Photo: Ginger White Brunetti | John Moore, Denver Gazette | COMBO Editor’s note: Ms. White Brunetti has worked with COMBO for many years, inviting us to events, and including us whenever she could. She is a true supporter of the arts – and music – and will be a GREAT LOSS to the city of Denver if not rehired. | New Denver Mayor Mike Johnston solved a problem that absolutely did not exist this week when he decided against retaining Ginger White Brunetti as Executive Director of Denver Arts & Venues, involuntarily ending a stellar 18-year career with the city.
Without naming a replacement. Or an interim. Or having a deputy on staff. And without communicating any of this to the nearly 100 shocked employees of the department, who had to read the news on Facebook.
And, more consequently, leaving major initiatives like the voter-approved reopening of the May Bonfils Stanton Theater on the former Loretto Heights College campus very much in limbo. In 2021, Denver voters appropriated $30 million to help restore the iconic theater and its adjacent library for a planned 2026 reopening. But with $20 million still to raise just to finish the first phase of the project, Denver councilman Kevin Flynn, whose district includes Loretto Heights, is now concerned about its future.
“I am very upset by this,” said Flynn. “I had called the mayor and urged him to retain Ginger because she was the visionary behind the additional acquisition of the library building, and the concept of this as the first cultural and community center for southwest Denver.”
Arts & Venues acts both as a marketing agency to promote the economic vitality of the arts, while also managing city-owned venues including Red Rocks, the Denver Coliseum, the Colorado Convention Center, the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the McNichols Civic Center Building and the Studio Loft above the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Combined, they generate $90 million in annual revenue and attract nearly 3 million people a year.
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Read the rest of the story on the unfair and unwarranted firing of Ms. White Brunetti here:
https://denvergazette.com/arts-entertainment/ginger-white-brunetti-deserved-better-from-mayor-mike-johnston-john-moore/article_f58b226c-5fdc-11ee-b9f9-437edc357a5c.html
John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at
john.moore@denvergazette.com
[Thanks to Alex Teitz for contributing this article! http://www.femmusic.com]
Photo: Ginger White Brunetti
October 12, 2023| Colorado Music-Related Business| Barb Dye