Sarah McMahon, Movement for Parkinson’s Teaching Artist/Choreographer


What is your level of commitment to continuing to provide and expand access for community members with disabilities and movement difficulties?


I love the Flynn’s mantra of “Everybody Belongs.” Programs such as the Movement for Parkinson’s classes and also bringing in the work of artists with disabilities are really exciting ventures to me. A lot of attention has been paid on the national level (rightfully so) to diversity and inclusion in the arts, but not enough, in my view, to ensuring that the arts are available to people with disabilities as well.


The arts can be a powerful force for furthering social cohesion, health and wellbeing, and community understanding. One of John Killacky’s many legacies at the Flynn will be his embrace of this community and making people feel welcome, no matter what their physical challenges may be. I am firmly committed to continuing this important work and expanding on it in the years to come.


Jose Rincon, Lyric Theatre Company Executive Director


As one of the larger arts providers in the area, what is the Flynn’s role in the health of the greater performing arts landscape?


I believe that nonprofits, and arts organizations in particular, thrive through partnerships and collaborations. We all have a common goal to create a vibrant arts landscape where everyone can have


access to and participate in the arts. That goal cannot be accomplished by one organization alone. In the performing arts, where everyone is operating on tight budgets and the staff are constantly juggling tasks and wearing many hats, it’s important to remember that a rising tide truly does lift all boats. In short, we will all be more successful by working together.


I think the Flynn has an important responsibility in not only serving as a venue, but also a partner and convener of arts organizations across the region. I’m looking forward to learning more about the work of the many Vermont arts groups and what more we can do to partner with them.


Hal Colston, Partnership for Change Director/ Flynn Board Member


How might you diversify the Flynn staff so it better reflects the changing demographics in our community?


Diversity in arts nonprofit staff is a key challenge across the country. Our goal at the Flynn is to serve the entire community with our programs. To continue to do this, we need to figure out how to bring more diversity to the staff and Board. One way to start is by identifying and building a pipeline of talented young people who are interested in arts management as a career. I’d like to explore offering internship opportunities, apprenticeships, and other ways to get a more diverse group of young people into the field and trained by our staff. Leveraging the resources of our local universities and colleges and


partnering with social service and other community organizations can also help open up these opportunities to a wider group of people. Additionally, as part of creating the overall vision for the Flynn’s future, I’d like to work with the staff, Board, and key stakeholders to create a diversity plan, with goals and milestones to measure our progress over time.


Rosina Cannizzaro, Vermont Youth Orchestra Executive Director


How has participating in the arts as a young person influenced and informed the work you do today? Can you share a special arts moment that made an impact?


I was very fortunate to grow up in a family that valued the arts. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so they would take my brothers and I to free performances at the library, to community theater productions, and to museums to give us as much exposure to the arts as possible. One of those free performances was the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra playing, among other pieces, a Mozart French horn concerto at the Monmouth County Library. I was six years old. I remember so clearly sitting there, hearing the most beautiful sound coming out of the French horn—which I had never seen before—and being captivated! That one performance, which was free and open to every member of our community, literally changed the course of my life. I later studied French horn at Juilliard Pre-College and got a scholarship to play French horn at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.


It’s amazing to me how exposure to the arts, and in some cases, even a single performance, can change the course of a young person’s life. I also studied piano and voice throughout my childhood. I landed my first job out of college when I was substituting for the regular pianist at a very upscale hotel, the Molly Pitcher Inn, in Red Bank, New Jersey. One gentleman kept coming up to me all evening asking me to play songs from the Great American Songbook. Lucky for me that I knew all the songs he was requesting. Unbeknownst to me, it turned out that he was the owner of the hotel! He offered me a job playing five nights a week at one of the sister hotels, right on the Navesink River. It was my first full time job as a performing musician. In that hotel lounge, I played to hundreds of people every night and my job was always to bring people of all walks of life together through music. I also taught piano, voice, and French horn to children and adults.


My background as a musician and artist, and also an arts educator, has really made me appreciate the hard work and dedication that goes into making a career in the arts. I decided to go into arts management because I wanted to make a wider impact on the community and use the arts as a vehicle for positive change.


I have never forgotten the magic of seeing live performances as a young person. My goal at the Flynn is to continue to foster as many of these experiences as possible for our community and our youth, and to make the arts accessible to people of all ages and all backgrounds.


September, October, November MARQUEE | 3


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