Brewery Arts Center CEO Gina Lopez bows out and is expected to leave at the end of the year | Carson City Nevada News
The Managing Director of the Brewery Arts Center is stepping down at the end of the year. Gina Lopez took on the role of volunteer executive director in August 2014, at a time when BAC was in great turmoil and in financial difficulty.
She became permanent CEO in 2015 and under her leadership, along with an army of loyal volunteers, artists, staff and board members, the Brewery Arts Center is now the financially solvent arts center and always innovative as it was always meant to be. On that cue, Lopez is now leaving BAC and heading to San Diego County where she will take over as CEO of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
“I love BAC and I’m so proud of everything we’ve built here but it’s time to hand over,” Lopez says, “At first I told everyone we had the potential to creating the community we want to live in, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Now I’m thrilled to open a new chapter at the California Center for the Arts. It’s an incredible opportunity for which I’m so grateful. .”
Using the arts as a vehicle to build community capacity, the Brewery Arts Center has made great strides in uniting the community through the arts. Most importantly, with the Levitt AMP Carson City Free Summer Concert Series. The concerts are of various genres that draw 2,000 to 3,000 spectators each Saturday evening during the ten-week series in the heart of the historic district and are funded in part by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation of Los Angeles. With financial support from the Levitt Foundation as well as local businesses such as The Change Companies, Carson Tahoe Hospital, The Bank Saloon, Mangia Tutto, Plumas Bank and many more, BAC will kick off its seventh season of Levitt AMP Carson City in June. 2023 .
When Lopez applied for the first Levitt Fellowship in 2015, she knew it was a long way to win this national award. This generous grant has given BAC a solid foundation, and creating barrier-free opportunities to participate in the arts has become a cornerstone of everything BAC does. Recently, Levitt announced it would end in 2031, but not before giving Carson City three years of funding and possibly six more after that.
“I really appreciate the thoughtful nature with which Levitt has described his exit strategy,” says Lopez, “they give communities many opportunities to make their summer gigs self-sustaining so that the music continues even after their part ends. financing”.
Over the past eight years, BAC has received over $1 million in grants and cultivated a Celtic series, a Bluegrass series, a singer-songwriter series, created TEDxCarsonCity, a choir for seniors , Art in the Park, after school and juvenile hall. programs, multiple murals, and a reimagined artisan gallery that has become a traveling exhibition space. The center has produced hundreds of classes and concerts and given dozens of other arts organizations a home, all working together under the new roofs of the BAC campus.
Even during the pandemic, BAC has been able to fulfill its mission through its Flatbed concert series, drive-in movies, and virtual classrooms. Over the past two years, BAC has also undergone a $250,000 renovation to make the facilities more sustainable for the future.
Lopez says, “Complacency is the death of an arts organization, so I hope BAC will continue to grow and evolve, to challenge assumptions, to open minds, and to continue doing things that people of all ages want to be part of it, which is our responsibility in presenting. art to our community.”
The Brewery Arts Center board of trustees has established a search committee for Lopez’s replacement.
