Name: Holly Richards
Age: 52
Position: Executive director, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
Education: Washington University of St. Louis
Pastime: Gardening
Richards was selected to be executive director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts by the nine-member board. She will begin on June 2. She has been involved with the award-winning KHET program since it was begun in 1982 by the late Nino Martin, and also directed his "International Kitchen" show.
She said the state can point to some high points in government support of the arts, as recipient of the highest in per capita funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and as the first state to mandate funding of art for public buildings at 1 percent of total capital improvement spending.
But in tight budget times, funding has shrunk, and that will be one of the challenges of her new job. For instance, money for a grants to artists' program in the foundation was cut from $5 million to $1 million.
She said there is a "frill philosophy," that spending for arts is not a vital need, "and I can appreciate that when you are dealing with the social issues.
"In its own way, it is as important as other funding. We need to make a case that spending for the arts is tied to education, to the economy, to tourism.
"It's a question of what kind of a community do we want to live in. A case has to be made that the arts are part of what we are ... the need to create, to express ourselves, to feel unique. Arts is not something we can do without.
"A community's cultural activities promote business and tourism and encourage people to move to Hawaii. Having our kids exposed to the arts fosters creative thinking, critial thinking. Kids who are exposed to the arts do better on SAT tests."
Richards says television and computers are important tools for exposing people to music, painting, sculpture, history, dance and ethnic culture, but "I hope computers never take the place of live performances in people's lives.
"The challenge is to make the arts accessible, so people can go and have a good time and not feel threatened by it. It's a challenge; I think I'm ready for one.
"There is no way to match the experience of a live performance. There is no way television or computer can catch the excitement, the mood ... the smell of turpentine and linseed oil, the gushy feeling you get when you do a play.
"That's why arts in the schools is important, to build your audience for life."