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Transition to new leadership is never easy at a non-profit arts group and it is particularly tough after the original director has occupied the top spot for the organization's entire first decade.
That is the situation today at Richard Hugo House, the literary arts center on Capitol Hill where Lyall Bush replaced Frances McCue at the end of May. Bush is no stranger to those at the onetime funeral home turned writing hub. The 45-year-old native of Canada has worked at Hugo House since 2003, serving as program and education manager, as well as teaching several writing classes.
The personable executive director, who possesses dual Canadian and American citizenship, also is a freelance essayist and critic whose work has appeared in the Iowa Review, Books in Canada and Film Comment (his favorite film is "Chinatown").
Bush discussed his new job and his goals for Hugo House while seated in his small corner office with resplendent purple walls (courtesy of a previous occupant). A tiny Shih Tzu dog named Wheezie curled up by Bush's feet underneath his de Stijl-style desk similar to the one used by poet Ezra Pound.
P-I: What is the most important change you've been working to implement at Hugo House?
Bush: I've been involved in some housecleaning around here. For example, there are 14 different things on our Web site; we have classes, events, residencies and more. They're all pretty coherent, but they're also dizzying. I wanted what we do to be more transparent.
This year, I also want to get writers in and out of the city to produce new work for us around a theme. We need to put our money where our mouth is; we are about writing. So we have commissioned seven people to produce seven new pieces of writing for us. We will be spending a little under $20,000 on commissioned new work. That kind of thing may have happened here in the past, but we didn't say, "Here's a check, now write for us." It will be fun to see what people can do under that pressure.
What is the toughest challenge of replacing an organization's original director after so many years at the helm?
That's a little bit of a problem but our visions for Hugo House are not that different. Last week, I met with our donors and told them that I'm in favor of a little different turn in the road here. The reason to make that change is: We're a midlevel local organization (with a $1 million budget this year) that could transition into a national treasure. Would that take four years, or 12? I don't know. But I think that can happen here and I plan to spend half my week on that.
Three years ago, The Stranger ran a cover story by Christopher Frizzelle that strongly criticized Hugo House as an aimless and obscure institution. What, if any, of that criticism was justified in your view? What was off-base? And what changes were put into effect as a result?
Oh my! That article was one of the first things I saw when I came here. We sure had a lot of staff meetings about that. I was thinking then -- how often do we offer classes in graphic novels, or have youth poetry slams and open mikes? So we've been more pro-active in seeking those audiences.
I also think that we, historically, have not been attuned enough to marketing. We have many things going on here, with classes, events and residencies. But if we had been super clear about what they are, obscurity would not be an issue.
Christopher also criticized us for being an institution for middle-class, middle-aged white women. But attendance in our writing classes and at our events is demographically changing. So is our staff. I think over the last 2 1/2 years we have hired a more diverse staff, with a lower average age.
You've been around Hugo House for some time. What is your favorite Hugo House moment during that time, and why?
That has to be the recent one-night production of a one-man show about Theodore Roethke written by David Wagoner (the longtime University of Washington poet who is currently a Hugo House writer-in-residence). John Aylward flew up here from L.A. to portray Roethke. It was a sold-out night, and Aylward was amazing, too. We had a big party after the play and people stayed and drank and talked -- I had never seen that happen at Hugo House to that extent. People knew they had seen something great and they wanted to talk about it afterward. I want to do more things like that here -- things that are about writing and involve celebration of writing afterward.
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