After just two months on the job, Centrum’s Executive Director John MacElwee says he has some new ideas moving forward in the coming years.
Speaking to a room of about 50 Monday afternoon at the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce’s weekly luncheon, MacElwee laid out his vision of Centrum and Fort Worden working together to create a cultural and artistic mecca.
“Centrum is a group that provides cultural activities and arts to the public,” MacElwee said, “but the organization needs to be bigger than that.
“We want to have a broader role and bring people together.
“We want to think beyond the park and get to know everybody who makes up the arts community here in Jefferson County.”
MacElwee said he wanted to see Centrum create a type of arts council or commission using the fort as a backdrop.
He also said he would like to see a greater opportunity provided for local performances.
“We have the facilities to bring people together here,” he said.
“We also have the Wheeler Theatre. It needs some fixing up, but there is no reason we shouldn’t be using that every single night.”
MacElwee also said he wants to continue Centrum’s tradition of providing workshops for the local youth.
“From theatrical arts to music to storytelling, we want to do more to reach out to the schools,” he said, “not just in Jefferson County, but across the peninsula.”
MacElwee said the entire organization was looking ahead to grow as a group providing specialized arts and culture education.
“This is still a great big experiment that is still being fine-tuned,” he said.
“Hopefully, it will one day be recognized as the arts and culture park of the nation, but it’s still a work in progress.”
An arts manager for more than 25 years from Sonoma, Calif., MacElwee replaced Thatcher Bailey as director in April.
MacElwee said he views himself as a culture-based developer of curricula and as “more of a managerial”-oriented individual.
For more information on Centrum, visit http://www.centrum.org.
Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
