“Gentle, energetic, passionate” Rosebud CEO will be missed

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Rosebud Centre of the Arts said farewell in early September to executive director Adam Furfaro. Furfaro guided the organization through significant growth, and his colleagues say he’ll be missed.“[Adam] is a gentle and godly servant leader, guiding and inspiring others through encouragement and example,” said Colin Jackson, Rosebud Centre of the Arts (RCA) board chair. “With his remarkable leadership, RCA has blossomed in our post-secondary education and our theatre programming, eliminated a million-dollar mortgage, multiplied our fundraising and expanded our facilities.”
“[Adam] was responsible for formalizing and growing our relationship with our audience through Engage, a series of events that brought audiences and artists and others together,” said Morris Ertman, Rosebud Theatre’s artistic director. “He is ultimately a ‘people person,’ and that gift aided us in increased development, sponsorship, relationships to donors and more. His warmth and energy will be missed.”
According to Paul Muir, RSA’s education director, “Rosebud School of the Arts has been blessed to have Adam join us. His energy, passion and enthusiasm have generated new programs and initiatives, and have brought a lot of new interest to our little valley. We’re sad to see him go.”
Furfaro will miss Rosebud too, he said, especially all the relationships he’s built here.
“It hasn’t been an easy time, but it has been fulfilling, and filled with so much learning,” Furfaro said. “I’m certainly leaving with a sense of satisfaction, and hopefully left the place in better shape than I found it. And that’s not saying it wasn’t good. It was great.
“The people of this community are spectacular,” he added. “I used to go to work on any given day and I would have a list of things that I was going to do. And I would do them, do them, do them.”
In Rosebud, Furfaro learned to approach things differently.
“What you need to actually do is make room in your day for the unexpected,” he said. “To have the conversations that you weren’t expected to have, to listen to somebody who had a situation to deal with, or to talk to a patron.
“It wasn’t about trying to accomplish as much as you could in one day, but it was about the relationships and conversations.”
Nevertheless, there were challenges. When he arrived in 2012, the organization was 1.4 million dollars in debt.
“Companies were closing with that much debt, [but] this board wouldn’t let that happen,” Furfaro said. “It was the tenacity of the board and staff that wanted to keep this place going.
“The organization was at a place where either it had to grow or it had to get smaller, so growth was the model they took. Donor relations and development and sponsorships and government assistance were all necessary.”
In 2014, a $1 million donation from Richard and Lois Haskayne erased their mortgage debt. Government assistance eliminated the rest. In 2015, the Haskaynes and an anonymous donor initiated large matching campaigns. Sponsorships have multiplied by 400 to 500 per cent.
During Alberta’s economic downturn, donations and attendance are below target, he said, but “it’s not debilitating and it’s not life-threatening, which it would have been if they’d had that [debt].”
Furfaro said he’s proud of Rosebud’s “voice within the province, being recognized in theatrical circles, industry circles and education circles as being a relevant and important rural voice to arts and culture.”
He’s also pleased about record RSA enrollment, marketing expansions, the hospitality emphasis and the theatre’s production quality.
“I’d like to see this place get some more provincial and national recognition,” he said. “The place is small, but the story is large.”
Furfaro is now executive director of a church in Ontario, his home province. With two daughters in Ontario universities, his wife wishing to resume her film and television acting career, and their parents aging, it seemed time to return, he said.
The changes ahead are “very exciting,” Furfaro said, “but it’s hard to leave. It’s amazing how quickly your roots grow.”
A former board member is RCA’s interim CEO while the board continues the search to replace Furfaro.