Now five years into his role, the Scottsdale Arts CEO is working to lift the nonprofit to new heights.
Last October, Gerd Wuestemann introduced Wilco as the inaugural performers at the Scottsdale Civic Center Amphitheater. The recently unveiled state-of-the-art facility is one of the first projects he took on when he was appointed president and CEO of Scottsdale Arts in 2018, so seeing more than 3,000 people enthralled by the alt-rockers was a proud moment for him.
Yet, looking back at his first five years running the nonprofit that oversees Scottsdale Public Art, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale Arts Education and Outreach and Canal Convergence, what the German-raised executive is most proud of is the team and community he has helped build, which may not be as visible as a band’s performance or a stunning art piece.
“I feel incredibly fortunate because the organization is in really great shape,” he says. “Because we invested in people through difficult times and made a turnaround, I think we have a fairly high degree of loyalty now.”
Before joining Scottsdale Arts, Wuestemann, who holds a doctorate of musical arts from the University of Arizona, served as executive director of the Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA) in Lafayette, Louisiana. In his time there, the classically trained guitarist grew the center’s public and private funding to build new facilities and hire more staff, leading to the AcA receiving the Governor’s Culture Award in 2016. Wuestemann felt he did all he could in that role, so when the position opened at Scottsdale Arts, he jumped at the new challenge. But his work was cut out for him once he reached the desert.
Before he arrived, he says Scottsdale Arts had operated in the red for a number of years. Much of the first two years of his tenure was spent fixing financial woes and uniting the fractured teams under the organization’s umbrella. Employees from different areas were working in silos, he says, causing friction among upper management. By restructuring, Wuestemann galvanized employees behind the nonprofit’s mission: developing, advancing and delivering the arts to the city’s residents and visitors.
There was some initial resistance, so Wuestemann and some of the organization’s board members went on what he dubs an “apology tour” to show the Scottsdale City Council that the nonprofit was a good steward of the resources the city appropriates every year (more than $6.5 million in 2021). It was a challenge, but combined with funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, he prepared Scottsdale Arts for the pandemic by turning around its finances, allowing it to come through relatively unscathed when similar organizations struggled to survive.
“We never furloughed,” he says. “We didn’t cut salaries. We were able to carry on.”
Wuestemann also wanted to address the perception that they only cater to snowbirds. When he came on board, he was puzzled that the organization’s event calendar only ran from fall to spring, as he always saw the affluent suburb as a destination within the Valley. He aimed to evolve and diversify its art offerings for year-round residents.
“Canal Convergence exemplifies many of the changes around this organization,” Wuestemann says of the large-scale art installations and events held every November at the Scottsdale Waterfront. “It’s exponentially grown… I think that’s been a game-changer for us as an organization and for Scottsdale as a city.”
Courting more outdoor concerts and festivals is another priority. The Scottsdale Culinary Festival shuttered, replaced with The Original Taste (April 20). “We are exploring a more in-depth future partnership, but are also considering developing a new event to replace the culinary festival in the future,” Wuestemann says.
The performing arts center will add a new exhibition space at SMoCA in 2024, an addition he believes will make it one of the finest contemporary art museums in the Southwest.
“[It] is an ongoing process that we have to be fully committed to,” Wuestemann says. “I am very much committed to that.”
