MENTORSHIP AND OPPORTUNITY

Arts Leaders Share Alma Mater

Emily Beck, Linda Boyd, Dayna Del Val and Kathy Anderson graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead’s (MSUM) College of Arts and Humanities and today lead arts organizations that greatly impact our community. They describe their MSUM experience in two words: mentorship and opportunity.

Emily Beck, Executive Director, Fargo Theatre

Emily Beck felt considerable uncertainty about what to pursue when she started her college career. She credits MSUM faculty for providing the guidance she needed.

“At a time when I was doing significant personal searching, film professor Rusty

Casselton took me under his wing,” said Emily Beck, executive director of the Fargo Theatre. Beck was an English major when she took a film course from Casselton.

“Rusty’s infectious passion, extensive knowledge and dedication to his students allowed me to discover the many ways I could turn my own passion for movies into a meaningful career in the arts.”

Casselton and another film professor, Tom Brandau, provided numerous opportunities to her. “I worked in the film studies office and as a teaching assistant, and served in a leadership role with the Cinethusiasts club,” she said. “I had two of the most incredible mentors and teachers a student could ask for.”

Beck graduated in 2006 with a degree in film studies. Her years at MSUM helped her become more confident, focused and open to new and challenging opportunities, she said. She also gives credit to Eurospring, MSUM’s study abroad program. “Studying at Oxford University, watching the sunset from the Eiffel Tower, and connecting with an inner independence…redefined my sense of the impossible.”

Following graduation, Beck was an assistant manager at one of Fargo’s large commercial theatre complexes. In 2008, she joined the Fargo Theatre as a film programmer and festival coordinator, which led to her current position as executive director. In 2011, she was chosen to participate in United Way’s “35 under 35” leadership program for young female professionals.

Linda Boyd, Executive Director, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony

Had Linda Boyd known Beck when Beck was a freshman, she would have told her not to worry. Boyd thinks undergraduate students shouldn’t expect to know what they’re going to do for the rest of their lives when they graduate. “I believe that happens when you turn 60—I have four years to go!” Boyd said.

Boyd was a clarinet major but switched to voice during her freshman year. She chose MSUM for its nontraditional music programs, which included an electronic music studio. She says several professors helped her find her way.

“David Ferreira revealed the magic of choral music to me, which I love to this day,” Boyd said. In addition to her full-time job as executive director of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony (FMSO), she runs the music program and conducts the choir at First Congregational Church in Moorhead.

Boyd’s career path, in and out of college, was a curvy one. She dropped out after her junior year to join a rock band, and then worked as a hotel sales and catering manager, Radio Shack store manager and bartender. “Music professor Ricardo Visus changed my life when I returned at age 26 to finish my degree,” Boyd said. Music professor Robert Pattengale and Robert Badal, humanities dean at the time, were mentors to Boyd, too, recommending her for jobs she says she didn’t imagine she could do. “They are the reason I have had a successful career in the nonprofit world.”

After obtaining her graduate degree in music at MSUM, she accepted a oneyear sabbatical replacement position at West Fargo High School as choral director. A job as executive director of the Lake Agassiz Arts Council (now The Arts Partnership) followed, as did an earlier stint as executive director of the FMSO, from 1993 until 1996, when she decided to freelance as a graphic design artist, consultant and co-owner of Barking Dog Records and Raptor Recording Studios. She returned to the symphony as executive director in 2007. Boyd also served on the Fargo City Commission for four years, and is currently a member of the Fargo School Board. She is most proud of leading the effort to establish the Gladys Rae Shelter and Detox facility in Fargo in 2007, while she was a city commissioner. “It cost me re-election, but it was worth it.”

Dayna Del Val, Executive Director, The Arts Partnership

Although Dayna Del Val’s goal has always been professional acting, she admits to getting sidetracked as a young woman. She started as a double music and theatre major, but dropped music in favor of theatre, planning to pursue an acting career. After graduating with a B.A. in theatre arts in 1995, she spent a summer in southern Utah performing in two professional productions. “I took a relatively long break after that to raise my son,” Del Val said. “About 10 years ago, I started doing a lot of professional commercial acting, even earning my Screen Actors Guild card.”

Currently the executive director of The Arts Partnership, Del Val recalls people telling her a theatre degree would be “relatively useless.”

“I have two other degrees, in English, which I picked up later and which also have real value, but the skills I learned on the Hansen and Gaede stages and in my acting classes—be brave, be clear, enunciate, listen, know your purpose, have a goal, share your space, take risks, understand your needs, explain your actions, perform for the audience, and work together—led to every success I’ve had,” Del Val said. “I wouldn’t trade that degree for anything.”

Del Val sasy the mentorship of MSUM faculty were key to her academic and career success. “Theatre professors David Grapes and Jim Bartruff were amazing mentors,” she said. “They were hard on me, had high expectations, and never let me get by with making the easy choice.” Her only regret regarding her time at MSUM is that she didn’t take advantage of the university’s study abroad program.

“There’s perhaps no other time in life where you can give that kind of time to travel and experiencing another culture, different people and new world views,” she said. “I wish I wouldn’t have thought that the department would forget about me if I was away for a semester, that my college boyfriend couldn’t be left for a semester, and that I couldn’t afford it. None of that would have been true, but I didn’t know it until after I was gone.”

Kathy Anderson, Executive Director, Trollwood Performing Arts School

The domino effect. Karma. The Pay It Forward approach. Whatever you call it, Kathy Anderson benefited from it. She cites Linda Boyd as one of two people who helped lead her to a successful career. Anderson, executive director of Trollwood Performing Arts School, graduated with a music industry degree, and Boyd, a graduate assistant at the time, was her voice teacher.

“Linda provided meaningful mentorship to me as a young artist, and later as a young arts administrator,” Anderson said. Paul Severson, founder of the music industry program that Anderson and Boyd both found “homes” in, introduced Anderson to Trollwood.

“Paul opened the door for me to intern at Trollwood back in 1990. Obviously, Trollwood became a very significant part of my life and my career,” Anderson said. “If it hadn’t been for Paul, I would not be where I am today.”

Beck, Boyd, Del Val and Anderson deserve considerable credit and accolades for working hard, facing uncertainty with courage and trusting themselves. But all four believe MSUM played a large role in their successes, and helped lead them to futures they couldn’t imagine when they first enrolled.

“I received great training, a lot of encouragement from faculty and met friends that would last a lifetime,” Anderson said. “I felt well-prepared for the next phase of my life.”