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TO CONGRATULATE JENNIFER EVINS, OUTGOING PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CHAPMAN CULTURAL CENTER, FOR HER SUCCESSFUL DEDICATION TO CREATING A UNIQUE AND VIBRANT CULTURAL COMMUNITY IN SPARTANBURG.
Whereas, over the last ten years, Jennifer Evans has led the day-to-day operations and management of Chapman Cultural Center, the City and County of Spartanburg's local arts agency and the cog that allows the broader arts, science, and humanities community to thrive; and
Whereas, despite the impact of COVID-19, she leaves the organization in a strong financial and structural position with key strategies for sustained success through the recent completion of Chapman Cultural Center's 2024 strategic planning process to include a new county-wide cultural plan, engaging new audiences through next-generation education and arts engagement, promoting equity through increased diversity and inclusion in the arts and cultural sector, and helping creatives thrive professionally through increased advocacy and financial support; and
Whereas, through her work over the last decade, she has increased the total sustainable annual funding of the arts and cultural community by two hundred fifty thousand dollars, a seventeen percent increase, while growing operating endowments by seventy percent. A key achievement was developing a sustainable business model for operating the center with equitable allocation of its resources, including expanding the general operating grants program to benefit more local arts, science, and humanities organizations and expanding the pool of grants available to local artists; and
Whereas, for twenty-six years Jennifer Evins has strengthened the cultural sector as a volunteer and as an arts professional, building meaningful collaborations with multiple community stakeholders. As a volunteer chair, she led the capital fundraising campaign, securing more than forty-two million dollars, for the successful construction of the Chapman Cultural Center facility; and
Whereas, her work and leadership were always focused on a vision that Spartanburg be nationally recognized as a unique and vibrant cultural community that inspires creativity and collaboration, which she achieved by authoring the award winning Bloomberg Philanthropies One Million Dollar Public Art Challenge "Seeing Spartanburg in a New Light" and by helping the City of Spartanburg receive an official South Carolina Cultural District Designation for its downtown, only the second such designation in the State; and
Whereas, a Diversity Leadership Fellow of the Riley Institute and a Hull Fellow of the Southeastern Council on Foundations, Jennifer Evins has garnered numerous awards for her leadership, including the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award from Wofford College, the Neville Holcombe Distinguished Citizenship Award from the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, the South Carolina Woman of Achievement from the South Carolina Business and Professional Women, and the Distinguished Service Award from the South Carolina Governor's School of the Arts and Humanities; and
Whereas, she was named to the Women of Influence 2020 by GSA Business and received the South Carolina Governor's Award for the Arts in the individual category from the South Carolina Arts Commission on May 24, 2021; and
Whereas, the South Carolina House of Representatives appreciates the many contributions that Jennifer Evins has made to the arts community and ethos in Spartanburg, and the members wish her continued success and happiness as she leaves to become the CEO of the United Arts of Central Florida, the second largest United Arts organization in the nation. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, congratulate Jennifer Evins, outgoing President and Executive Director of the Chapman Cultural Center, for her successful dedication to creating a unique and vibrant cultural community in Spartanburg.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Jennifer Evins.
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