Who is Strategic Arts Consulting?
What do we do?
I have been asking these two questions for the last two years. Strategic Art was formed in June 2008 as a legal technicality. I never planned to start a consulting firm, it was an outcome of trying to get a good grade in Dr. Barbara Reilly's Consulting Practice class at GSU's Robinson College of Business. She required us to get a "client" and add value to their company. So, I reached out to Fractured Atlas, an organization I had a long relationship with in my career as an artist and artistic director. They kindly agreed to be my "client" for a semester long consulting project. To my pleasant surprise, this class project turned into a legitimate consulting contract and the LLC was formed to simply limit my legal liability.
Even after contracts from prestigious institutions like the Woodruff Arts Center, Young Audiences, Savannah College of Art and Design came to me by word-of-mouth, beginners luck or fate; I was hesitant about establishing Strategic Arts as a proper firm. My interest was in understanding how knowledge from the field of business could inform innovation and sustainability in the arts; as well as the diversification of voices heard in the arts ecology. I wanted to figure out how to steward resources to creative visionaries that may get lost in the "administration" of the arts industries. However, it was unclear if consulting was the best way to achieve these goals.
After two years of non-stop consulting (sharpening skills, developing competencies and seeing positive outcomes in client projects), I realize that helping multiple artists and organizations create effective strategies for success is the best way to serve the mission: innovation, sustainability, and diversity in the arts. Now, I can confidently answer these two important questions by stating the following:
"Strategic Arts is a boutique consulting firm, dedicated to helping creative professionals answer their creative call and realize their artistic vision."
Clarifying this identity has moved us from the R&D phase to the growth phase, where we are expanding services, increasing capacity and raising the company's visibility in the arts sector. As part of this effort we have adding two highly-skilled auxiliary consultants, with valuable insights and competencies:
Dr. L. Gregory Henley, Ph.D. --
Dr. Henley is the director of the Herman J. Russell, Sr. International Center for Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University. His passion is to help entrepreneurs succeed and his experiences have prepared him to do so. With a BS from MIT and an MBA and Ph.D. from Columbia University, he's been blessed with opportunities in both business and academia. Prior to joining Georgia State University, Dr. Henley taught at the University of South Florida's (USF) Center for Entrepreneurship, helped start the entrepreneurship undergraduate major at the University of Tampa. He worked in the Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University while pursuing his Ph.D.
Dr. Henley's entrepreneurial experience includes starting a mortgage company, an investment advisory firm, acquiring a community bank in Alabama and another community bank in Florida. Although he began his career working for large companies, including Procter & Gamble, Chemical Bank, and New England Telephone Company, entrepreneurship has always been his passion. Dr. Henley has held positions of President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. His consulting assignments included evaluating bank acquisitions, working with de novo banks, E-commerce start-ups and implementing the installation of a web site for a bank client. He is an active investor in small businesses and real estate.
He is interviewed frequently for his views on a wide-range of entrepreneurship topics by the media and has been quoted in media outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Christian Science Monitor to Heart & Soul. Dr. Henley also wrote a monthly entrepreneurship column for Business-to-Business, an online publication for Atlanta executives.
Community involvement is an important part of Dr. Henley's life. He is an active member of St. James United Methodist Church. He has served as a judge for business plan competitions for organizations including the National Black MBA Association's Entrepreneurial Institute, the Youth Entrepreneurs of Atlanta at Morehouse College, and the Future Business Leaders of America. Dr. Henley also speaks to youth organizations throughout the nation and recently has addressed the Piney Grove Baptist Church youth program, the Atlanta After-School All-Stars, the Montgomery, AL chapter of Jack and Jill of America and M3Boys in Berkeley, CA.
He has begun a multi-year initiative, "Dr. Henley's Road Trip," in which he intends to interview entrepreneurs in all 50 states for a book. His goal is to also host the monthly entrepreneur forums that he currently hosts in Atlanta during his trip around the country.
Jessyca Holland -- Jessyca recently worked for five years with the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts (ACPA). With ACPA, Jessyca helped manage programs and services to the performing arts community of greater Atlanta. Jessyca was instrumental in creating the relationship with Kaiser Permanente's Bridge Program, low premium, high coverage insurance for performing artists. Jessyca oversaw the Atlanta Unified Auditions, and was regional coordinator for the Theatre Communications Group initiative, Free Night of Theatre.
Jessyca has worked with artists and arts groups from all over the region. In 2007, Jessyca was selected to participate in Bank of America's Neighborhood Builders initiative. Through this program, Jessyca worked with non-profit groups from cities across the country. Traveling to three different U.S. cities, Jessyca had to privilege to work with some of the industries top professionals.
Jessyca received her BA in Theatre from the University of West Georgia in 2000. After graduation, she worked as a performer with area theatre companies, including, Synchronicity Theatre, Georgia Ensemble and Theatre Decatur. Jessyca performs regularly with the long-form improv group, Your Mom's Mom (a house team for Jackpie Improv at Relapse Theatre). In 2009, Jessyca graduated with her Masters in Library Media from Georgia State University. He program covered information technology and current pedagogical practices within the K-12 learning community. While working on her Masters, ACPA went through a major web redesign of its current website. Jessyca, along with key staff members, help create content for the website, and provided input on user interface features with IT Manager (and Web Project Manager, Joe Winter).
In addition to information technology, Jessyca has a very strong interest in education. She has taught with varies youth theatre programs, but her interest extends to educating adults as well. Jessyca has helped facilitate conversations among peers about current trends and issues in the arts and arts education. Her teaching internship was completed at The Children's School of Atlanta in 2009.
