In the winter of 1999, Artistic Director Harriet Vogt decided to retire earlier than had been anticipated by the university. With her retirement just weeks away on March 1, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. John Miller, asked if I was interested in taking a leave of absence from the Department of Visual Arts and becoming Interim Artistic Director of Fanfare. At the same time I was beginning to look for a possible internship that would take advantage of my professional experience in the arts and the knowledge that I had gained in graduate school at U.N.O. My previous experience with directing presenting and festival organizations had been focused in urban areas where a large sophisticated audience that was accustomed to supporting the arts typicaUy exists. Directing an arts organization in a rural area would present many new challenges.