As she steps down, pandemic-era arts leader looks to new adventures

If you’ve attended a concert or festival in Lane County, you’ve probably heard of the Lane Arts Council, or seen its logo on a poster or program in passing. 

But attendees are likely unfamiliar with the council’s work: launching new grants and funding opportunities for artists and events, lobbying for arts in schools, and, during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping administer more than $2 million in federal relief funds — all without being a formal government body.

“Lane Arts Council doesn’t get $1 from Lane County,” said Stacey Ray, the executive director of the council since 2020. “What we get from the city is very small, and we rely on this whole very elaborate pie of funding to exist.” (The council’s total budget during the most recent fiscal year was about $950,000.)

Ray — who went from small-town Coffee Creek, Montana, to studying studio art and art history at Montana State University, before getting a master’s in arts management at the University of Oregon — will be stepping down at the end of August after five years as executive director of Lane Arts Council, and almost a decade at the council. (Program manager Tara Wibrew is moving into the top job.)

As Ray ends her term, she spoke with Lookout Eugene-Springfield about becoming executive director during a pandemic and what she’s proudest of.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield: What made you first fall in love with the arts? 

Stacey Ray: There’s part of me that loves to play. What happens in playtime, what comes out of that is when we can most be ourselves. I just still feel like I’m a kid, and I’ve been making ever since I was a little kid.

My family owned a butcher shop, and I used to help them wrap meat. They would have these huge rolls of butcher paper. Living in a small town, there’s not a lot to do, so I would come home from school and just roll out 15 feet of butcher paper, and make these giant murals.

We would build cardboard box cities in the front room of the meat shop. People would just bring over tons of cardboard boxes, because we needed them to put meat in to give to people. It’s almost like my creativity came out of boredom, and that’s also part of why this departure feels so good. 

We spend so much time filling our lives with projects and things to do. Boredom is good for us, doing nothing is good for us. Who knows what’s going to come out of it?

What are you proudest of in your time as executive director?

I’ve really developed my leadership during that time. I’ve developed it with the support of so many amazing, wonderful, giving, heart-oriented humans who were right there with me. 

I also navigated into waters where I was really uncomfortable, and opened myself up to learning and asked for a lot of feedback. I’m proud of what we did to distribute the coronavirus funds. That made a huge impact for organizations at the time. 

I’m proud of building an organizational culture that is so supportive of its people. I’m proud of working with the board to develop an open recruitment process that has almost doubled the size of our board and brought so many new faces that we wouldn’t have brought on otherwise. I’m proud of the fact that despite the pandemic and all of the changes, Lane Arts Council’s budget has grown by over 30% since I started.

This is a time we’re seeing inflation, increased cost of living. We needed more competitive compensation, we needed to be able to pay artists better, to be able to support stipends for community engagement for people participating on advisory committees. We’re not where we should be. We still aren’t compensating at the level that I would like to see, and we would all like to see Lane Arts Council be, but we’re better than where we were. 

I really developed my grant-writing skills during this time, and we tapped out new sources of funding. We got larger grants, we got multiyear grants. Our arts education programming has grown substantially. We’ve had record years of arts education impact multiple years in a row.

Do you have any guidance or advice for the next executive director?

It’s a hard time for the arts right now. The new [director] is, not unlike when I stepped in, going to be faced with some critical areas of work right now. The funding landscape has changed a lot since 2020, and even in the last three to six months. 

Arts advocacy is going to be really critical. We’re seeing, especially in this recent legislative session, we’re building momentum and not necessarily seeing wins.

What motivated you to leave Lane Arts Council?

It was a big lift. The last five years have been so much hard work, so much giving. I have more to give. I don’t know yet where I’m gonna give it. I’m trusting I’ll figure that out. 

This organization is also celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, and it feels like the right time for me to pass the torch. This is a relay race. I’m not one person running the race. I’m excited about passing the torch for Lane Arts Council’s next executive director to come in with renewed energy and vigor to usher this wonderful expansive, impactful organization into its next 50 years. 

The third piece is that I’m an artist, and I’m excited about leaning into my own work and getting to play in that space. 

What are you looking forward to doing?

Because of all the arts management work that I’ve done, I’ve got to be around so many multidisciplinary artists and dancers and storytellers and poets and musicians. I play a little music. I love visual arts. I like writing. I’m going to be on a process of discovery and reconnecting with my creativity as a wellspring, and seeing what flows out of it as I start playing.

I also have a really deep love of nature. I spend a lot of time paddling my canoe, river rafting, fly fishing, birding and camping. When I’m not in Eugene, I’m exploring all of Oregon. My sense is there’s something at an intersection of arts and culture, nature, outdoors, environmental justice, conservation and activism supporting the issues of our time, that really excites me.

I’ve been supporting arts and artists my whole life, and I don’t think that’s going to go away. It might just manifest differently.