Sean Malone, the president of the Ten Chimneys Foundation, which owns and operates the historic Lunt-Fontanne estate in Genesee Depot, has been chosen to participate in a prestigious two-year national chief executive program for arts administrators. He joins executives from the American Ballet Theatre, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Norman Rockwell Museum and other organizations in the exercise.
Participants will attend three four-day conferences that address the financial and cultural challenges facing arts groups and their administrators. The Harvard, University of Michigan and University of Texas-Austin business schools are collaborating on the program.
Malone began working at Ten Chimneys in 1996 while completing his MBA from UW-Madison. He was named first vice president of the foundation two years later, and became president in 2002.
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
