Musician and arts administrator Lydia Warren was named arts and culture director Monday by the city of Somerville, the results of a national search, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Warren most recently served as director of the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State University, where she ran a museum, performance space, library and archive and developed exhibitions, concerts and workshops. But Warren is a native of Franklin, a graduate in music from Smith College and a Boston Music Award nominee, according to a city bio – and one of her first blues jams was at Johnny D’s in Davis Square.
“Lydia grew up in Massachusetts and got her start in our local music scene. She knows firsthand what goes into building a life in the arts in Somerville. She understands both what people are up against and also the strength and opportunities of our creative community,” said mayor Jake Wilson in a press release.
She fills a gap left by the March 6 departure of Greg Jenkins, who led the Somerville Arts Council for nearly 25 years, guiding creative events and programs such as Porchfest, Artbeat and Somerstreets. Wilson, then newly elected, planned a cabinet-level role – to “head up a new Culture & Community Department overseeing arts, Parks and Recreation and libraries, and [work on] finding artistic and cultural opportunities to activate these spaces and functions through a creative lens” – as well as finding a new Arts Council director.
The search team included Wilson, the council’s interim director, Rachel Strutt, and the its board chair, a spokesperson for the city said.
An Arts Town Hall is planned for 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 8 at Warehouse XI, 11 Sanborn Court, Union Square, so residents can meet Warren and new board members and hear a report back on the Mayor’s Arts Listening Tour.
“I’m looking forward to meeting the artists, residents and organizations who make Somerville’s arts community so strong, learning about their work, and building on it together,” Warren said. “I know how much happens behind the scenes to make a performance or a community event possible.”
Additional biographical information about Warren was presented in a press release by the city:
While conducting dissertation research in Memphis, Tennessee, Warren performed in house bands on Beale Street and heard fellow musicians’ concerns about the cost of parking near their workplaces. Working with the Downtown Memphis Commission, she helped establish a low-cost parking program for musicians.
Warren previously directed the Morton Museum of Collierville History in Tennessee, where she developed exhibitions, festivals and educational programs with musicians, community members, and scholars. She also worked at the University of Memphis, helping researchers develop and submit grant proposals.
She has secured support for research and programming from the Library of Congress, Mid Atlantic Arts and the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. She has served as a grant panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities and serves on the board of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund.
Warren earned her doctorate in Critical and Comparative Music Studies from the University of Virginia, a bachelor’s degree in music from Smith College and an associate degree in music from Middlesex Community College.
Wilson said he was looking forward to see Warren bring “those local roots and her experience leading cultural institutions, securing grants and supporting working artists to Somerville’s existing Arts & Culture team.”
