Folk festival has new development director

Steven Remington has come on board as the new development director for Sisters Folk Festival.

Remington has 20 years of professional experience in fundraising, organizational development and festival and event management with public-benefit arts organizations throughout Oregon and the Northwest.

Remington most recently served as the executive director for the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Prior to that he was ED for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, hosted by the University of Idaho. His tenure there included overseeing the "Jazz in the Schools" program, which each year provides jazz education outreach to 42 schools, reaching over 8,000 students.

In addition to donor relations, Steven's experience includes working with over 200 sponsoring businesses nationwide and writing and managing large grants with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Humanities, and others. He earned his Certified Festival & Event Executive certification from IFEA/Purdue University.

Although he spent six years in Idaho, Remington says, "I am an Oregonian through and through."

Steven was a founding member of the Oregon Bluegrass Association, helped launch Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival with two other founders, was a founder of the Oregon Truffle Festival and produced the annual Eugene Celebration, among many other achievements in non-profit management and festival production.

"I feel so lucky to have this opportunity to contribute to the legacy of Sisters Folk Festival," he said. "It's an honor for me to follow Katy Yoder, to work with this stellar staff and board, and to join the many volunteers in the future successes of this impressive organization. I'm looking forward to meeting and working with the students, donors, patrons and artists that support and participate in this important cultural initiative."

SFF's current development director, Katy Yoder, will be staying on to help Steven transition to his position.

"Steven is a fantastic addition to our team and will take wonderful care of our patrons," said Yoder. "I'm excited to introduce him to our sponsors, donors and other funders over the next couple of months."

"We are extraordinarily fortunate to have Steven join our team. On a professional level, his broad experience in nonprofit fundraising and management will be invaluable to us, and on a personal level, his enthusiasm, passion and commitment to furthering the mission of SFF is outstanding," said Ann Richardson, managing director.

Founded in 1995, Sisters Folk Festival, Inc. has grown from a weekend music festival into a year-round cultural-arts organization, enriching lives through music and arts education and programming that serves an inclusive, multi-generational community. SFF has been honored for its groundbreaking Americana Project that provides Sisters students with unique learning experiences including keyboard, violin and cello instruction, a guitar- and ukulele-building program, instruction in songwriting and performing, and the annual production of a CD of original songs.