Interview with A Pro

Interview With A PR Pro

“Communications is common sense” The Manitoba Arts Council is an arm’s-length agency of the Province of Manitoba, established in 1965 “to promote the study, enjoyment, production and performance of works in the arts.” The Council gives funding to professional arts organizations and individual artists, in theatre, film, visual and literary. It is through a peer assessment or a jury that these awards are decided. I have been lucky enough to be a recipient of the Manitoba Arts Council (MAC) in the past and thought I knew a little bit about what they do, but after sitting down with Leanne Foley, Communications manger I got a better sense of how massive the organizations scope reaches. I asked Leanne what she does in a typical week.

“ I manage, write, do advocacy, report to the council, and plan. I’m not just talking about the strategic plan, but the short term plans. It's a sales job. You are always selling. I sell to the government and to the arts community and the council. Eighty percent of my job is internal communications and twenty is external. We have a huge staff and a lot of programs so I am designing work flows, management processes, touching on everything in the office, every bit of communication that goes out of the office needs to go past me.”

Artists apply for funding and when putting together juries for different programs, the MAC staff must translate every application for the jury.

“Last week, a big job was figuring out a better way to deal with the French translations. This is a government agency so absolutely everything has to be French and English. It's extremely important but it makes the process more difficult. I just saved us a whole wack of money by doing things a little differently but even then I had to sell that new idea to the council and convince then that this is different, but it can work. So it's a lot of public awareness out in the world about what MAC does, but it's also keeping the council aware as well.”

Leanne was a classroom teacher and then an actor in Australia when she met her husband who happened to be an actor in Winnipeg and has lived here ever since. She then spent fifteen years as a set and costume designer in theatre and a production designer in film and television. Interestingly, she received the MAC major arts award in 1997. She has been nominated for several awards for her work in design. I asked her how her background or training prepared her for this work.

“ It all prepared me, but most of all communications is common sense. Intuition. As a designer and a communications manager, I use all my resources. I share information, ask my staff and I decide my intrinsic need and then ignore everything else. I have an amazing staff.”

And now Leanne speaks lovingly for twenty minutes about people she works with. I can’t transcribe everything but suffice it to say she has a lot of respect for her colleagues and very much appreciates the way they all bring different gifts to the organization.

This leads to another question about how much writing she needs to do in her work.

“Writing is not my strength. I can do it, but I have people who can do it better. I have a great editorial eye. I know the shape and the gist of how it should be and then I get others to do it.”

You decide how to write for different audiences. At MAC we are communicating with different groups in two languages. How we speak to the minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism in an annual report is different then how we communicate on our website. “

I am relieved and excited when I ask Leanne about social media and technology and she says

     “Technology is the easy part of the job. I knew nothing. I had an email account. I didn't even use face book. I just ask around, it's now become a huge part of how we communicate but you just learn as you go. I do not blog. We do have a facebook page but even that, I'm not interested in unfiltered comments from anyone. If someone has a question or a comment or a criticism, I will discuss that issue with that individual but I don't actually want a blog post commented on and that's not the ideal way to access people's needs.”

I ask Leanne about something she's most proud of and she talks about a project involving a residency at Deep Bay (Riding Mountain National Park) where artists go to have time to work in the seclusion of a cottage in a beautiful area of Manitoba. It's a fantastic opportunity for any artist and again, it's communicating with the artists, the council, the community that hosts these artists and making everyone happy. She's proud of the artists who have had the chance to be there and how it's raised the profile of Manitoba Arts Council all over the province.

She is also proud of the new translation policies and how it's made a difference in the speed of communications and saving MAC some money.

Three tips for a newcomer in PR from Leanne

1.               “Choose an industry you love. You have to be a constant advocate and constantly be validating everything you do so make sure it's an organization you believe in. “

1.              “Take risks and be okay with making mistakes. You have to be able to take responsibility and say 'Right, okay tried that, that didn't work so now we'll try something else”

2.              “  If you are applying for the job, show them how your biggest asset can help them. They don’t know how much they need you. I wasn't a writer so I had to convince my boss that he needed someone with a design background. And I came cheap (laughing) until we renegotiated, of course.”