Meet Charlie Legere, our Development Manager
If you’ve been with us this past season, you may have noticed a slew of new faces joining our team at Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures! This summer, we are so excited to introduce you to each of our new staff members in a series called “Meet the Team”, starting with Charlie Legere.
Charlie is our fantastic new Development Manager, leading the charge on everything from grants to sponsorships to donations from patrons like you. You’ve seen him around at our events, but let’s get to know him a bit better, shall we?
Can you tell us a bit more about your career prior to joining Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures?
I have a PhD in English from Berkeley and was training to be an academic, then I moved to Pittsburgh for a Postdoc, and loved it here. I decided that my desire for living in a place I wanted to live outweighed my desire to work in academia, and I shifted careers. As a grantwriter and then fundraiser, I worked at Carnegie Museums, Riverlife, and then as a freelancer. One rewarding project I got to work on was a successful $40m grant proposal to preserve historic Black churches, with the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.
What drew you to work with PA&L?
I’ve raised funds for art exhibitions, science, environmental causes, historic preservation, accessibility, capital projects—a lot of projects that have been rewarding because I’ve gotten to dig deep into a topic, then make a vision into reality. However, I ran a poetry reading series at Berkeley, and I write, and I always wanted to be able to use my skills to do something with literature. That’s what attracted me to Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures!
Do you have a wish list of what you hope to accomplish in this role with us?
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures has a base of subscribers, some of whom have been attending our events for decades, and a culture of engagement with books and ideas that’s grown from that. Our audience and community are extraordinary. In my role I want to assure its continuity, and expand it to new audiences.
Tell us a bit about you–what are some of your favorite pastimes?
I walk, birdwatch, forage, and identify wildflowers. I’m translating a book of poems for children by a French poet named Jacques Roubaud, and I write poetry. From March until October, I listen to the radio broadcast of every Red Sox game.
And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask: if you were stranded on a desert island and could only have three books, which would you bring?
Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, Wallace Stevens’ poems. All topical!
What are you currently reading?
The Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun’s poems.
