning NEA funding and other assistance to the 56 state and jurisdictional arts agencies and the six regional arts agencies. She will chair panels that review applications from those organizations and participate in discussions regarding the formulation of policy and budgets related to her constituents. She will join the NEA in late November.
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, "I am delighted to welcome Laura Scanlan to the National Endowment for the Arts. Her business and philanthropic experience will be a great asset to the NEA. Her years as director of the Delaware Division of the Arts and on the board of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation assure she is knowledgeable about issues facing the state and regional agencies. This familiarity is especially critical in economically challenging times when many state legislatures and therefore state arts agencies are facing tough decisions."
Scanlan founded the consulting practice Creative Cultural Strategies in 2007, providing professional advisory services for nonprofit organizations in the cultural sector. Previously, she was senior vice president for fund development and marketing at the Delaware Community Foundation, comprised of 970 charitable funds, $165 million in assets, and annual grants of over $12 million. From 2001 to 2006 Scanlan served as director of the Delaware Division of the Arts, the state agency responsible for providing financial, technical and promotional support for Delaware's cultural resources.
Previous to her work in the arts, she was senior vice president of public affairs at First USA Bank, Bank One Corporation, and held senior sales, marketing and product development positions at CoreStates Bank in Philadelphia and at the First National Bank of Chicago.
She has served on the boards of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, and the Delaware Theatre Company, the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau and St. Michael's School. During her tenure at the Delaware Division of the Arts she co-hosted the weekly radio show, Delaware State of the Arts.
Ms. Scanlan received her bachelor's degree in psychology and biology at Mount Holyoke College and her masters in business administration at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.
http://www.arts.endow.gov/news/news09/scanlon-appointment.html