Greenhill retools to focus on cohesion, relevancy

Lynn Sanders-Bustle is one of those people that has plenty of ideas — too many, even, enough that she sometimes wakes up in the middle of night and pours them into a pad of paper she keeps next to the bed.

That might be part of what the people at Greenhill saw in her when they hired her for the newly-created director of programs position, alongside her vision for the organization and experience.

Sanders-Bustle, who started in the position at the beginning of the month, previously worked in arts education at the University of Southern Mississippi and University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She moved to Greensboro in May of 2013 when her husband landed a job as the offensive coordinator for NC A&T University’s football team.

“We have a post-structural marriage,” she said, laughing.

Sanders-Bustle is still new enough in her position that a bookshelf in her office recently sat empty and her office remained barren. As she settles into the post, with the charge of pulling together Greenhill’s educational programming and gallery curation work, Sanders-Bustle plans to leverage the organization’s strengths and her plethora of ideas.

“We’ve got what we need,” she said. “It’s now looking at that carefully and letting the ideas flow and looking at where we go from there and tighten up.”

She’ll be doing more big-picture work and research than in previous posts, diving in to get her hands dirty when appropriate but spending most of her time evaluating, measuring ad assessing the organizations dual focus areas that are sometimes seen as disjointed.

Sanders-Bustle said she is excited to work in an environment with a relatively small staff, making interaction easier, and in a less hierarchical environment with fewer restrictions that she is used to.

“I like to feel what’s going on,” she said.

Greenhill is well aware that change is necessary, and Sanders-Bustle repeatedly emphasized the need to have adaptive qualities. The organization also recently created a director of operations position, filling it from within. In a press release announcing that Greenhill hired Sanders-Bustle, Executive Director Laura Way said the arts group needs to be careful that it isn’t left behind.

“Greenhill is thinking about the future, and looking toward 2016 when the Steven Tanger Center for Performing Arts opens,” Way said in the release. “We need to be bold and make our mark as the anchor to the Cultural District as to not get lost in the enthusiasm of a new venue.”

Sanders-Bustle said she is too new in the position to speak to the performing arts center specifically, but said she is of the same mind.

“To be engaged in the world is critical, and if the world is constantly changing it means you have to change,” she said.

There are several things about Greensboro that excite her — the city feels like it’s growing, there’s an increased emphasis on downtown and she found a studio space at Lyndon Street Artworks.

“One of the things I noticed about Greensboro right away… is that there are a lot of young people downtown,” she said, adding that she’s looking forward to engaging with a younger demographic through programming.

While she was looking for work in the fall, Sanders-Bustle joined Lyndon Street to nurture her interest in painting and mixed media work, but she’s been too busy to spend much time there lately.

When she moved here with her husband a year ago, they bought a home in Fisher Park — and it’s more than 100 years old, she added excitedly.

“It’s good to land,” she said. “We feel really comfortable.”