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GREENSBORO — Jeanie Duncan will step down Nov. 30 as president and CEO of the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, a post that she has held for six years.

Duncan announced her planned departure Thursday to the staff and board of directors of the arts fundraising and advocacy organization.

“The sole driver is that I have completed what I came here to do,” Duncan said. “This opportunity has been the highlight of my career. I have completely enjoyed it, grown from it and learned from it.”

She said that she has no other post in mind, but will take time to plan after Nov. 30.

Duncan, 40, joined the arts council in 1996 as development director.

When John Santuccio retired as president in 2002, its board tapped Duncan as interim president. After a national search, the board appointed Duncan in 2003.

During her tenure as president and CEO, the arts council has raised nearly $9.5 million. Much of the money has gone in grants to nonprofit organizations, as well as artists and teachers.

The council also has taken a leadership role in bringing more public art to the city. It spearheaded creation of an action plan for public art, which the Greensboro City Council adopted in July.

Board Chairwoman April Harris and board member Rob Kidwell were among those praising Duncan.

“Jeanie has done a great job, and selfishly, I wish she would stay,” Kidwell said.

“She is really a uniter, and she has brought all of the people in our community interested in the arts together, and really tried to move the community forward through the arts.”

Kidwell will lead the committee in a national search for her successor.

When Duncan became council president, her first task was to address the council’s accumulated deficit of more than $300,000. The council created a five-year plan to retire the deficit, and did it in three years.

“We have become a financially stable organization and have operated that way ever since,” Duncan said.

The annual United Arts Fund drive has doubled from $800,000 in 1996 to a high of $1.62 million in 2008. It felt the effects of the sagging economy this year, raising $1.43 million.

The council also undertook strategic planning that resulted this year in the re-engineering of its annual grants process.

It received praise for opening eligibility to more groups and artists, but also criticism from some longtime recipients who received less — or nothing at all.

The stresses of fundraising and grants changes did not prompt her resignation, Duncan said.

“Change always comes with push back and controversy,” Duncan said. “But in our case it has come with a lot of individuals and organizations who are glad to have an opportunity to apply for funding.”

Harris, too, praised the new grant process.

“Our investments this year will expand our reach to new audiences and build a reciprocal relationship of greater support for the arts in the future, a testament to the legacy that Jeanie leaves behind,” Harris said.

Duncan said she might pursue another job in the arts field, or something different. While she would like to stay in her native Greensboro, she also would be open to the right opportunity elsewhere.

Duncan said she  is pleased to see how the arts have become a more visible force in growing and transforming Greensboro.

“The arts are at the table when our community is making decisions about economic development, about the education of our children, about our health and well-being,” she said. “The arts are a force in addressing those issues.”
 

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com