Inner-City Arts names Joseph Collins as new CEO and president
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Inner-City Arts, the nonprofit organization in downtown L.A.’s Skid Row that provides free arts education to disadvantaged youth, has named Joseph A. Collins as its new president and chief executive officer. Collins replaces Cynthia Harnisch Breunig, who left the organization in July after more than 12 years to become chief executive of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio.
Collins, who assumes his role this week, previously served as the chief executive of the Kanye West Foundation, the nonprofit youth organization affiliated with the pop singer that shut down in March. Collins also has held positions at the New York City Department of Education and the University Settlement Society of New York.
In a phone interview Monday, Collins said that his goals for the coming year include expanding Inner-City Arts’ evening and weekend programs for youth, and to increase teenage participation.
He added that he wants to ramp up activity in the organization’s performing-arts theater. ‘I want it to become a place for emerging artists and an incubator for new works in dance, theater and music,’ Collins said.
A spokeswoman for Inner-City Arts said that Harnisch Breunig left the organization in July after getting married and moving to the Inland Empire. During her tenure, she oversaw the organization’s renovated campus designed by architect Michael Maltzan.
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-- David Ng
Iwan Baan