Q-C Arts selects executive director
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By David Burke | Saturday, May 03, 2008 | No comments posted
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Carmen Darland
Carmen Darland promised a job recruiter that she would help him find a new executive director for Quad-City Arts.
It turned out to be her.
“They had hired a headhunter who called me about the job, and I said, ‘I’m not interested, but I’ll tell as many people as I can,’” she recalled. “And I did, because it sounded like a great opportunity.”
Darland happened to be a member of a DavenportOne board along with the recruiter.
“Finally, he stopped me after a board meeting and said, ‘Why don’t you look at this?’ To be honest, I didn’t know all that the organization was into and what all they create and produce and host and how they educate.
“I was impressed with what I saw.”
Darland spent 18 years with Heart of America Restaurants and Inns, leaving as vice president of marketing.
“She went to work for Mike Whalen when there were three employees: Mike, his wife and Carmen,” said Tom Getz of Moline, the longtime treasurer of Quad-City Arts and a member of the search committee. “She’s seen it all the way through to what’s been accomplished today and has assisted Mike through all this growth.”
Darland left the job last year — “I was in my 19th year of working for Mike, and I thought I needed some changes,” she said — and became a freelance writer whose clients have included Heart of America as well as the Bettendorf News, a weekly newspaper published by the Quad-City Times.
She replaces Judi Holdorf, who resigned in mid-January to become executive director of the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine.
“At this point, she’s just the person we need for the leadership we’re looking for to take Quad-City Arts onto a whole other level,” Getz said Friday.
Darland will officially begin her new duties May 12.
“There’s an opportunity to amplify, not augment, what they’re doing and then to work with other organizations in the Quad-Cities to ... provide the most dynamic arts scene in a cooperative way,” she said. “There’s a lot of opportunities that aren’t being spotlighted.”
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.
PROFILE
Who: Carmen Darland, new executive director of Quad-City Arts
Age: 55
Background: Des Moines native and University of Iowa graduate
Family: She and her husband, Jack, live in Eldridge, Iowa, and have a daughter, Emily, who attends the University of Iowa.
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