Barry’s Blog, a leading arts blog published as a “service of the Western States Arts Federation,” has honored several Knight Arts leaders in its fifth annual listing of the 50 most powerful and influential people in the nonprofit arts. Each year, national leaders anonymously submit nominations for influential and powerful leaders in arts administration and organizational leadership. This year four Knight Arts leaders were named to the list: Knight Foundation VP/Arts Dennis Scholl and Knight Arts national advisory council members Aaron Dworkin, Scott Provancher and Gary Steuer. Click here to read the entire list and read below for excerpts highlighting Knight Arts leaders… Dennis Scholl, Vice President/Arts at Knight Foundation Collector, Philanthropist, Emmy winning documentarian, Harvard fellow, Scholl is responsible for some of the funding world’s best known and loved out-of-the-box projects including Random Acts of Culture. He is comfortable with risk taking to a degree most are not and he understands the importance of moving towards new ways of addressing old problems. His eight city core funding community gives him local clout and national perspective, and his close working ties with Rocco at the Endowment have increased his visibility beyond the arts. Scott Provancher, President, Arts & Science Council “Scott Provancher is a path maker and front-runner. In 2009 when Scott arrived in Charlotte, arts giving patterns had already started to shift away from united appeals. Then came the economic downturn… Undaunted, Scott focused energy on creating innovative giving systems that would lure back previous donors and attract new ones. He has challenged the cultural sector to think differently about sustainability while also ensuring offerings remain accessible to the community. Power2Give (an online giving platform already adopted by other cities and states) and a new 100+million recapitalization fund are just two examples – among many – of Provancher/ASC ingenuity that are making Charlotte one of the growing arts and culture cities in America. Scott thrives on finding the innovative, long-term solution, AND he is a wonderful combination of brilliant, hard-driving, and kind.”
