Art in the Park director resigns

Barely five days following the closing of the 45th annual Art in the Park festival, its director, Linda Long, submitted her resignation last Friday after hospital officials received numerous complaints about how the show was organized and run this year.

"I asked for and received her resignation and she gave it," Tom Maher, Boulder City Hospital CEO/administrator and Long's boss, announced last Friday. "It's effective immediately, today. The reason is there had been a lot of complaints leading up to, during and after Art in the Park."

Maher characterized the complaints, saying many of the participants he spoke with expressed their dissatisfaction with space assignments, traffic flow and dip in sales over previous fairs.

Although a Southern Nevada resident since 1999, Maher said he had never seen or visited Art in the Park until this year when he made a personal pilgrimage to the show to learn first-hand what the initial complaints were about.

"During the event, I visited every single booth and I wore my Art in the Park shirt and wore my hospital ID badge and I opened myself up to every bit of feedback from every customer, artist and food vendor I saw," Maher said. "There was some positive feedback, but quite a were."

The hospital executive said about 30 percent of the artists gave a negative response to the show under Long's direction, while 60 percent of the craftspeople and 70 percent of the food vendors similarly gave a thumbs-down to the event.

According to Bob Boyer, a member of the hospital's foundation that hired Long, she was hired "because of her qualifications and her prior background with art shows in the Midwest."

According to Maher, the issues behind Long's dismissal went far beyond what happened during Oct. 5 and 6.

"There were a variety of issues like organization planning, communications, logistics and follow-through. They (complaints) pretty much ran the whole spectrum. I heard the community loud and clear."

Before her departure, Long was given an exit interview, but Maher declined to give details of the meeting.

"As painful as it has been to read all the critical remarks," he said, "it's been a learning experience and we'll apply these lessons next year."

Meanwhile, the director's job, which pays more than $45,000 annually, is up for grabs and has been posted -- the position will not be advertised -- at the hospital's human resources department.

"I'd like the person to be a Boulder City resident, somebody who understands this community," Maher said. "There's no urgency for me to (fill the position) now. I can take a couple of weeks and consider my applicants. I'd like to make a selection within a month or so."

Several attempts to contact Long for comment were unsuccessful.