Arts Council Names New Center for Rhodes

The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County will name its new arts center in downtown Winston-Salem “Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts” in honor of its current president and CEO.

Rhodes has served twice as president and CEO of the arts council. “Milton has long been considered one of the most capable and visionary leaders in the American arts community,” said Tonya Deem, the council chair. “It is with pride that The Arts Council’s board of trustees names the center for him.”

The opening of the center is scheduled for early September and will be celebrated by several days of events, including a gala with entertainment by crooner Tony Bennett.

The Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, which includes the historic Sawtooth Building, was designed jointly by Winston-Salem architectural firms Calloway Johnson Moore & West and Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce. The 83,000-square foot center includes enlarged and enhanced facilities for Sawtooth Center for Visual Art; the 21,500-square foot Hanesbrands black box theater; Reynolds Place meeting and event venue; two new gallery and exhibition spaces; and a Spruce Street main entrance with horseshoe drive and dramatic canopy.

Rhodes graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.,C. and then enrolled at New York University where he received his M.F.A. in theater management. At NYU Rhodes served an internship with the Winston-Salem Symphony in the city where his wife Mattie, a flutist, had attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. In 1971, after service in the Army Finance Corps, he landed the job as executive director of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. He was 26 years old.

For nearly 40 years, Rhodes has been a mainstay of the nation’s arts and cultural community and one of America’s most distinguished nonprofit advocates and administrators.

Rhodes was president and CEO of the American Council for the Arts, now Americans for the Arts, one of the leading nonprofit organizations advancing arts in America. While at Americans for the Arts, Rhodes started “Arts Advocacy Day” that has become the leading opportunity for more than 600 arts organizations and individuals to meet congressional leaders to raise issues of national concern related to arts and culture. He also helped establish The Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy, a national forum for arts policy intended to stimulate dialogue on policy and social issues affecting the arts.

Rhodes is known for his fundraising prowess. As general manager of the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., he raised $12 million in 18 months to save the financially starved organization and continue to sustain one of the most critically acclaimed arts festivals in the world.

Since 2008, Rhodes has spearheaded a comprehensive campaign that, with the help of hundreds of local volunteers, has raised almost $26 million. A portion of the funds raised will transform a city block in downtown Winston-Salem into a gleaming, new multi-functional arts space to be called the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts.