By Dana DuGan<\/em><\/p>\n Christine Davis-Jeffers is just completing her first full month at the helm of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. As the new executive director, Davis-Jeffers, who\u2019s worked at The Center for more than three years, stresses the importance in arts education in the work accomplished by the Ketchum-based 501(c)(3) organization. To that end, the Sun Valley Wine Auction weekend finished with a bang, raising about $1.4 million to support arts education in the Wood River Valley.<\/p>\n The participation of all the guests in the room at the Gala Auction on Friday night was \u201cmoving to see. People understand the value of art,\u201d Davis-Jeffers said. \u201cI know how important that night is, though it\u2019s sometimes hard to get that across to the community. But without the auction being successful, we can\u2019t serve our community the way we want to.\u201d<\/p>\n As one of the biggest fundraisers in the area, the money stays entirely in the Valley, Davis-Jeffers said. \u201cWe spend approximately $1 million on arts in the schools, through our K through 12 programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Those programs are integral to The Center\u2019s strategic plan that recognizes that arts education \u201cdevelops creativity, one of the top skills employers prize in the 21st century,\u201d according to a 2008 Americans for the Arts study.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m focused on the strategic plan and accomplishing the goals we\u2019ve set for ourselves,\u201d Davis-Jeffers said. \u201cI\u2019m completely committed to this community and my work at The Center because I believe it makes this community a better place to live. We offer arts and culture year-round.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis-Jeffers said her move from running the Wine Auction, to working in development, to being the interim chief operating officer since November 2015, to executive director in three years, was relatively smooth. She worked previously as a marketing manager at Smith Sport Optics for 12 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great company to work for,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the reasons I could do this. I have a great set of skills that I learned over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporting her on the home front is her \u201cvery supportive husband,\u201d Tyler, and three daughters 11, 9, and six years old. As well, her parents are here from Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say \u2018their number one job is to help out,\u2019\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n At home and at work, people who\u2019re good at their jobs surround Davis-Jeffers.<\/p>\n The Sun Valley Center Wine Auction has many moving parts and events, and everyone is on hand to help.<\/p>\n \u201cThis staff is incredible,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can see that coming out of the Wine Auction. We couldn\u2019t be successful without everyone stepping up outside of their normal job descriptions. Also, our board is fully committed to this organization and our mission.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe want to provide transformative experiences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Davis-Jeffers is an organized and focused person who understands the weight of her new position.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a public service,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s an important job in this community.<\/p>\n I was encouraged by both staff and board. We wanted to make sure it was a good fit.<\/p>\n Much of my role will be around fundraising and leading our organization forward.\u201d<\/p>\n In the near future, there won\u2019t be obvious changes at The Center. Davis-Jeffers, the board and staff are \u201clooking deeply at facilities, collaborative opportunities, sustainability in a big way, ways of being more nimble with the big show,\u201d such as the current Craters of the Moon exhibit with Seattle artist John Grade.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u201cOur focus is to provide quality programming \u2013 we\u2019re unwavering. And we want to put Ketchum and Sun Valley on the map for arts, which we know is an economic driver.\u201d<\/p>\n Coming up this week The Center continues its busy summer with the legendary singer Mavis Staples at River Run on Friday, July 29, and the Sun Valley Center Arts & Crafts\u00a0Festival will be Aug. 12-14 at Atkinson Park in Ketchum. New this year is a Sip & Stroll on the festival\u2019s opening night starting at 5 p.m. with music by the Andrew Sheppard Band.<\/p>\n Though they are not moneymakers, Davis-Jeffers says The Center remains committed to the concerts for the time being.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think of it as a community gathering opportunity and we want to keep music alive in the Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n Can we have an \u2018amen\u2019?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One month in, Christine Davis-Jeffers ponders new position By Dana DuGan Christine Davis-Jeffers is just completing her first full month at the helm of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. As the new executive director, Davis-Jeffers, who\u2019s worked at The Center for more than three years, stresses the importance in arts education in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-news","9":"category-slider"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}