Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Richards quits arts foundation
She is leaving the agency for
By Suzanne Tswei
the State Library Foundation
Star-BulletinHolly Richards, executive director of the state Foundation on Culture and the Arts, will be leaving her post at the end of the month to head the State Library Foundation, a private nonprofit organization that promotes literacy and lifelong learning programs in state libraries.
"I realize it's not a good time to leave," said Richards, referring to the foundation's struggle with budget cuts and her departure during the legislative session. "I am sorry I have to leave at a time like this. But I have an opportunity to do something new, and I am really excited by that."
The foundation has seen its funds dwindle by about 70 percent in the last five years, Richards said, causing it to severely trim its grants to community arts organizations.
"Holly has done a good job," said Chuck Freeman, vice chairman of the volunteer board that oversees the state foundation. "We will navigate the ship without her and find a good replacement."
Richards, 55 and the foundation's fourth director, described her tenure at the state agency as "challenging."
She was an executive producer at Hawaii Public Television and oversaw the award-winning program "Spectrum Hawaii" before moving to the foundation in June 1997. Her last day in the office will be Feb. 15 but she will remain on the state payroll through February because of unused vacation time. She will begin her new job March 6.
Ron Yamakawa, manager of the foundation Art in Public Places program, will serve as interim director while the board conducts a search for a new director.
