The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) has named Todd Yuhanick, a film producer and former president of a local public relations company, to serve as interim CEO while its board searches for a permanent leader.
Yuhanick succeeds former CEO Donna Drew Sawyer, who resigned in January after Mayor Brandon Scott said he lost confidence in her leadership of the quasi public agency, which receives city funds to produce Artscape and other citywide festivals. BOPA board chair Brian Lyles has been overseeing the agency since mid-January, without pay.
Yuhanick’s first day on the job will be Friday, June 2 – less than four months before the three-day Artscape 2023 festival is scheduled to begin. It’s also the day when BOPA leaders are scheduled to meet with the Baltimore City Council’s Ways and Means Committee to discuss their request for city funding in fiscal 2024.
BOPA is a non-profit organization that has a contract to serve as the city’s arts council, events producer and film office until June 30, 2024. It hasn’t put on three of the city’s biggest events – Artscape, Light City and the Baltimore Book Festival – since 2019. The next Artscape festival is planned for September 22 to 24, 2023.
At last year’s City Council budget hearings, Sawyer was so unprepared to answer questions about how the agency was spending city-allocated funds that council members took the unprecedented step of temporarily withholding $196,000 from BOPA’s fiscal 2023 budget until they could get the information they requested. Council members never got all the information they asked for, and the $196,000 was never restored.
In April 2022, Sawyer contradicted Scott when she said BOPA wouldn’t put on Artscape in 2022 after he promised it would. She alarmed members of the local Jewish community by initially scheduling Artscape 2023 to overlap with the Rosh Hashanah holiday and had to back off.
Last fall, Sawyer had to cancel an event to celebrate the restoration of a local sculpture because her office failed to obtain the required street-closing permits. In January, she said BOPA wouldn’t put on the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade – the decision that prompted Scott’s call for her resignation, on or before Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Since Sawyer’s departure, BOPA’s leaders have been working to repair the agency’s frayed relationship with Scott and the council members.
Just this week, council members learned that BOPA during Sawyer’s tenure had attempted to trademark the term Artscape – an effort squelched by the city’s law department. At least four of its board members have resigned in recent months. A group of local artists, calling itself Friends of Public Art, or FOPA, have asked Scott to consider another way to promote and preserve public art besides contracting with BOPA.
Yuhanick, 47, was born in Baltimore County and attended St. Paul’s School for Boys and the University of Arizona, according to BOPA’s announcement.
In 2001 he joined John Yuhanick Associates, a public relations and events business founded by his father. He eventually became president and ran the company after his father died in 2009.
In 2016, after 15 years with the public relations firm, Yuhanick joined Digital Cave Media, a Baltimore-based video and film production company. While there, he produced “Decanted – A Winemaker’s Journey,” which was distributed by Netflix beginning in 2017, and collaborated on other documentary and film projects.
He also produced “A Path to Follow — The Reddy Finney Story,” a feature-length documentary about Gilman School headmaster Redmond S. Finney and his efforts to promote diversity, inclusion and equality. It was shown on Maryland Public Television in 2019.
In 2019, Yuhanick joined Mozell Films of Baltimore as executive producer. While there, he produced “Baltimore Hustle,” a pilot docuseries showcasing the stories of five entrepreneurs and their impact on Baltimore.
Most recently, Yuhanick has served as an executive producer with Lunchbunch Pictures, a film, TV and documentary production collaborative. At Lunchbunch, he and his colleagues launched the production of “Thank You, Mr. Brown,” a feature-length documentary exploring the influence of a visionary figure on the entertainment industry.
“We’re delighted and grateful to Todd for his willingness to provide the necessary leadership to the dedicated staff of BOPA in this transition period, while also collaborating with our many stakeholders and City leaders to keep arts and culture front and center and provide the support our local creatives need to thrive and contribute positively to neighborhoods north, south, east and west,” Lyles said in a statement.
“Todd brings a fierce passion for the arts and a keen appreciation for the ability of expansive cultural and artistic programming to lift the sights and prospects of City residents, from youngest to oldest,” Lyles said. “As we work to strengthen BOPA’s relationships with our many stakeholders, we have full confidence that Todd will provide a steady hand in this interim period and demonstrate a truly collaborative approach in guiding the organization to fulfill its mandate to serve Baltimore’s diverse creative community and produce the celebrated community events that also define our great City.”
“I am honored and excited to take on the role of Interim CEO” for BOPA, Yuhanick said in a statement. “Working alongside our incredible team and dedicated board, and with the support of City leaders, we will support and empower local creatives, collaborate closely with cultural institutions, and ensure that artistic and cultural programming thrives and reaches the widest possible audience in every part of our community.”
According to BOPA, a search committee made up of BOPA board members and arts and community leaders will be reviewing candidates for the permanent CEO position “in the coming weeks.” A full job description will be posted on BOPA’s website, promotionandarts.org, on June 12.
BOPA’s budget hearing with the council’s Ways and Means Committee is scheduled for 6 p.m. June 2 at City Hall, 100 Holliday St.
Let’s hope he doesn’t ghost BOPA like he has other people in the industry for years