CHANGE OF SCENERY AFFECTS COMMUNITY

f the local arts scene of 2011 were to inspire a song, an apt title might be "The Times They Were A-Changin'."

New developments affected several areas of importance to artists and their patrons, including philanthropy, leadership and education. Many were momentous enough to be sea-changing over the next months and even years.

Here's a look at some of most important arts stories of 2011 and what they might mean in the future:

• The January death of Phil Hanes, a leading philanthropist and arts booster, prompted several expressions of appreciation, including a presentation of performances and remembrances in the Stevens Center of UNC School of the Arts, which Hanes helped to found and supported with donations of millions of dollars.

This was as it should have been. Hanes' extraordinary activism and generosity created a daunting legacy, not only in the arts but also in an almost-miraculous revitalization of Winston-Salem's downtown.

Will Hanes' clone emerge anytime soon? I doubt it. But enough of the right people are filling the big void he left behind, and there is reason to think that progress will continue.

Last year, for example, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County finished raising more than $27 million, bringing a three-year comprehensive campaign to a successful conclusion. The campaign led to the opening of the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in September 2010.

That there was a little letdown in future fundraising was all but inevitable. But was it insurmountable? I don't think so.

The $3,123,005 the council raised in its most recent annual drive was 93.2 percent of the campaign's goal of $3.35 million. The council, by cutting back on operational expenses, was able to award 76 grants totaling $2.08 million to organizations and individuals, a nearly 3 percent increase over last year's total of $1.95 million.

• Turnover in leadership emerged at two nonprofit organizations in 2011: Associated Artists of Winston-Salem and the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. And Gerald Freedman, 84, announced he would step down this spring as the drama dean at UNCSA. The decision was announced at a school board meeting this month.

In May, Rosemary Martin became the executive director of Associated Artists of Winston-Salem, succeeding Sharon Nelson. Nelson, who said she left because she wanted a job with higher pay and benefits, became Associated Artists' executive director in 2006.

Nelson's many accomplishments included increasing financial support and diversifying membership to include more minority and younger artists who work in varied mediums. She also introduced music performances and special events to lure more people into Associated Artists' gallery.

Martin previously served as executive director of the organization from 1991 to 1995, when Associated Artists was in the old Sawtooth building on Marshall Street. Associated Artists is now at Fourth and Cherry streets.

Before returning, she worked as a development officer at the Mint Museum in Charlotte. She grew up in Winston-Salem and attended Reynolds High School and Wake Forest University.

Sherri Nielson stepped down as executive director of the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. She now works in capital project management for the city of Birmingham, Ala., where she lived for more than 20 years before settling in Winston-Salem in 2005.

Nielson had close ties to Alabama and wanted to renew them. Also, having led Sawtooth through two years of renovations that resulted in significant improvements, she said that a primary skill for which she was hired, construction management, was no longer needed.

Sawtooth "has reached a point where a new director will bring new energy and ideas to take the school to the next level," she said. I agree — but would urge the next director, who's expected to be named in the winter, to move with caution. Preserve improvements before building on them, in other words.

As for Freedman, whoever succeeds him — the plan is to have a new dean onboard in the summer — will have a most difficult act to follow. Freedman made enhancements to the drama curriculum, and students benefitted from the expertise he gained as an esteemed director of professional productions of theater and drama.

• If what happened at UNCSA in 2011 were a performance, it would likely get mostly positive reviews.

Yes, budget cuts hurt and will result in the unpleasantness of rising fees and tuition. Tuition for most students at UNCSA will go up $750 a year under a plan approved by the school's trustees this month. And by fall 2016, most students would be paying $3,000 more than they are now.

The plan, which needs the approval of the UNC Board of Governors, is one of several measures designed to close a deficit in excess of $1 million a year brought on by severe cuts in state allocations. Other moves include stepped-up fundraising and increases in enrollment.

But on balance, the situation was looking up. This fall, for example, an acclaimed spring production of "Oklahoma!" became one of the first school shows that UNC-TV will broadcast over the next five years. The broadcasts were underwritten with a $500,000 grant from the A.J. Fletcher Foundation of Raleigh.

UNCSA's 2010 production of "The Nutcracker" aired in December 2010 on UNC-TV with Fletcher money given before the $500,000 grant that was announced this year. Before then, a UNCSA show had not aired on UNC-TV for at least nine years; now, shows will likely be broadcast about twice a year.

The exposure on UNC-TV will give the school another tool to recruit North Carolina students and a way to build goodwill across the state, especially among legislators and philanthropists.

This past September, the School of Dance at UNCSA, aiming to attract the best students with a more direct route to plum jobs, became the "exclusive affiliate school" of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in New York.

The arrangement is designed to give UNCSA's dance students the same kind of training and connections that their counterparts have in their quest to land positions at the New York theater and its Studio Company for apprentices.

As for scholarships, a $6 million grant received from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust in Chapel Hill, now endows five full scholarships to undergraduate students each year through a program called the William R. Kenan Jr. Excellence Awards.

There's a long way to go in the scholarship area, particularly if UNCSA wants to attract the best students. But progress is progress.