For Immediate Release	Contact: Richard Engel
Jan 12, 2006	412-681-5449 x204
Merger Executed Between Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (Pittsburgh, PA) — All of the legal i’s have been dotted and t’s crossed to complete the merger of two of western Pennsylvania’s largest and oldest non-profit arts groups, Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA). On the last business day of 2005, the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Orphans’ Court Division approved all matters of asset transfer from PCA to the new non-profit organization that the merger created. The new organization now awaits only a name, something that should be announced within the next six weeks. “It’s a great thing for the arts community,” said Alan Gordon, chairperson of the Pittsburgh Filmmakers board of directors and partner at the McGuireWoods law firm. “The two groups will be able to do more than they could separately.” Both Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts will retain their names, programs and locations in Oakland and Shadyside, respectively. The programs will share services, in areas such as insurance, physical maintenance contracts, marketing, accounting, finance and human resources administration. In addition, new programs will be introduced that take advantage of the strengths of both organizations. The merger was preceded by the sharing of Pittsburgh Filmmakers executive director Charlie Humphrey, beginning informally in September 2004. His tenure was inaugurated with the re-opening of PCA with limited programming for the autumn. A management agreement was adopted by the two groups’ boards in October of 2004, making Humphrey executive director of PCA. Months of due diligence and more than a year of partially-shared services were initiated before any of the three merger-related, internal referenda were taken at the two organizations. The PCA board vote on the merger took place in September 2005, followed by a board vote at Pittsburgh Filmmakers the same month, and finally a measure was passed at the annual meeting of the Pittsburgh Filmmakers membership in November 2005. Humphrey now becomes the executive director of the merged organization. Laura Domencic, former assistant director at PCA, is now the PCA director; Andrew Swensen, former director of finance and corporate relations at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, is now the Pittsburgh Filmmakers director; and Dorinda Hughes, former director of administration at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, is now the assistant executive director of the new entity. The two organizations’ budgets are planned be unified starting July 1, 2006, with a preliminary combined budget of $3.4 million. The board of directors for the new non-profit group will be composed of the current Pittsburgh Filmmakers board members, plus five members — Cheryl Capezzuti, Judi Charlson, Charles Desmone, Tim Fabian, Paula Klein — and two ex-officio members from the retired PCA board.