| New director wants to make Center for the Arts shine |
By: ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor, Murfreesboro Post
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Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009 8:30 am
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TMP Photo by Kelly Hite. Anthony Climino is the new director for the Center of the Arts. |
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The new executive director of the Center for the Arts refers to the Italianate building and the performance and visual art it fosters as the “crown jewel” of Rutherford County.
“I just want to make sure it shines as brightly as it can shine,” Anthony Cimino said.
Cimino, who grew up in the arts but has spent nearly 24 years in senior management in sales and marketing positions, stepped into the role of executive director earlier this month and is already focused on building awareness of the Center for the Arts and its programs in the community.
This is vital as the Center for the Arts, which became a private, non-profit organization in April 2008, will have to rely even more on grant funding and private donations. Initially, Cimino will attempt to raise more than $100,000 for the restoration and upkeep of the Center’s 100-year-old building by reaching out to patrons.
These funds will be used for a new heating and air conditioning unit, floor coverings and some electrical work in the historic building that has served as the Murfreesboro Post Office and the Linebaugh Library during its long history.
Percy “Bubba’ Dempsey, who serves as chairman of the Center’s board of directors, said expanding children’s programming and developing a comprehensive educational program is a new priority for the Center.
Cimino plans to reach out to area school children by offering several educational camps during the year focusing on both visual and performing arts.
With limited resources for the arts across the county, Dempsey said it is the Center’s duty to offer as many educational opportunities as possible.
“It gives children who have an interest in arts and theater another way to explore that interest,” Dempsey said.
Offering this programming is the Center of the Arts’ way of helping provide a good quality of life for Rutherford County residents, he said.
During spring break this year, the Center will offer a theater camp called Spring Spotlight. Two theater camps called Center Stage Academy will be offered during the summer months for kindergarten to 12th grade students.
In these camps, students will learn audition and performance skills, how to develop story ideas, mechanics of singing, listening skills and choreography.
Cimino also is working to expand volunteerism in the Center by forming Senior Centers, where senior citizens will be asked to take tickets, sell concessions or serve as ushers for performances.
“Our volunteer efforts are very necessary here,” he said. “We have a very small staff.”
The Center for the Arts will continue its focus on presenting family-friendly productions that will appeal to the widest audience possible.
Even though Cimino only first walked into the Center for the Arts last year he quickly developed a passion for the Center and for its future in the community.
“I was just impressed by the facility,” he said.
Cimino appeared on stage as Tevye in the Center’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” and most recently appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” this past holiday season.
Because of his enthusiasm, Cimino was quickly asked to become a member of the Center’s board of directors. But when the board, embarked on a search for a new executive director, Cimino decided he wanted to serve the Center in that role.
“One night I woke up from a deep sleep and said I wanted to do that,” Cimino said.
Dempsey said Cimino is “probably one of the most qualified persons for this position that we have ever hired.”
Cimino grew up in the arts. His father was a singer with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, Opera Atlanta, the New Orleans Opera Company and a myriad of musical comedies and dramas.
Stars like Shirley Jones, Ann Blyth, Edie Adams, Dena Dietrich, Robert Goulet, Gordon MacRae, and Eve Arden came over to his house for dinner. Butterfly McQueen, who played Prissy in “Gone with the Wind” was even his nanny for nearly a year when he was 6 years old.
Cimino has worked in professional and community theatre since the age of 5, including a one-year engagement with the internationally renowned “Up with People” where he performed as a singer soloist and lead dancer. Ginny Gingold, mother of the famous singer/songwriter Carole King, also directed him in “The Dybbuk” in Miami.
Dempsey said Cimino has the ability to be involved in performances, but he also has experience in management and fundraising.
“I think he will put us in a position to propel this venue well beyond where we were before,” Dempsey said.
While his new job may not be as lucrative, Cimino said it would allow him to leave his mark on the community.
“I think that at the end of the day, I think doing something in a venue like this it is a way of leaving a legacy,” Cimino said. “This is something where I can leave a legacy.”
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
For more information on the Center for the Arts and its upcoming programs, visit www.boroarts.org or call 904-2787. The Center for the Arts is located at 110 W. College |
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| Bubba Dempsey honored as Business Legend of the Year |
By: ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor, Murfreesboro Post
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Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2009 6:31 am
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TMP Photo by Kelly Hite. Bubba Dempsey is the 2008 Business Legend of the Year |
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Rarely does Percy “Bubba” Dempsey III get the accolades for his work.
As a certified public accountant and business consultant, most of his work is confidential and done behind the scenes.
But in this position, Dempsey, managing partner of Dempsey Vantrease & Follis PLLC has played an integral role in the growth of Murfreesboro over the past 30 years.
“A lot of the prosperity you see around Murfreesboro, it is amazing how much of it funnels back to Bubba Dempsey,” said Ronnie Barrett, owner of Barrett Firearms.
For his accomplishments, the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce is honoring Dempsey as the Business Legend of the Year.
Dempsey will receive his award at the Chamber’s “Business at Its Best — 2009 Celebration” to be held Friday, Jan. 30 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center. A reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m.
As keynote speaker, Dr. Dale Henry will speak on “Ten Cans: Change Requires an Opener.”
Reservations are $60 for Chamber members and $80 for non-members. Call the Chamber at 893-6565 to reserve a seat.
Dempsey said the award is a “great honor,” but one he doesn’t deserve alone. He said he would be nothing without his team at Dempsey Vantrease & Follis.
Looking back over his career, Dempsey said the magnitude of the firm exceeded even what he anticipated.
After 30 years in operation, the firm, and associated businesses, employees 70 people with offices in Murfreesboro and Lebanon and offers tax services, auditing, estate planning, consulting, computer networking and support and medical and dental services.
“What I get the most out of is knowing I have had a role in helping these people (business owners),” he said.
That was really his vision for the firm — to help clients.
“You won’t be successful if you don’t generate successes for clients,” he said.
Barrett, one of Dempsey’s clients, considers him a friend and a close advisor. Dempsey was instrumental in helping Barrett launch Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and turn it into a global company.
Barrett said Dempsey did this by thinking outside of the box.
But, Dempsey’s career could have easily been on another playing field.
When the Murfreesboro native enrolled in college at Austin Peay State University on a football scholarship, Dempsey had no intentions of becoming an accountant. He wanted to be a football coach.
Dempsey likes to joke that if he would have stuck with his original career path that he would be coaching somewhere like the University of Tennessee at Knoxville or the University of Alabama.
But the elective accounting classes he took changed his mind.
After working at firms in Chattanooga and Nashville for seven years, Dempsey decided to move back home. But to work in the type of firm that he wanted, he had to start his own.
Dempsey didn’t want to concentrate his time only on preparing tax returns. He wanted to be involved in mergers and acquisitions and in the financial structure of companies.
Dempsey began his CPA business in 1978 in an office above his garage. His mother was his only employee.
But, Dempsey didn’t move back to Murfreesboro just to work. He wanted to be a part of the community.
Over the past three decades, Dempsey has been involved in a number of organizations.
Currently, he serves on the Board of Trustees for the Murfreesboro City Schools Foundation, the board of directors for MidSouth Bank and is president of the board of directors of the Center for the Arts.
Dempsey is a past president of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. In this role, he led the Chamber’s name change from the Murfreesboro Chamber to the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. He helped form Leadership Rutherford, a Chamber leadership program.
Margrey Thompson, another client and friend, said Dempsey helped her start her physical therapy business about 30 years ago and then sell it 20 years later.
She called Dempsey a “humble servant” for the amount of time and energy he puts into helping area organizations.
“He is service about self,” Thompson said.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce “Business at Its Best — 2009 Celebration” Friday, Jan. 30 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center.
A reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m.
Reservations are $60 for Chamber members and $80 for non-members. Call the Chamber at 893-6565 to reserve a seat. |
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