Patrick M Fisher
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I am a culture worker and a staunch advocate for inclusivity, accessibility, and equity - believing that culture and creativity play an indispensable role in shaping the social character and built environments of cities and towns. I identified my career direction in 2016 in Florida while working for the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. In 2018, I took the next step in my career when returning home to Pennsylvania to serve as the Executive Director of Erie Arts & Culture.

I am an unconventional thinker who is unafraid of questioning traditional structures. This is largely credited to my non-conventional journey through adulthood. I have slept on couches of relative strangers in foreign countries, lived in a dry cabin in Alaska, traveled across North America in a van with my three-legged dog while paying off student loan debt, all serving to cement my sense of self.

I have worked to erode calcified barriers that have historically prevented meaningful access to and participation in the preservation, promotion, and presentation of creativity and culture. I approach each day with a desire and commitment to shatter the status quo that the most important and prestigious art forms and disciplines are those that are taught through formal academic environments or are derived from European heritage.

I have dedicated myself to working with artists and organizations to demystify the arts by bringing communities in on the act of creating - engaging them around concepts, materials, processes, and techniques in a way that neither placates nor patronizes. This, I believe, is how we directly demonstrate the value of the arts. We must leverage our resources and skills to help amplify the identities, aspirations, and struggles of our community members. We must shape places made by and for them. Community must be represented among the practitioners, artistic disciplines, and cultural practices.

I work with community members to determine how creative and cultural engagement can be honored to establish emotional bonds between people and the places and spaces they occupy while also reinforcing social connections. I’m nurturing an inclusive culture in Erie. The guiding vision is where residents, merchants, community organizers, artists, and culture-bearers demonstrate agency and are engaged as active participants in shaping the social character and built environments in their neighborhoods.
PERSONALITY TYPE

Advocate INFJ-T
EDUCATION

Bachelor's of Science - Business Management
Penn State University - Behrend Campus
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Executive Director - Erie Arts & Culture
Erie, Pennsylvania

Community and Collaboration Manager - Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville
​Jacksonville, Florida
SKILLS

Non-Profit administration + Arts advocacy + Artist professional development + People and place based development strategies + Community building + Strategic planning + Design thinking + Dynamic leadership + Public speaking + Stakeholder engagement + Opportunity analysis + Board development and management + Recruitment and team building + Consensus building + Fundraising + Fiscal management + Data-based decision making
TRAITS

Creative thinker + Reliable and organized + Culturally competent + Efficient and effective + Resourceful + Adaptive + Integrity + Even keel + Accessible
AWARDS / RECOGNITION

40 Under 40
Erie Reader - 2020
Erie, Pennsylvania

Person of the Year
Erie Times-News - 2019
​Erie, Pennsylvania
​
40 Under 40
Jacksonville Business Journal - 2018
Jacksonville, Florida
PRESENTATIONS/PANELS

Arts Activism: The Effects Creativity and Culture Can Have on Policy and Power
Presented with Rhonda Matthews, PhD
Lake Effect Leaders
Erie, Pennsylvania - 2022
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Art, Incarceration, and Re-Entry: 
A Conversation Between Antonio Howard and Patrick Fisher

Erie County Public Library
Erie, Pennsylvania - 2021

Equity and Sustainability in Placemaking
Placemaking US and What's Up Downtown Flint
Flint, Michigan - 2021

The Arts and Economic Recovery in Your Community: Case Studies from Pennsylvania 
Fourth Economy
Virtual - 2021

State of the Economy: How Do We Think About It For Our Local Communities
Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua, New York - 2021

Navigating Your Career as an Emerging Artist
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Edinboro, Pennsylvania - 2021

Small Scale Changes to Strengthen our Communities
Southern Vermont Economy Summit
Virtual - 2021

Supporting New American Artists and Business Owners
Americans for the Arts
Virtual - 2021

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Creative Economy
Northwest Pennsylvania Partnerships for Regional Economic Performance
Virtual - 2021
​
The Creative County
Emerge 2040, Destination Erie
Erie, Pennsylvania - 2021
FEATURED IN

Meet Erie: A Rust Belt Region Continues to Navigate its Renaissance Through a Pandemic
Our Town The Series, Erie Part 1
Our Towns Civic Foundation

Creating and Reimagining Community Through a Crisis
Our Town The Series, Erie Part 3
​Our Towns Civic Foundation

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Providers Help Define Erie County. Help Them to Thrive Again
Erie Times-News

Art As a Change Agent
Erie Times-News
​© Patrick Fisher, 2021
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