SECCA reborn

I interviewed SECCA’s Executive Director Mark Leach this past week for an upcoming article I’m working on for a new visual arts magazine called Artsee to launch this summer. The following is the complete transcription of the interview which due to space restrictions will not be able to appear in print in its entirety.  Seeemed a good time to share this information one month away from SECCA’s reopening July 15, 2010.

Dave Delcambre:  I appreciate your taking the time so speak with me. I was wondering about the renovations that are finishing up now at SECCA and how you might anticipate them to benefit your future programming?  How was the decision made regarding which construction projects to start with?

Mark Leach:   Well, the renovations that we have been fortunate enough to undertake are really ones that are essential.  SECCA had an ailing roof and we had water penetration into interior spaces from that roof. We also had not what I would characterize as state of the art climate control which also limits our ability to borrow work form peer institutions or galleries and collectors.  Those two improvements alone were absolutely essential for us to continue on as a vital cultural organization. Those particular improvements are now just about complete.

ML: We’ve also renovated our public restroom facilities, eliminated all the carpet in our public spaces and we’ve refinished the concrete flooring which has made a dramatic change in the appearance of our interior. We have also painted the entire interior of the building and we’ve also initiated what I would characterize as a very subtle wayfinding color program in the traffic areas of the building, corridors and the like.

ML: We have just completed or nearing completion of a campaign to upfit our auditorium to state of the art facility where we’ll have a 1080P digital projector, we’ll have streaming capabilities and Meyer sound and we’ll actually be able to produce interactive video conferencing with the setup we are working to install just now. So it will truly be a state of the art education facility.  We expect to be able to conference artists, scholars, curators; people who would be germane to projects we’re doing here, exhibitions and public education programs and to have our audience in a real-time, one on one conversation with the person on the other hand.  I can also envision when that capability exists to be able to have a curator at the Centre Pompidou for example to do a tour by video conference that we would be able to participate in, the limitations are our imagination in terms of what kinds of education programming we could produce with this new resource.

We’ve undergone a complete identity transformation  We hired [graphic design firm] Pentagram out of New York to totallly refresh and transform our identity. We’re working to bring a new website online which is not launched yet. We’ll have new signage on the property and corporate collateral such as letterhead, stationery and business cards is now reflecting our new identity. The exterior of the building will be completely repainted to more accurately reflect who we are as well from a color standpoint.

ML: I would also hasten to add that this is a public / private renovation program that we’ve undertook.  The state of NC we’re extremely grateful for the legislature having allocated the $1.8 million to do the major, mission critical operations like the roofing and climate control, some of the grading on the property to inhibit water penetration into the foundation and such.

ML: Some of the other work that’s being done, the painting and the more cosmetic improvements we’ve been very good managers of our financial resources and we’ve been able to accumulate enough of a nest egg to help us undertake some of the other renovations and we’ve also benefited from the generosity of companies who’ve helped provide material to undertake some of these as well.  And we are just now closing in on completing the campaign as I mentioned which is about $165k to upfit our auditorium. We’ve been just trilled to still be alive in the community and as you indicated [in earlier e-mail] to be doing the Inside Out project over the previous year.  We have been just incredibly active on the inside developing our program for the reopening while still undertaking the kind of renovations we think are necessary to relaunch us on a professional footing.

DD:  I was wondering if that downtime has been a sort of incubation time or perhaps invigorated some of your programming now that you’ve had a chance to step back and look at it more comprehensively?

ML:  Well one of the things I should tell you about that I didn’t mention but that has been really critical for us is that over the past year we undertook and have completed a 4 year strategic plan that was adopted in March and we are now operating off of that plan.  So yes in one sense yes we did have a chance to take a step back, look at who we are, what is it our aspirations are internally for programming. We’ve done some work in the community to assess whether the things we are doing are of interest, we’ve made some adjustments in our operating hours, added evening hours to our weekly schedule to provide access to families and adults who are in the workforce.  There’s a lot of ways that we have made changes but I would say that foremost among them has been the opportunity to build out what I would characterize as a really exciting exhibition and public education
program that we’re anxious to launch July 15th.

DD: Let me ask you about how the renovations fit into what’s been going on at the state overall.  The North Carolina Museum of Art has had the spotlight of late with their new West Building that just opened up.  Has it been difficult figuring out where SECCA fits into the scheme of things?  Has it been kept very separate from what’s been going on at the [NC] Museum?   I know you mentioned Pentagram and I’m wondering if the branding was tied together at all.

ML: We are nested organizationally into the North Carolina Museum of Art. Enjoy the full support of the staff at the Museum and also the support of the Department of Cultural Resources  So we were in effect part of the opening of the North Carolina Museum of Art as we were on the program there. What I would say is that we have been very fortunate to have found the kind of interactivity that is both constructive, supportive and at the same time encouraging of our own unique identity as a contemporary art institution here in the United States.

DD: Well it is a unique venture, at least in North Carolina it is.

ML: It is one of those things that we were just incredibly fortunate to find that kind of connection. I think one of the biggest opportunities for us now as an institution here in Winston Salem is to be vibrant for the Triad region but to push ourselves to deliver value for the taxpayer across the state.  One of the ways we’re going to do that is through our web portal in producing BPI standard curriculum based learning that teachers across the state and anywhere across the world for that matter can take advantage of if they so choose. That’s one of the ways we’ll be reaching out but that’s certainly not the only one.

DD:  That all sounds good. One of my other questions I had for you was to ask the ambition of plans down the road but I think you’ve already touched on a few of those already.

ML:  We’ve shifted our curatorial ambitions a bit. We’re a melting pot society here in the United States and we really feel that it’s important to program in a way that’s supportive of our region, gives artists who are of the stature that SECCA wants to work with the opportunity to be seen, appreciated and also promoted and at the same time to be put in the context of international activity.   So our program mandate now is international but I would say if you were looking for a good indication of our dedication to our region that you’d only need to look as far as our upcoming year’s programming where we’ll be working with ICI [Independent Curators International] to coproduce what is being called the People’s Biennial  where five North Carolina artists will be selected along with five artists from each of four additional states to be included in a show that will travel to five locations including SECCA here in the United States. Our curator Steven Matijcio is working on a really phenomenal show called NC NC an acronym for North Carolina New Contemporary that’ll feature eight artists I believe all of whom are working here in North Carolina and are doing what I think is really exciting work, both two dimensional and three dimensional.  We’ll be showing Glenda Wharton who is an animation artist and a native of North Carolina and lives here in Winston Salem and will be premiering her film that has just been shown at Sundance Film Festival.  So we’re not turning our backs by any means on our neighborhood but rather expanding our approach to absorb activities that would be compelling and represent contemporary art worldwide.

DD: Was the strategic plan very difficult to adopt? I’m sure it was a lot of coordination and collaboration to pull that together.

ML:  You know, I think it was a very exciting opportunity for us as a staff and as a board and certainly as the state of North Carolina’s cultural resource area for our community to envision SECCA’s future.

DD: How many parties needed to get involved?  Were there people from the state and Cultural Resources and your board all involved?

ML: Yes, absolutely.  Mastering the Basics is the theme for year one.  It’s a pretty comprehensive plan almost to the effect of not simply doing the top end of the pyramid if you will, which is the conceptual side of it, but also the business side of it detail wise.  But now we’re off and running and pretty serious about making this thing work and work well.

DD:  I’m going to be writing up a piece on SECCA for this new magazine that’s starting up but if you’re ok, I won’t have room in the article so do you mind if I post this interview on my art blog as well?  I’m definitely trying to expand across the state beyond the Triangle and am trying to get a bigger picture of what’s going on across the state and the blog has been a way to get more out there than what I can in print.

ML: Yes, and listen I think it’s terrific that you’re doing this.

DD: I’ve gotten a lot of good response.

ML: I’m sure you are, and for all the right reasons!

DD: I also had something on the blog on the follies down at the Cameron that you helped jury. I wasn’t sure if you had a chance to see it or not.

ML:  Sure.  Deborah Velders is just a terrific director [at the Cameron Art Museum] and I think the world of what she’s doing and I was glad to have a chance to help her with that.

DD: Well it’s exciting for me to write up this [artsee magazine] piece, as I grew up going to SECCA going back into the early 80’s and [previous director] Ted Potter days.

ML: Well it’s our relaunch and we want to make sure know that people know about us and what our ambitions are and what we have to offer…

DD: Well I’m glad to do it.  Ok, well I don’t want to take up any more of your time and I really appreciate your taking the time to speak with me. The official reopening day for SECCA is…?

ML: July 15th

DD:  Well I really appreciate it Mark and thanks again for speaking with me.

ML: Not at all, take care.

DD: Thanks.

(many thanks to Steven Matijcio and Mark Graves at SECCA for providing construction progress photos)