The Evolution of Work, Place & People - My Journey to Cleveland

Posted on 05/04/23 by Kate in A Note from Kate Borders

On June 12th I will begin my service as President of University Circle Inc. As I have made this known to my friends and colleagues, many questions followed: Have you ever been to Cleveland? Do you have family in Cleveland? Why this job? Why now? And, my personal favorite... Do you know it snows there? The last question makes me chuckle every time. Really, it snows in Ohio?

I always find our paths intriguing and I'm so grateful for each step that has gotten me to this point. Honestly, my Journey began with my mother's passion for the arts. She was a working artist, who had achieved her MFA in photography and she was an art professor She took me to my first performance of The Nutcracker at age four and I was captivated. My ballet lessons began immediately afterward. She gave me piano lessons as a Christmas present in 2nd grade and I eventually went to college to study music. She was constantly exposing me to cultural experiences; theaters, orchestras, musicals, poetry readings, and gallery exhibitions were commonplace. Not to mention, the myriad of art mediums that she experimented with in the home. If she wasn't in her darkroom, she was trying her hand at basket weaving or printmaking and letting me "play" with her. The artistic richness of my childhood sparked a deep appreciation for the working hands of these magical creators.

I spent summers at Brevard Music Center on the staff. I worked in the box office and for the administration creating the program notes, to cover the cost of my music studies. One day I was walking to my piano lesson and stopped to enjoy the beauty of the musical chaos. Students were practicing under trees, lessons were happening in studios, choirs were rehearsing, an opera dress rehearsal was beginning, and all the sounds were colliding like a musical frenzy. As much as I loved performing, I wanted to be a part of making this happen more than I wanted to walk into that practice room. I finished my music undergrad degree and got my master's in arts administration and shifted from performing to programming.

Programming in the arts is adjacent to community events and community events often come from place management organizations and so my career moved in that direction. I am now in a field that wasn't even known to me when I was starting out, but this work is a sweet spot for me. Every day brings a different challenge and I am drawn to the scrappy and resourceful nature of the nonprofit world. One day you might be engaging with major corporate sponsors and the next day you might literally be cleaning garbage from a park before an event. Place management has now taken me from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Fresno, California to Tempe, Arizona, and will soon bring me to University Circle.

I see University Circle as an intersection of my passions. The major institutions that are located here are centers of inspiration. The arts enrich our lives and expose us to cultures and histories that are beyond our known experiences. The educational institutions bring a thirst for knowledge that breeds innovation, and the medical facilities are advancing healthcare in ways that bring improved quality of life to our residents and visitors from around the world. This coexistence of excellence is an opportunity to build the most dynamic place imaginable. It is both humbling and invigorating to be able to lead this organization and work with this caliber of facilities.

So, no, I don't have any family in Cleveland ... yet. Family is both born to us and earned in the relationships that we build, so that will come. I had never been to Cleveland before this process and I have drunk the Kool-Aid. This job, because it fits me, and I believe I fit it. Now is an incredible time in Cleveland's journey as many institutions are seeing leadership changes and that will mean a marriage of historical knowledge and new ideas. And finally, I'm aware of snow and have heard tales of the lake effect, and I am ready - for all of it.