B.A. | Amherst College, 1973
M.F.A., Arts Administration | Columbia University, 1985
George Sampson has administered arts organizations, presented arts events, curated art exhibitions and managed artists’ careers since 1967. He has worked in the for-profit and non-profit sectors as a student, a paid professional, and as a volunteer leader on various Boards and committees. From 1986 to 1994 he led or co-led professional companies in New Mexico in the fields of ballet & modern dance, symphonic & chamber music, and jazz presentation. In the mid-‘80s in New York, he served as associate director of a Native American art gallery, worked for Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival, for the Outward Visions music management company, for Robert Wilson’s Byrd Hoffman Foundation, the Kool Jazz Festival and others. In the preceding two decades he worked in the presentation of concerts by dozens of top jazz, blues, folk and rock artists, from Maine to Florida to California.
Hired in 1994 by the University of Virginia to be Director of Development for the Arts, he served as catalyst for the Arts Grounds, a $200 million project to construct, renovate or expand 9 buildings for the arts, and also managed the Council for the Arts, the University’s leading arts volunteers. By 2005, approximately $45 million for the Arts Grounds had been raised from private sources and another $14 million secured from public funds resulting in the successful completion (by fall, 2008) of 3 building projects.
Beginning in 2005 Mr. Sampson was asked to launch an initiative in Arts Administration which evolved into a full-time teaching assignment. A parallel proposal for a possible Masters Degree program in the field is ongoing. These courses have resulted in a forthcoming business case on the branding and stewardship of artistic intellectual property, to be published by the Darden School (September, 2008).
Mr. Sampson teaches a fall semester introductory lecture course called Principles and Practices of Arts Administration, and a spring semester second-level introductory course, The Arts in Context, whose contextual topic changes. His seminars on Arts Marketing and Development are designed for more advanced Arts Administration students
B.A. | Rollins College, 1980
B.F.A., Theatre | Florida State University, 1983
M.F.A., Acting | FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor's Training, 1985
Born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jody spent 10 years in Los Angeles where he worked as a professional actor before founding the award-winning Tamarind theatre in Hollywood. While at the Tamarind, he produced over 100 plays working with a number of stage and screen artists including Sir George Neville, Charles Durning, Burt Reynolds, Charles Nelson Reilly, George Furth and Paige O'Hara.
Jody returned to Sarasota in 1995 working for a time as the director of development at the F.S.U./Asolo Conservatory before serving as Managing Director and then Producing Artistic Director of American Stage in St. Petersburg. In 1999, founding board members of the Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) recruited Mr. Kielbasa to helm the fledgling organization. In his ten years with the Festival, he guided its growth from a 3-day mini-festival to a 10-day event attracting some of the Industry's most celebrated films and film artists. Key to this growth was Mr. Kielbasa's ability to garner unprecedented financial support from local and regional corporate and individual sponsors.
In May of 2009, he was appointed to serve as Director of the Virginia Film Festival and in his first year guided the festival to record breaking attendance. The festival welcomed an array of high-profile special guests from either side of the camera, including actors Matthew Broderick and Cherry Jones, writer/director Alan Ball and Hollywood legend Norman Jewison. In addition, Kielbasa significantly expanded the festival’s Outreach and Educational programs to include a community-wide family day event, student filmmaking initiatives including a digital media installation and more.
“When you’re looking to do something truly different, you’re out there on a limb. You can feel the branch moving under you in the wind. Sometimes you hear the sound of a saw. But you have to try to bring others out there on that limb with you. You have to say, ‘Come, look what I see—look at the view from here!’ ”
-Bruce Mau