Photo of Tammy Hauser.

Just in time for ArchTober, the Center For Architecture Sarasota has a new executive director in Tammy Hauser. The founder of Blue Sky Thinking, Hauser brings a long history of consulting for arts organizations, and this marks her first time administering an architecture institution. She’s taking the reins of the Sarasota organization from founding executive Cindy Peterson and anxious to apply her background in arts administration. We spoke with Hauser about her history and CFAS’ future.

What’s your history with CFAS and your background for leading? I’ve been working in the arts for 30 years, most of it in Minneapolis. Two years ago I moved here, read about the Center and joined right away. My background is in theater and dance, and I run a national dance organization. I’ve consulted in every area of the arts. Personally for me, I’m just finding it fascinating to learn a news arts discipline. It makes you think about buildings differently, to think about structure and form and how it relates to the landscape. 

What led you to a leadership role within the organization? When Cindy was planning to retire she reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in working with the organization and helping move it to the next level. I specialize in small nonprofits in the arts at their beginning stages. I saw it as a wonderful opportunity to grow personally and professionally. At the same time, I have fallen in love with Sarasota. I had no idea of the impact Sarasota had before coming here.

What type of consulting has Blue Sky Thinking been part of in the past? I have run Blue Sky Thinking for 16 years and helped more than 68 small nonprofits grow, whether that’s growth in programming, geographically, the number of programs,  number of people or just to financially grow from one stage to the next. That’s been gratifying to me.

What will be the focus of ArchTober this year? The theme for our season is socially responsible architecture. What that really means is a focus on how architecture plays a role in everyone’s everyday life. It’s more than thinking about architecture as buildings and rather thinking about architecture as experiences and how a person relates to that and the built environment. That theme creates an overall construct for the season. We start with the 31 buildings in 31 days program, which begins [today]. We kick off the season on the 4th with a launch party to introduce me and celebrate Cindy Peterson’s retirement. The next event is a tour for CFAS members at the Nathan Benderson Park Finish Tower on Oct. 13. Then John McCarthy will do a downtown walking tour of some of the jewels of Sarasota as an Oct. 19 afternoon event, where he will look at some iconic buildings that have served several lives. We have an Atelier Talk on Oct. 24 at the Pansy Bayou studio of Ellen Hanson. And then we launch into Carl Abbott’s exhibit. It’s his 50th year at work, so this is a retrospective on architecture and a life within. We open his exhibit at the gallery on Oct. 27 and it runs through Dec. 12.

Photo of Tammy Hauser.