The Arts Alliance, the nonprofit umbrella support group for arts and cultural organizations in Washtenaw County, has named a new executive director: Debra Polich, who has been the acting director and also heads Artrain.

Following is the text of the announcement:

The Arts Alliance board is delighted to announce that is has retained the services of Debra Polich as Executive Director. Polich was named Interim Director of the Arts Alliance in February while she continued to serve as the Artrain President/CEO, a position she has held for 19 years. Polich will continue to lead the Arts Alliance and Artrain and is implementing a resource sharing program for both organizations. The Arts Alliance is also pleased to have Shoshana Hurand on staff as program manager and Richard Maurer as finance manager.

The Arts Alliance has moved to NEW Center to share the suite where Artrain has been housed since 1993. Polich remarked, "One of Artrain's core mission initiatives is to help foster and strengthen local arts and cultural agencies, so having the Arts Alliance live with Artrain makes mission sense. We believe both organizations will benefit greatly from working so closely together." The Arts Alliance and Artrain will remain separate organizations and maintain their independent boards and 501(c)3 statuses.

"Our research has shown that although sharing space and support services is often prompted by a desire to save money, in actuality, it increases organizational capacity by affording each organization access to greater quality services and staff. Being housed in the NEW Center building affords the Arts Alliance many great amenities including meeting space, close proximity to a variety of nonprofit organizations, parking and ADA accessibility" Lynne Friman, Arts Alliance board chair stated.

The Arts Alliance advocates for and supports the Creative Sector in Washtenaw County - art and cultural organizations and creative individuals and businesses - to insure that our region remains a great place to live, work, play and visit. www.A3Arts.org.

Effective immediately, the Arts Alliance's contact information is:
The Arts Alliance, Inc.
1100 North Main St., Suite 106B
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
www.A3Arts.org
Phone: 734-213-2733
Fax: 734-747-8530