Hassler to assume new post as county director of arts and culture

Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Recently named the Putnam County director of arts and culture, Suzanne Hassler is charged with coordinating, creating and adding to the county’s extensive arts scene.
Courtesy photo

Putnam County has joined a very small group of Indiana communities demonstrating the value and importance of the arts by dedicating a person to enhancing them and, through them, the local quality of life.

Suzanne Hassler has been named to the newly created position of Putnam County director of arts and culture, with a goal of coordinating, creating and adding to Putnam County’s extensive arts scene. In this role, Hassler will build on the county’s music, arts and cultural assets, promoting them to both residents and prospective visitors.

“Suzanne has been an extraordinary resource to this community,” Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory said. “For the past seven years, she has been our go-to person for communications from DePauw’s Green Center for the Performing Arts, and I look forward to her becoming the county’s go-to person as we continue to promote what a great place this county is because of its extensive arts programs and events.”

Bloomington and Jasper have a similar position as part of city government. Aside from those, no other town or county in Indiana has a person dedicated to coordinating and promoting arts to both enrich life for residents and encourage guests to visit.

“Suzanne, accepting this new position, sends a message,” said Page Cotton, president of the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It first signals to everyone in Putnam County that we are unique in all the wealth of arts here, so unique that we are committing resources to a position that coordinates and expands them so we can enjoy them more, and so others can too.

“It also signals to the state and to the Midwest that Putnam County values the arts and has such a wealth of programs, studios and events that we need someone to coordinate with that community as it continues to move faster and grow larger.”

The Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) created the position and Hassler will work from the Visitors Center in downtown Greencastle and from her home office. Cotton said the CVB board of directors envisions her spending much of her time out in the county’s music and arts community.

Hassler will focus on creating relationships within the arts community, understanding what the county offers and recommending ways to coordinate it and, especially, ways to enhance it.

“No one had reached out to us before at the Banner Graphic the way Suzanne had,” the newspaper’s editor, Eric Bernsee, said. “When I learned she was no longer with the university, I felt DePauw’s loss was a loss to all of us. In her new role, the community’s gain also is DePauw’s gain.”

“We have so much here,” CVB Tourism Director Eric Freeman said. “With First Fridays, ParkFest, Greencastle Summer Music Festival, Greencastle Music Fest, the Roachdale Rib and Blues Fest, the Russellville Holiday Cantata, Acoustic Sunsets and Jazz at the Duck, LIVEstock, Music on the Square, the Crown Street Festival, all the events at DePauw and all the bands that area restaurants and bars host, the CVB is focusing on music as a way to build a county arts brand and attract visitors. In doing that, the intent is to strengthen community among the county’s many musicians and event organizers. No one knows how to create an even more vibrant music scene better than this large pool of talent, and Suzanne will help us understand how to support it to create an even higher quality of life here.”

Hassler begins her new duties Aug. 1.

Hassler earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Art+Design at the University of Illinois and holds a Master of Arts in theatre history and criticism, with an emphasis in opera and secondary emphasis in theatrical design, from The University of Texas at Austin.

She also completed a professional internship in marketing and public relations with the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship through the Arts Journalism Institute at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Prior to joining DePauw in 2012, she was director of communications and development for The Prairie Ensemble; coordinator of alumni relations and development at the University of Illinois School of Music; and assistant to the director of the School of Music for communications and development at The University of Texas at Austin.

“This is an ideal opportunity,” she said. “Over the years, I have made great friends with both artists and audiences who enjoy their work. To now be responsible for enhancing Putnam County by building a stronger arts community is a challenge I’m ready to rise to meet and look forward to very much.”

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