Michael Simanga appointed CEO of National Black Arts Festival
Former director of Fulton County Arts & Culture charged with expanding NBAF's year-round programming
- Courtesy the National Black Arts Festival
- New NBAF CEO Michael Simanga
The National Black Arts Festival has announced that former Fulton County Arts & Culture Director Michael Simanga will take over as CEO of the organization. NBAF has been without an executive director since Neil Barclay's resignation in last November. CL spoke with NBAF board chair Evern Cooper Epps following Barclay's departure and Epps commented that the organization would be reevaluating its approach to focus more on year-round programming rather than just the summer festival.
In an interview with CL following his resignation from FCAC, Simanga expressed an interest in working more closely with NBAF and echoed Epps' sentiments about year-round outreach, saying, ""National Black Arts Festival started as a festival and the majority of the emphasis has been on the annual festival and I think that it should continue to produce a large-scale event whether it's biannual or annual," says Simanga. "It should also develop more of an institutional quality, meaning its educational programs, outreach, training, encouraging artists to produce and not just present, and also to create assets for the organization. All organizations have to assess, 'How do we develop and accumulate and how do we leverage our assets to sustain?'"
The press release announcing Simanga's appointment outlines a new mission for the CEO in line with the previous comments from both Epps and Simanga:
While the original emphasis of NBAF was the summer festival, the organization is intensely focused on building its sustainability and creating a new model that provides art, educational and cultural programming throughout the year that is national in scope. Simanga was brought on to address the issues of relevancy and sustainability within the current organization structure and programming. His charge is to create a new strategic direction, based upon a new business model, in an effort to usher in NBAF’s 25th Anniversary celebration in 2013.