Louise Rosen

The board of directors of L/A Arts has confirmed the appointment of Louise Rosen as Consulting Director. Rosen has worked internationally in independent media and the arts for over 25 years and has extensive experience in business affairs, fundraising, programming, marketing and operations. As a longstanding figure in the international film community, she teaches and speaks at conferences and film festivals, including Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, DOK Leipzig and Sheffield DocFest.

In Maine, Rosen was the Founding Director of the Points North Documentary Forum, a professional development initiative for filmmakers at the Camden International Film Festival, and former Vice Chair of the Maine Film & Video Association. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Independent Feature Project/NY and is a Trustee of the Maine Media Workshops + College.

Rosen has served as Executive & Artistic Director of the Maine Jewish Film Festival for four seasons, growing the festival from a largely single-venue event to one with statewide status with cross-cultural community and financial support. In 2015, she was profiled as one of Maine Magazine’s “50 Bold Visionaries Defining Our State” and was a selected as speaker for Maine Live 2015, a day-long series of TED-style talks hosted by Maine Magazine and Bank of America. She lives in downtown Brunswick.

“Louise will work closely with the board and community members to assess and focus all activities of L/A Arts,” said Board Chair Judy Vardamis. “In conjunction with the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council, she will launch the important expanse of work funded through the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts’ Our Town grant to begin development of an ‘artist-maker economic model’ for the L-A area. We are fortunate to have a leader of her caliber during this time and look forward to her in-depth association with L/A Arts and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn.”

In addition, Rosen will direct the design for the implementation process of the new L-A Cultural Plan, funded through a Maine Arts Commission grant and matching support from the Auburn and Lewiston city governments, and will be tasked with reshaping the agency’s Arts in Education initiative and revamping its sponsorship and membership programs.

“The L-A community is wonderfully creative and diverse,” said Rosen. “The area’s combination of visionary, sustainable development initiatives, compelling preservation goals and a legacy of arts and artisanal endeavors makes for a tremendous range of opportunities in education and enterprise. I’m so pleased to be able to help support this community by working to amplify its rich cultural life as an economic driver and sharing it with a wider public.”