Chandler arts official gets grant

A longtime administrator for the Chandler Center for the Arts has been awarded one of five fellowships for a self-designed sabbatical by the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

Michelle Mac Lennan, 36, of Tempe, who has been with the center for almost eight years and is now its assistant manager, embarks this week on a series of professional development programs that will occupy her periodically for much of 2007.

The Piper award, which provides up to $30,000 for Mac Lennan and up to $10,000 for her staff at the center, is intended to give professionals in the non-profit field adequate time and expenses for study and travel. Chandler resident Milon Pitts, an executive with Homeward Bound in Phoenix, also received one of the fellowships.

"This will refresh and renew my skills," Mac Lennan said of the grant. "I'll get a more global perspective on the arts."

As part of the sabbatical, Mac Lennan will take two, two-day courses at the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management at Arizona State University. She also will attend two conferences of arts industry managers and participate in an intensive, one-week course in acting at the New York Film Academy.

"That will be with professional actors," she said, "and it will expand my confidence in working with creative people."

The sabbatical's timing is ideal, Mac Lennan said, because the 17-year-old, 1,500-seat downtown arts center soon will embark on major capital fund and renovation projects. About $4.2million is earmarked for center improvements from a $450million bond package that is expected to come before Chandler voters in May.

Mac Lennan joined the Chandler center in 1999 as patron services manager and was promoted to program and events coordinator before leaving for a brief stint as fine arts coordinator for the Tempe Center for the Arts. In October 2005, she returned as assistant manager of the Chandler center, where she supervises more than 200 volunteers and a staff of 11.