Susan Ison sits at crossroads of art in Loveland

LOVELAND — Susan Ison sits at the crossroads of all things art and culture in Loveland.

And she’s been there for 39 years, observing the trends in art and entertainment and capturing the best of them for city residents to see at the museum, on performing arts stages, on cinematic screens, or in public galleries and parks around town.

Ison is this year’s BizWest Women of Distinction leading lady, an award given to a woman in Northern Colorado who’s impact cuts across multiple economic and cultural sectors of life in the region.

Ison earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Colorado State University in 1980. A year later, she was named curator of collections at the city of Loveland museum. A short time later, she was named cultural services director in charge of the museum and other art-related venues and collections.

Under her leadership, cultural services have come to encapsulate both the historic and the modern. The museum at Fifth and Lincoln, for example, includes both permanent collections and art shows from both local and nationally recognized artists. The Rialto Theater on Fourth Street might show either classics or films with limited distribution as part of the Phyllis Walbye Film Series. Live performing arts productions are also staged there. Soon, events and shows at the historic Pulliam Community Building will join the options under the cultural services umbrella.

She also oversees the community’s extensive art collection — more than 400 pieces of public art valued at more than $8 million, both sculpture and other forms of visual arts. Many of those pieces are positioned in the Benson Sculpture Park, but not all. The city’s 1% for the arts program, which she oversees, was the first in Colorado. It sets aside cash equal to 1% of public capital construction projects to be used for the arts.

Ison has overseen the expansion more than once of the museum, the restoration of the Rialto and the creation of the Art in Public Places program. She assisted with the effort to designate the downtown as a creative district. She stood up for creative expression and received the Julie J. Boucher Community Honor Roll for Intellectual Freedom. She sits on the city’s executive team with the city manager and the other department heads.

“After all these years, it continues to be a joy…” she says of her tenure with the city. “I am grateful to live in a community that truly cares.”

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