Denise Montgomery to Head San Diego Arts Commission

Mayor Bob Filner has appointed Denise Montgomery executive director of the city of San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture. Montgomery, who held a similar position with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, starts on June 12. She succeeds Victoria Hamilton, founding director of the 25-year-old commission.

Filner, before introducing Montgomery, outlined his vision for the arts, which he compared t o his vision for binationalism: “We want to infuse it into everything we do.” He said Montgomery was prepared to “ratchet things up,” and he expects her to join in his effort to have the arts and the arts commission assume a broader, more pronounced and important role in the life of the city.

Montgomery left Colorado in 2006 to move to San Diego and become director of marketing at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (she later formed her own consulting practice). But she left behind a strong impression, and her candidacy was enhanced by a call to Filner from John Hickenlooper, the governor of Colorado.