Allan Appel Photo
Wolf with a predecessor, Barbara Lamb.
Do you know why my head is so big and so grotesque? asks the character in the play.
Answer: It’s filled with so many dreams.
One of those dreams: creatively and entrepreneurially take New Haven to “the next level” — as a place with global-class arts, design, architecture and innovative genius.
Those sentiments — and the dialogue from Bernard Pomerance’s 1977 play Elephant Man—emerged at a press conference at which Mayor Toni Harp announced the appointment of a world-traveled native son, Westville-reared Andrew Wolf, to serve as the new head of the city’s Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism.
The arts leaders listen.
His appointment drew a crowd of 40 art cognoscenti and old friends Friday to the second floor of City Hall. There the mayor, Wolf, and Economic Development Director Matthew Nemerson a;; proclaimed that New Haven is now positioned to to make its “creative economy” compete worldwide.
“Andy will force us to think about what that will mean” and how to to get there, said Nemerson.
To do that, Wolf will have a one-person staff (himself) and a $150,000 budget in discretionary funding, according to Nemerson, to whom Wolf will report.
“That money is not the point. The whole point is to leverage other money” through partnerships, Nemerson said. “Andy is a pure idea entrepreneur. He has this global perspective from being in L.A.”
“Please visit us,” saidNeighborhood Music School Director of Development Alice-Anne Harwood.
Wolf grew up in Westville, the brother of local basketball standout Jim Wolf
He became a lawyer with New Haven’s Tyler Cooper law firm before moving out to Los Angeles.
There, according to the bio furnished by City Hall, he has had an eclectic career that includes being past president of
Pacific Design Center, “the largest contract, residential and hospitality furnishing destination in the West; and [most recently] working with a natural foods company supervising branding and social media innovation.”
“We want to achieve a rock and roll time again,” Wolf said. “We’re going to create jobs and cultural entrepreneurs. We’re not competing with Silicon Valley, but when it comes to design, they [the world] should come here,” he said at Friday’s press conference.
“It’s time to make music [again],” Wolf said the mayor told him as she lured him back home.
Asked about what he can accomplish with staff or much of a budget, Wolf said he “relishes” the “the entrepreneurial spirit.” Then he paraphrased another text, not a literary one quite, but a thumbnail sketch of life in L.A. It’s about trying, then going screaming into your room, and closing the door; it’s about emerging; overcoming adversity and traffic, saying, “Let’s go,” hoping for success, and writing the script, he said.
In a brief survey of several arts mavens in the room, the Arts Council’s Cindy Clair, Elm Shakespeare’s Jim Andreassi, and He-Who-Goes-To-Every-Cultural-Event-in-Town Michael Morand all said they not only liked what they’d heard but were excited by it.
Yes, truly exciting. A great hire by Mayor Harp.
And this isn't so much about Andy. It's more about us and our collective ability to sell this great little city called New Haven.