Moxietalk With Kirt Jacobs

Allan Cowen takes the long view of life and believes that life is as great as you choose it to be. Cowen is president and CEO of Fund for the Arts, the united art fund of Louisville, KY. He began his career with Fund for the Arts in 1976 as executive director, becoming president and CEO in 1982. Cowen spent time in arts management in Akron and Columbus and three years as associate director of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem. He is a graduate of Kent State University in Ohio and the Harvard University Summer Institute in Arts Administration. Fund for the Arts has experienced tremendous growth under Cowen’s leadership. The donor base has expanded from 6,000 to 26,000 and giving has grown from $536 thousand to $8 million, a fifteen-fold increase. Total assets have grown from less than $50 thousand to over $20 million. In 1992, Cowen received the highest award given by the National Coalition of United Arts Funds, the Michael Newton Award, for excellence in united arts fundraising.