Callanwolde Fine Arts Center has a new leader. Jason Martin took over as executive director effective Aug. 31. He succeeds Andrew Keenan, who retired after nine years leading the organization.
Martin steps into the role as Callanwolde works to complete The Warren, a multi-million-dollar campus expansion. Here’s what to know about the center’s new executive director.
“My first job is to listen and learn. I don’t think you earn the right to change things until you’ve taken the time to understand them.”
—Callanwolde Executive Director Jason Martin
1. He’s spent his career building hands-on learning programs.
Martin founded STE(A)M Truck, a mobile makerspace initiative, and served as executive director of Community Guilds, work built around the idea that people learn best by making things with their hands. Martin sees parallels in Callanwolde’s mission and purpose. “Someone sits down at a pottery wheel, picks up a paintbrush, learns photography or gets their hands dirty in the garden. They’re creating, experimenting and learning by doing,” he explained.
2. Expanding access is his top priority.
Martin said he wants to look past attendance numbers to ask who isn’t walking through Callanwolde’s doors, and why. He pointed to a structural challenge facing the entire state: “Georgia… has historically ranked near the bottom nationally in per-capita public funding for the arts,” he said, adding that DeKalb County has been a strong partner but that philanthropy and creative partnerships will be essential to keeping cost from being a barrier.
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3. He’s not planning to change much—at first.
Taking over from a nine-year leader means inheriting institutional relationships Martin says he doesn’t want to disrupt right away. “My first job is to listen and learn,” he said, naming the center’s commitment to access, the quality of its arts instruction, and Keenan’s relationships with staff, artists and veterans as things worth protecting. “I don’t think you earn the right to change things until you’ve taken the time to understand them.”
4. He sees the Warren campaign as more than a construction project.
The capital campaign behind Callanwolde’s expansion is roughly 90% funded, with about $1 million left to raise, Martin said. He described the project as an opportunity to nearly double the number of young people the center serves through its outreach programs. “I don’t think of it simply as finishing a capital campaign,” he said. “I think of it as an investment in what comes next.”
5. He’s a Certified Fund Raising Executive.
Martin holds the CFRE credential and says his fundraising approach centers on finding where a donor’s interests genuinely overlap with an organization’s mission. He pointed to STE(A)M Truck’s early donor relationships as an example of how that approach can grow over time. At Callanwolde, he said, “We’re not asking people to fund a building. We’re asking them to invest in what that building makes possible.”
Learn more about Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, including class offerings and updates on The Warren, at callanwolde.org.
