This is the second in a three-part series of exit interviews with people leaving prominent jobs in Michigan at the end of 2024.
Russ Collins and Deb Polich both lead arts organizations in Washtenaw County. They're about to retire, and they also happen to be married to one another. We met at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor, which Collins has been running for more than forty years.
Collins is the executive director of Marquee Arts, the foundation that also runs the State Theater up the block. He began our tour at the Michigan Theater’s ornate gilt organ.
It is nearly one hundred years old, but Collins said it got some digital upgrades in 2015.
“The organ can record the keystrokes of the organist and then replay them back in the way that a player piano plays itself.”
An Ann Arbor native, Collins received a Master’s degree in arts administration from the University of Michigan. He has overseen multiple capital campaigns to restore both theaters.
"So there's been lots of changes at the Michigan Theater," Collins said. "There's been lots of changes in the arts in Ann Arbor and the state of Michigan as well. And so it's been an exciting time to be doing what I'm doing."
"Russ and I met here at the Michigan Theater," Deb Polich said. Polich grew up in Detroit.
"I fell in love with the arts as a student in the Detroit Public Schools, which had fabulous programs at that time," Polich said. "Literally, the arts changed my life. It took me from, you know, the enclosure of your home and what you know there. And it opened the world for me."
Polich initially studied at Eastern Michigan University to be a costume designer before discovering the brand new field of arts management.
"At the time, you know, there were about five universities around the country that had the degree," Polich said.
She took an internship at the Michigan Theater to fulfill a degree requirement. By the end of the summer, she'd been hired to run the box office.
"And the rest is history," Collins said.
Art on a train
In 1993, Pollack left the theater to join Artrain. The organization put museum quality art exhibits on a train that traveled to communities all over the country. She also now leads the arts group Creative Washtenaw.
"Most people think, and it's true, that Artrain was about introducing the arts to individuals, and it absolutely did that," Polich said. "We still get calls from people that say, you know, I was a kid on the train and I found myself because there were artists doing things."
But as important, Polich said, was the organization's mission to help develop local arts agencies throughout the state of Michigan.
"And that's a Michigan arts legacy," Collins said. "The art train was such a good idea that they took it national and it established local and regional art support organizations around the country."
The train is no longer part of their work, but the organization is still going strong.
"It's funny because Artrain was so connected to the train," Polich said. "But it was never a train organization."
It was always an arts organization — managing exhibitions and tours and doing community development. Polich and her team took those skill sets and used them to help others start projects.
"We don't talk about just the arts. We talk about arts and creative industries," Polich said. "A lot of times people go to music theater, dance to visual arts and boom, that's it, done. But we talk about all the design processes and architecture, and frankly, we talk about every field that creativity is the definition of success."
Michigan and the arts
Collins has served as an Arts Administration Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, and was even knighted by the Republic of Italy for promotion of Italian film culture in the U.S.
In 2006, Polich went to the White House to accept the National Medal for Museum Service on behalf of Artrain.
Despite that national and international recognition, the two feel strong ties to Southeast Michigan.
"We feel so fortunate to both have careers in a community that we love," Polich said. "When I started in the field, I'm like, I want to someday run the Kennedy Center or whatever. And then I realized that working for a small organization, you get to touch all parts of it."
"We are fortunate to be in a community that supports the arts," Collins said. "We're a little unfortunate not having any arts funding coming from the local government, which is the largest source of government funding for the arts, is local arts funding."
Polich said many places in Michigan, including Kent and Genesee counties and Lansing, have local funding for the arts through millages and lodging taxes. She said Washtenaw County is behind.
"And so what that means for this community is that primarily they're all funded by private individuals, which is wonderfully descriptive of the generosity in this community," Polich said. "But frankly, that also does is it means that your funders, your donors, whether we are conscious of it or not, have an influence over what it is that we program."
Polich said public funding allows for broader and more inclusive projects.
A new generation
The couple are no strangers to public radio. Polich hosts a weekly show "creative:impact" at WEMU. And Collins hosted "Cinema Chat" for more than 30 years.
While Collins and Polich are stepping back from their many leadership roles, both plan to remain active in the arts community.
"I'm hoping one of my retirement opportunities is to be the retired Susan Stamberg of Michigan," Collins said. "Going around and talking about exciting exhibitions and and concerts and special things that we've been able to experience."
Polich said they're both excited about new energy coming into their organizations.
"You realize as you get older, you kind of lose that intuitive connection to, you know, the contemporary zeitgeist," Collins said.
A recent Michigan Theater showing of "The Freshman," a silent film from the 1920s about an accidental football hero, didn't perform as well as he had expected.
"Those kind of things happen all the time," Collins said. "You know, you see a film at a film festival, you get really excited about it. You're excited to bring it to the community, and nobody goes."
In contrast, a film called "The Substance" ended up being very popular with a younger audience.
"I'm excited about a new generation of folks taking over, tapping into where the society and the culture is at the present time," Collins said.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity. You can hear the full interview near the top of this page.
