Members of the Seattle Arts Commission elected Fidelma McGinn to a two-year term on the citizen-advisory commission. McGinn is a filmmaker and executive director of Artist Trust, a statewide nonprofit service organization for individual artists.

Before joining Artist Trust in 2005, McGinn was executive director of the Film Arts Foundation, one of the nation’s top resource centers for independent filmmakers located in San Francisco, Calif. Prior to that, McGinn was executive director of Seattle’s 911 Media Arts Center from 1997 to 2003.

“Fidelma’s insight, energy and broad experience in the arts community will help the commission advance city arts and cultural policies,” said Dorothy H. Mann, chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. “Fidelma is a trusted leader and valued advocate on topics ranging from artist healthcare to emergency preparedness for artists to the preservation of cultural space.”

Under McGinn’s leadership, Artist Trust won a 2009 Mayor’s Arts Award. (She is not related to Mayor Mike McGinn.)  She also co-chaired the Cultural Overlay District Advisory Committee (CODAC) convened in 2008 by members of the Seattle City Council in response to the rapid loss of arts-related spaces and activities in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Before joining the nonprofit sector, McGinn spent seven years at Microsoft, both in Redmond and Dublin, Ireland, as an international marketing manager for the desktop applications division.

Photo: Fidelma McGinn, photo by Jennifer Richard