Creative industries in Washtenaw County add hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. In the weeks and months to come, host Deb Polich, the President and CEO of Creative Washtenaw, explores the myriad of contributors that make up the creative sector in Washtenaw County.
ABOUT ELIZABETH WARREN:
Elizabeth Warren began her tenure as Riverside Arts Center’s Executive Director in September 2022. Liz comes to Riverside following significant volunteer experience with arts administration and five years of employment with Ypsilanti’s Growing Hope, serving in increasingly responsible positions in event planning, marketing, development, and community outreach. Liz has completed extensive coursework at Washtenaw Community College and Olivet College in Communications and English. She received her Certificate in Fund Raising Management from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy this past spring. With a passion for community building, Liz leverages her extensive experience in fundraising and relationship building to contribute to the vitality of her surroundings. She is particularly enthusiastic about fostering connections and learning through art, as well as creating intentional and inclusive spaces across various aspects of her life.
Interested in learning more about what’s happening at Riverside? Schedule a call with Liz.
Email: elizabeth@riversidearts.org
RESOURCES:
Riverside Arts Center on Facebook
Riverside Arts Center on X (Twitter)
Riverside Arts Center on Instagram
TRANSCRIPTION:
Deb Polich: Welcome to creative:impact on 89 one WEMU. I'm Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host. Thanks for joining me on Tuesdays to meet the artists and creatives who live, work, care about and make a difference in Washtenaw County. They share their talents, impact us and inspire us. It's been almost two years since Elizabeth Warren was named the executive director of Ypsilanti's Riverside Arts Center. We thought it was time to check in with Liz and see how it's going. Liz, thanks for being on the show today!
Liz Warren: Oh my gosh! It's my pleasure! Thank you for having me!
Deb Polich: Two years already! That probably seems like a hot minute! Amazing!
Liz Warren: Yeah, I mean it's been definitely a wild ride! I remember, maybe six months into the position, putting my key in the door and opening up my office and thinking that this felt so right. And it felt like a great six months, and I was really starting to feel like I had my feet under me. And now, two years later, I feel like we're still in a really great growth mindset. And I'm really proud of the things that we've done. Everything, for sure.
Deb Polich: Well, let's go back to that time. So, I know from experience that no matter what the business is, there are similar aspects of stepping into any leadership position. However, a nonprofit is different, and the fact that you report to a board of directors, who are essentially your bosses. And they, along with you, are charged with serving a community mission. What did you find when you arrived at Riverside in December of 2022?
Liz Warren: We were still definitely reeling from the pandemic coming back. We had, I would call, maybe a program and a half with our summer camps and a loose gallery calendar. And I felt that there was a huge amount of opportunity there. Riverside has been such a pillar for so many years and has had many iterations over the years, and I was just really excited to take the reins and and figure out what our next steps were. I think that one of my favorite things about working in a nonprofit is getting to serve the community. And so, it's not just about what I want, but it's definitely keeping the door open to make sure that we're responding to what the community wants. So, I felt that that was actually something that gave me a lot of support in knowing that I could lean on the opinions of our community and what they wanted to see out of an arts rotation.
Deb Polich: And you'd been in the community for a while, if I recall, right? You were working with Growing Hope in a fundraising role. Is that correct?
Liz Warren: Yeah, I started off at Growing Hope. They contracted me to do some events for them, and then I kept sort of moving up the ladder and eventually became their development person at some point. So, I was there for about five years, and I felt like I did a lot of great work there. I felt like it gave me the opportunity to really become part of the Ypsilanti community more than any other role that I'd ever had in the city. It gave me the opportunity to really reach in and find out and learn about who Ypsilanti was as a collective. It taught me a lot.
Deb Polich: And Riverside was your first leadership role? Correct?
Liz Warren: Yeah. I mean, if you don't--
Deb Polich: I meant executive director role. Executive director role.
Liz Warren: Sure.
Deb Polich: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Liz Warren: Sure. Yes. Yeah, this is my first. I'm new at it.
Deb Polich: Yeah, you're new at it. And essentially, you're in a position of almost restarting and reopening after COVID to make things work. That must have been a lot. Were you ever just daunted by it or were you just excited by it?
Liz Warren: I mean, every day, you're daunted by it, I guess. I think that, though, I mean, I just decide to use that and roll with it and try to focus on the opportunities and the positive things that you can do. I think that you can get really stuck in the weeds of wanting to do everything for everybody all the time. But the key for me was to remind myself that this has to be a slow burn. It has to be sustainable. We want this organization to continue growing. And if I just am a flash in the pan, then we'll just burn out. So, I think that it was really important for me to slowly figure out what is the most conscious next step that we can make that makes the most sense for the organization's long-term growth.
Deb Polich: And, to some extent, to be honest, over the Riverside's almost 30 years, maybe just over 30 years by now, it has been—or it has tried to be—all things to all people. What helped you cull through what was most important to move forward, especially back in 2022?
Liz Warren: Well, I think that the first thing was to lean on what are our strengths. What do we have already in work? What can we stand on as something that's going to be our mainstay? And then, also, still making sure that I'm being respondent to what the community is asking for. So, asking for that feedback from the community, asking them what they want, and then looking at our resources. We have an amazing building. We have a theater. We have a dance studio. We have a gallery. Those are things that we already have. And not only that, but we use those spaces for other arts organizations to thrive in and use. We rent out all of the spaces in the building, so not only what we can do, but the other arts organizations that we can support and help them grow as well and just always leaning back on what is our biggest strengths. And now, I'm grateful to say that we have a team of three--I actually just hired another person, so now we're a team of four--and what are our greatest strengths as humans and trying to not necessarily always want to stay in our lane because I do like to challenge our team and get creative, but just leaning on our strengths and making sure that we're really being honest with ourselves about what is the most sustainable next step.
Deb Polich: 89 one WEMU's creative:impact continues with Elizabeth—or Liz—Warren, executive director of Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti. So, you mentioned a lot of the stuff that's been going on, and we, of course, pay attention to these things. Riverside has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years--some building expansion afforded by some major funding and some new programming in addition to the continuation of a number of favored programs. Give us just a couple of highlights.
Liz Warren: Oh gosh! I am so excited about our calendar for the gallery next year. We have the entire calendar planned out already: a few juried shows we have in partnership with...one specifically is the Michigan Watercolor Society is coming back. We have our next coming exhibition that's opening in a couple of weeks is "Anything but Canvas," which is really fun. It turned in some really creative pieces in there. We have a holiday art fair for the second year in a row, coming up the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 23rd and 24th. We've got just over 60 amazing artists and vendors that are coming there. And twice a month, we have the Ypsi Fine Arts Club. And that is just a really great place for artists to come and chat with each other, talk about their artwork and share resources. So, I feel like there are things that are happening immediately now that are really exciting, and it's also really exciting to look into the future knowing that we have this really solid plan.
Deb Polich: You can hear that excitement in your voice. You know, Riverside is just about just over 30 years old. And as we've watched it over the years, it's had its growing pains. It stabilizes and then something knocks it off its pins, whether it's things like pandemics or other issues. But it seems to have hit its stride. What do you attribute that stability to and how it's been stabilized over these last few years?
Liz Warren: Yeah. I mean, I can't really speak to anybody else's, I guess, so-called administration, but I think that what I'm really excited about is the support that I've gotten from my board. My team has been there--a lot of them since the beginning. I have all the historical contexts. And then, they've given me a lot of freedom to do and things and make choices and things even without necessarily their blessing before I do it. I get very excited to report back to them the fun things that I have come up with. And they're always there for me when I have questions and when I need support. So, that's been really, really wonderful. And then also, I think just the team that that we have. Maggie and Grey are both incredible employees. We temperature check all the time with each other. We're really good at checking in with each other and making sure that we're all making the right decisions together. And so, I think that, for me personally, not feeling completely alone and having to make all the decisions all the time just myself has been really great. And I think that the sustainability of the choices that we've made, making sure that we're moving forward carefully and consciously, is where I think that we're finding our footing the best.
Deb Polich: And the facility. You mentioned that it's terribly important and a lot of people come to you and a lot of organizations come to you. But you also make an effort to have a presence in the community.
Liz Warren: Yeah, absolutely! We love going out into the community. And our favorite activity to do is bringing bracelet-making activities to other people's events. We've done face painting. We really try to get out there and make sure that our people know about us, and they have fun ways to interact with us.
Deb Polich: Well, it seems to be working in very many ways. So, we just got literally a minute left. Anything new and exciting in the works or maybe you can't even tell us about it yet?
Liz Warren: Well, yeah, I think that the next exciting thing is that we're reformulating our artist-in-residency program. We just had Nick Azzaro and Avery Williamson in for six months. They had an amazing exhibition to close out their residency. And then, we're going to be focusing on supporting the performing arts more, so you can look out for an announcement for performing artists-in-residency program coming up.
Deb Polich: Well, we look forward to that and we look forward to Riverside remaining that anchor organization in Ypsilanti for the arts. Thanks so much for being on the show!
Liz Warren: Thanks, Deb! Appreciate you!
Deb Polich: That's Liz Warren, executive director of Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti. Find out more about her and what's happening at riverside at wemu.org. You've been listening to creative:impact. I'm Deb Polich, president and CEO of Creative Washtenaw and your host. Mat Hopson is our producer. Please join us every Tuesday to meet the people who make Washtenaw creative. This is 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti. Public radio from Eastern Michigan University.
If you'd like to a guest on creative:impact, email Deb Polich at deb.polich@creativewashtenaw.org.
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