![]() “We want to create more partnerships with organizations to try to expand the festival so it’s more of a year-round event,” Coppel says. This year, a shuttle will take attendees to the event from an offsite location.īut festival organizers are looking beyond June as they expect Olson, the new director, to hold events throughout the year. Hickey attributes the attendance drop to parking issues due to construction around the town center. LakeFest attracted more than 27,500 last year, compared with the peak attendance of more than 30,000 in 2012. fiddler Natalie MacMaster who brings her husband and five kids on tour with her and Intergalactic Nemesis, a live-action radio play and comic book. ![]() These include The Peking Acrobats, performing June 21 in the Jim Rouse Theatre, and the Hampton Rock String Quartet, a string quartet that plays the music of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.Īlso on tap for this year are Home Free, an a capella country group based in D.C. Last year, the festival brought nationally known legendary performers, like the New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and eclectic, emerging ones, like Pittsburgh’s Squonk Opera.įestival organizers have developed a theme for the first time for the 2014 festival, “Bringing it Home.” In keeping with this theme, they are bringing back a number of performers who have played at the festival before. It now spans 16 days with ticketed events held at the James Rouse Theatre and Howard Community College and a free three-day festival, LakeFest, which brings artists and performers to the Columbia lakefront. Those are some ideas that emerged from the board’s new strategic plan that identified key priorities for the festival after conducting a yearlong review.įounded by business and civic leaders in 1987, the Columbia Festival of the Arts started as a three-day festival with the aim of bringing in visual and performing artists. ”Īs the new director, Olson will be tasked with expanding the festival to include events throughout the year, strengthening partnerships with other organizations and expanding its donor base. “CFA is a 27 year-old organization that produces one of the region’s highest-attended arts festivals, with past acts that include Itzhak Perlman, Aretha Franklin, Philip Glass. “This is an opportunity I cannot pass up,” Olson said in a statement. Coppel, president of the Columbia Festival’s board of trustees.Īfter receiving 75 applications for Hickey’s successor, the six-person search committee narrowed the selection to three finalists before selecting Todd Olson, a director and playwright who spent 11 years as artistic direction at the American Stage Theatre Co. “She does a wonderful job each year in the programming of different events.” says Lawrence D. Hickey spent a total of 13 years with the Columbia Festival, starting in part-time in administration before becoming director in 2004. “I think I earned the right to retire,” Hickey says with a laugh. Hickey says she is ready to hand over the reins to incoming executive director Todd Olson so she can return to her work as a fine artist. Hickey, 68, is retiring July 31, just as the festival is poised to make several major changes aimed at widening its audience and serving a bigger role in the growing Columbia community. She stayed on 10 years, making her the festival’s longest-serving executive director. When Nichole Hickey became the executive director of the Columbia Festival of the Arts in 2004, she says she imagined she would stick around for three years, just until the annual summer festival celebrated its 20th anniversary.
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