COLORADO HOPING FOR MACDIARMID MAGlC

Dance Magazine, May, 2000 by Janine Gastineau

IN ITS CONTINUING quest for long-range survival, the Colorado Dance Festival Board of Trustees has hired Katie MacDiarmid as executive director. MacDiarmid joined CDF in late February, after two years as executive director of Florida's Mount Dora Center for the Arts.

While CDF founder Marda Kirn will act as a consultant, responsibility for CDF's future falls mostly to its new hire. "MacDiarmid's strong background in arts management and fundraising will enable her to guide the festival forward into its next cycle of challenging programs," said its president, Robert Shannon. The festival, which has zeroed in on world dance for the last several seasons, will include more postmodern dance in its eighteenth season. From July 6-23, the festival will present Robert Moses' Kin, Rosanna Gamson's theatre/dance work Lovesickness, and choreographer Sharokh Galame's Paris-based Compagnie Nakissa, along with a faculty from five continents.

Considering the recent closings of several state dance organizations (DanceAspen, the Glenwood Springs Dance Festival, and the Boulder Dance Alliance), seeking an endowment might seem like an unreasonable goal within Colorado, although MacDiarmid doesn't think it is. "One thing I want to do is assure the local community that the organization is stable," MacDiarmid said. "CDF really has a national presence, which will allow us to establish an endowment and acquire funding. Everyone I talk to is telling me `CDF is such a jewel for the community!'"

At Mount Dora, MacDiarmid was an unstoppable force. Under her two-year leadership the center grew from renting a one-room gallery to purchasing its entire building. MacDiarmid produced two national touring art shows as well as the annual Mount Dora Arts Festival, which attracted 350,000 people and was named one of the top arts festivals in the nation. She developed an educational program in a community that had no arts education for elementary school children; in one year, more than 7,000 children toured the gallery. Can she work the same magic in Boulder? Stay tuned.