Back during her days as a theater minor at WVU, Jordan Brigman discovered she didn’t need to trod the boards for fulfillment.
She didn’t need to be a star.
In fact, she didn’t mind if people knew who she was, necessarily — just so long as they were swept up in her creative contributions, as anonymously integral as they were.
Brigman, who was just hired as a “creativity connector” for the Arts Council of Greater Morgantown, happily discovered back then that she really enjoyed scene design and stage lighting.
That’s the practice where a single spotlight on a darkened stage can deliver an illuminated soliloquy of character motivation.
That’s where a sheet of plywood, cut and placed just so, can be an effective, illusionary stand-in for the Manhattan skyline.
Such behind-the-scenes creativity will be what the Charles Town native will employ in her new position, said Susan Riddle, the art council’s president.
“Art organizations really struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic,” Riddle said.
And Brigman’s “connector” title, Riddle said, is exactly what it says it is.
“Jordan joining us as our creativity connector is a critical component of the arts council’s ability to grow our creative community,” she said. “We couldn’t be more pleased to have her.”
The hiring was made possible, in part, with support from the Monongalia County Commission and the state Division of Arts and Culture.
Brigman doesn’t mind painting pictures on grant applications if she has to, she said.
At WVU she diversified her portfolio, as it were.
She evolved from her theater minor to study organizational leadership, public relations and art administration, on her way to earning her business administration degree.
In recent years, her administrative talents have taken ensemble roles with Main Street Morgantown, the Morgantown Art Party and the West Virginia Science Adventure School.
Call it a business-take on scene design and stage lighting, she said.
It’s about a spotlight on stage shining down in a post-pandemic production so artists can resume doing what they do, she said.
“Right now, it’s just reaching out and engaging our local artists,” she said.
Creativity can survive and thrive in a college town, she said, but it’s not always an automatic enterprise — not when unpredictable things like cost ledgers and the coronavirus are involved.
“The arts are an amazing cultural component that has continuously provided a comfortable outlet of expression for everyone,” she said.
“I feel that should always be supported.”
For more information on the Arts Council of Greater Morgantown, email info@artsgm.org.
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