DENTON — Caroline County Council of Arts has a new executive director.
George Karos has a passion for the arts, especially music, and is making the rounds to get to know the community.
His CV is a quilt of education and administration.
“I just re-arrived in this region from central Florida. I headed a chamber of commerce for six years. Earlier in 2011, I was communications director for Monteverde Academy. They are a huge basketball school. It is an international boarding school. I also lived in DC for 20 years and worked in the arts. I was a public information officer for a school district in Florida,” Karos said.
One of his goals is to reach out into other parts of the county, bringing funding for the arts to places like Ridgely, Federalsburg and Preston.
If he can bring more money in, he wants to bring more staff in because there is only so much he and Megan Krizovensky, program coordinator, can do, he said.
He also wants to embrace more arts disciplines outside on the green, like dance. They are already planning a Christmas program called “Santa’s Workshop in the Land of Misfit Toys.”
“The idea is that it is a nice Denton event to add to the holiday Season. It is in response to a wonderful event like Christmas in Ridgely,” Krizovensky said.
But the CCCA has a host of other things in the works as well.
“We have programming in the Foundry and outside of the Foundry, which goes with Caroline County. We sponsor a lot like Caroline Pride or the Christmas in Ridgely or Summerfest. In the arts and entertainment district we are hosting the banner programming for the second year in a row. And the artist is residence,” Krizovensky said. “We just got done with our student art show. We are trying to get more involved with students like the teen writers club is a new thing.”
She pointed out that the vibrant and eclectic gallery invites artists of all walks. They have leveraged their mailing list to promote artists. And by using Constant Comment they get lots of feedback about an artist or show’s success.
“That has been important for us to determine where we want to go next year. We have been intensely attending to that and that has been important for us as we have submitted to other new grants for the possibility of growing the organization with funding to hire a gallery assistant. To hire a social media manager,” Karos said.
To grow CCCA, he wants to get more grants and more donors. That is how he will proceed as executive director, he said.
He also believes growth will come more from the small gesture of reaching out rather than some big email blast. He wants to build relationships.
“I have decades of experience with 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(6)s. I have a keen understanding of how to keep organizations afloat in terms of budgets, grants and proposal writing,” Karos said. “More importantly, I have a passion for the arts. Between volunteers, board members and actual artists that are associate teaching instructors here with our program, getting all those tools in the toolbox is what fires me up.”
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