The City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024.
For more than half of its existence, Camille Russell Love has been its executive director, making her the longest-serving person in a leadership position at City Hall.
Love recently announced her intention to retire by the end of the year, and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has said there will be a national search to find her replacement.
For Love, the timing was right. On July 1, she will have been with the City for 26 years. And she will turn 75 on Jan. 19, 2025.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to serve Mayor Dickens during a second term, and I knew I wasn’t going to work for another mayor,” Love said in an extensive interview.
In a statement announcing her retirement, Dickens said: “Ms. Love has served the people of Atlanta with the utmost integrity and character. Her creativity and vision have played a pivotal role in elevating the perception of cultural and performing arts in our community.”
Love moved to Atlanta from North Carolina in 1974 after having been to the city during spring break. It was a pivotal moment for the Atlanta, which had just elected Maynard Jackson as its first Black mayor.
“When Maynard was running, it became a calling to move to Atlanta,” Love said. “If you wanted to be part of something big, come to Atlanta.”
That was the same year Michael Lomax, then director of research and special assistant to the new mayor, and Shirley Franklin worked with Jackson to see how the city could be more supportive of the artistic and cultural community.
“Maynard came in and said it was part of his platform or agenda for the city to be more engaged in the arts,” Franklin said in a telephone interview. “Michael and I formed a committee of people from all aspects of the arts. I chaired that group. The key was to have a bureau that would be artist-focused as well as institution-focused.”
The group of about 50 arts leaders called for the City to establish an office of cultural affairs that would be focused on artists as well as cultural institutions, according to Franklin who chaired the group. Robert Shaw, the legendary music director and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, spoke to the Atlanta City Council.
“The arts community really embraced the idea,” Franklin said. “It was an idea whose time had come.”
Lomax, who later chaired the Fulton County Commission and is now head of the United Negro College Fund, ended up becoming the city’s first director of the Office of Cultural Affairs in 1974.
Franklin followed him in that position in 1978, the year the City launched the first Atlanta Jazz Festival. She later served as Mayor Andrew Young’s chief administrative officer during his two terms. Then, in 2001, Franklin was elected mayor, serving from 2002 through 2010.
After moving to Atlanta, Love embarked on a corporate career. After a brief stint with Southern Bell, she spent 15 years working for IBM. Then she opened the Camille Love Gallery, first in downtown and later in Buckhead.
When Bill Campbell was elected mayor, he finally convinced Love to join his administration as director of cultural affairs.
Love said she grew up in a family of public servants. Her father was a leader in Winston-Salem’s city government and school board, and her mother was a schoolteacher.
“Public service is in my DNA,” Love said about why she came on board on July 1, 1998. “The role allowed me to have a bigger mission.”
Love has had a unique vantage point on how Atlanta has evolved culturally.
“I have watched arts organizations change their programming and their boards to become more diverse,” she said. “That is gratifying. I have seen the city change the way it looks. The business community now embraces arts and culture. Businesses recognize that having a pleasing environment helps them attract employees. Yes, we are a sports city, but we have also become a cultural city.”
Love has seen that spirit translate to the people who call Atlanta home.
“Atlanta is a place where you can be whoever you want to be. It’s a free zone,” Love said. “The cultural environment has helped that come to be.”
But Love finds it frustrating that there’s not greater investment in the arts.
“A lot of people, companies, organizations and entrepreneurs make money in Atlanta. They make money here because it’s now a center for culture,” she said. “Atlanta’s cultural community should not always be on life support. The city government can only do so much.”
Part of the problem is the lack of state funding for the arts. According to rankings compiled by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Georgia ranks dead last in per-capita funding for the arts — just .14 cents annually compared to Number-one Wisconsin with a per-capita spending of $11.08.
“We live in a state where the people who are making the laws and allocating budgets want their residents to be unhealthy, unhoused, uneducated and uncultured,” said Love, who is known for being a no-nonsense, straight-shooter.
Mayor Franklin remembered Love serving as director of cultural affairs during her administration.
“Camille has had an incredible career building out the cultural and arts focus of this city,” Franklin said. “She really needs to be applauded for her service.”
Franklin, who helped mentor Mayor Dickens and countless others, said now might be a good time to take a deep look at arts and culture in the city.
“The model we originally developed was one model. It needs to be reassessed periodically, at least once every decade, to see where we are and what are we trying to accomplish,” said Franklin, who added there is
now greater appreciation for how the arts benefit economic development. “The arts bring people together. It’s part of the city growing as smartly and effectively as possible.”
A major part of Love’s duties as director is putting on the Atlanta Jazz Festival, which just held its 47th festival over Memorial Day weekend.
“The Jazz Festival has a legacy of its own,” Franklin said. “It’s a signature event for the city.”
The City of Atlanta allocated $500,00 for the 2024 Jazz Festival, which reimburses the city for all expenses, such as security, just like every other event.
For years, the city used to host two jazz festivals annually. The Montreux Jazz Festival was held over Labor Day weekend.
“After 2008, when the economy went to hell in a hand basket, we had to decide what to do. The city couldn’t produce two festivals,” Love said. “We decided to stick with the festival that had our name on it.”
Love, however, said the job is much bigger than putting on the jazz festival. It involves making grants, coordinating classes at the Chastain Arts Center, funding public art commissions, producing the Elevate Arts Festival, engaging with the Atlanta City Council, working on legislation, and overseeing a 20-person staff as well as the annual budget.
When asked whether the person replacing her should be familiar with Atlanta, Love quickly answered: “Absolutely. Because Atlanta is complicated.”
She then described other qualities important to doing the job.
“The City should be looking for someone who is versatile, someone who knows how to dance because you have to do a lot of dancing,” said Love, who mentioned she was a ballerina when she was a little girl. “It should be someone who understands government, someone who is a problem solver because you are going to have problems all the time. You have to be a decision-maker. You can’t be self-absorbed. You have to be culturally curious. And you have to be comfortable in all environments with all people.”
And that’s from the woman who did the job for nearly 26 years.
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