July 22 is Jordan Chesnut’s final day after nearly five years as executive director of the San Luis Obispo County Arts Council, aka SLO County Arts.
“Serving this county’s artists has been the privilege of my career,” she wrote in her resignation letter to the board of directors. “I grew up here; the relationships I drew on in this work are ones I’ve spent a lifetime building, and the work itself became an encapsulation of my values, my family, and my home.”
Chesnut says she is proud of what the community has built together during her tenure, which includes bringing back the position of SLO County Poet Laureate, the 2025 publication of The Economic Impact of the Arts and Culture Sector, and the creation of the “Rooted in Art” series named after former board president Allen Root.
Chesnut says the past five years have proved her thesis of her time with SLO County Arts. “Our creative lives are not supplemental but inextricable from everything we do, and across every sector,” she wrote. “There is a long road ahead of us in SLO County, not only to advocate for public funding, but to show the value of the arts as a shared process and way of life, not only a product.”
She says SLO County Arts has moved project-based and unrestricted money to working artists in the county, citing the organization’s inaugural Blank Canvas Arts Grant, the implementation of the Central Coast Creative Corps, and California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships as examples of recent grant funding.
“I’m not going far,” she concluded. “And I’ll be cheering for the artists that live and work here, always.”
Chesnut says that Lori Lerian, a current board member and past program director for the organization, will serve as interim executive director until someone is hired for the permanent position, likely this fall. Summer Truschke continues as programs coordinator, overseeing this year’s Open Studios Art Tour scheduled for October 10-11 and 17-18.