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Chloe Veltman: how culture will save the world

Thoughts as I start a new professional chapter

May 1, 2015 by Chloe Veltman

IMG_2601

A vewi of the San Francisco skyline from Bernal Heights. April 30, 2015. (Photo: Chloe Veltman.)

In a couple of hours I will walk through the doors of KQED and start my new job as senior arts editor there.

KQED is one of the country’s biggest and most well-respected public media organizations. I’m feeling excited and a little intimidated about what lies ahead.

I learned a lot from my two years at Colorado Public Radio in Denver. It was essentially my first ever full-time, salaried job. I’d always worked for myself until I went to CPR to launch and lead its then brand new arts bureau.

Some of the things I picked up from my time at CPR that will serve me well in the new gig (it’s a very general list that will probably have many of you going “duh!”, but still):

  • Listening carefully.
  • Learning to be patient. Bringing about change in public media organizations often takes time.
  • Understanding that I don’t have control over a lot of things that happen in the workplace and that I have to be flexible and calm and roll with whatever comes my way.
  • Knowing that the best ideas often come to me at unpredictable moments and that forcing stuff to happen isn’t generally productive.
  • Knowing what battles to fight and when to walk away.
  • Staying enthusiastic while keeping it real. Vacuous perkiness is irritating as I discovered from spending time around one or two of my colleagues in Denver.
  • Keeping a good sense of perspective.
  • Maintaining transparency and openness.
  • Spending time getting to know the building and as many of its dwellers as I can — walking around and talking to people not just in my team but also all over the organization is a must.
  • Taking breaks.
  • Having fun.
  • Knowing that I don’t always have to have all the answers right away.
  • Maintaining boundaries.
  • Understanding that I cannot possibly see every single piece of art happening in the region. But I can get to a bunch of it and build my understanding of the area’s cultural life bit by bit.
  • Putting diversity front and center of my thinking when it comes to commissioning stories and who should cover them.
  • Experimenting. Wildly.
  • Questioning. Unrepentantly.
  • Respecting tradition even as I question it.

Wish me luck!

 

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Comments

  1. Margot H. Knight says

    May 1, 2015 at 10:16 am

    Other than “make time to take long walks in the redwoods,” I think you’ve got it covered. Welcome to your new Capital H HOME!

  2. Evan says

    May 1, 2015 at 10:46 am

    Thanks for the great job getting the arts bureau going at CPR, it was long overdue and we will miss you in Denver! Good luck in San Francisco.

  3. Derrick says

    May 1, 2015 at 10:49 am

    <3<3

  4. Ann Dyer says

    May 1, 2015 at 11:48 am

    Chloe,

    So wonderful to have your clear, soulful voice back in they Bay Area.

    Welcome home!

    Ann

  5. Jeremy Smith says

    May 1, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    Luck!

  6. Emily Stauffer says

    May 1, 2015 at 1:30 pm

    Not ‘Duh’, but rather ‘Yes!!’ Many profound insights from your time in Colorado! Congrats on a very exciting new venture!!!

  7. Jay says

    May 1, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    Worked at KQED for 7 years as a video editor for KQED and the NewsHour. Great place to work. Great people..

  8. Doug McKechnie says

    May 2, 2015 at 12:19 am

    Congratulations and welcome. This is a fabulous town/bay area/region as you know, bursting with creative arts and energy. There are so many wonderful stories, such a profusion of wonder and joy amidst the hardships of just living, just getting by, as so many artists are, just getting by. Good luck.

  9. Charles Amirkhanian says

    May 2, 2015 at 9:16 am

    Dear Ms. Veltman, Enjoy the vewi. I am stunned by this nsew. Well, maybe not. Charles Amirkhanian

  10. Marilyn Pittman says

    May 2, 2015 at 9:30 am

    Welcome. Iwould love to meet you and see how our paths may intersect. I am the leading voice and talent coach to NPR stations. I teach at Berkeley’s J School. I am a comic, a narrator, a radio host.

    Marilyn

  11. Rebecca Davis says

    May 4, 2015 at 8:26 am

    Wonderful words of wisdom for ANYONE heading into a new gig, Thanks for sharing and good luck! Keep it perky (some of the best advice you give: to be positive, but pragmatic)! I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon. R

  12. Ken says

    May 13, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    Welcome back to the Bay Area Chloe! We are lucky to have you.

Chloe Veltman

...is the Senior Arts Editor at KQED (www.kqed.org), one of the U.S.'s most prominent public media organizations. Chloe returns to the Bay Area following two years as Arts Editor at Colorado Public Radio (www.cpr.org), where she was tapped to launch and lead the state-wide public media organization's first ever multimedia culture bureau. A former John S. Knight Journalism Fellow (2011-2012) and Humanities Center Fellow (2012-2013) at Stanford University, Chloe has contributed reporting and criticism to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, BBC Classical Music Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, WQXR and many other media outlets. Chloe was also the host and executive producer of VoiceBox, a syndicated, weekly public radio and podcast series all about the art of the human voice (www.voicebox-media.org), which ran for four years between 2009 and 2013. Her study about the evolution of singing culture in the U.S. is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Check out Chloe's website at www.chloeveltman.com and connect with her on Twitter via @chloeveltman. [Read More …]

lies like truth

These days, it's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fantasy. As Alan Bennett's doollally headmaster in Forty Years On astutely puts it, "What is truth and what is fable? Where is Ruth and where is Mabel?" It is one of the main tasks of this blog to celebrate the confusion through thinking about art and perhaps, on occasion, attempt to unpick the knot. [Read More...]

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