Sharon Hardin's goal is nothing if not, well, daunting: “I intend to make the Arts Consortium a household name in Cincinnati. All of Cincinnati. People will understand what we do there and that we do it with excellence.”

        Tall order, that.

        Ms. Hardin, 43, a divorced mother of two and a rabid basketball fan (“Go Tar Heels”), takes over Monday as executive director of the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, a 30-year-old community arts and culture center in the West End.

        “Black, white, yellow, red, all people need to know what we're doing. Did you know that it's one of the oldest African-American arts groups in the country? And still people don't know what's going on there.”

        What's going on is art. In a big way.

        There's an art gallery with rotating exhibits where, Ms. Hardin says, “people can see and applaud African-American artists.”

        There's also an ambitious schedule of classes for all ages — African dance, ballet, music, fencing, theater, visual arts, voice training, even a children's chorale that sometimes tours the city.

        But Ms. Hardin wants a few growth spurts.

        Part of that growth will be whatever the community tells her it wants, and part will be what she knows it needs, things she has learned living here since age 7, spending the school year here with her mother and summers in the Carolinas with her father. Hence the Tar Heels addiction.

        “I'm blessed in that I grew up in a very open and accepting family. Because of them, I'm open and accepting of what the community wants from us.

        “That's growth. We'll be doing a lot more once we assess the needs of the community and see what it really wants.

        “Me, I want our programs to actually go into the community, say community centers, and share what we have. We do some of that now, but we need to do more.

        “The Arts Consortium is too well-kept a secret. People need to know, and I'm here to see the word gets out.”

        Ms. Hardin is something of an expert at getting the word out. After the Colerain High grad finished at Bowling Green State University in 1981 with a degree in radio and TV, she spent more than 15 years working in radio in Raleigh, N.C., and then at the WIZ (WIZF-FM 100.9) in Cincinnati.

        Her most recent job, the one she left Wednesday, was doing special events, public relations and handling all printed material as director of marketing and key initiatives at the Urban League of Cincinnati.

        “I'm not really leaving the Urban League,” she says. “I was a volunteer before I worked there and I'll be one after I leave. And I think they know all they have to do is pick up the phone and I'm there to help.

        “All I'm really doing is taking what I learned at the Urban League about high-quality work leading to success and transferring it to another organization.”

        As executive director of the Arts Consortium, Ms. Hardin says her job is to be the team captain who takes the organization to the next level. She'll supervise a staff of five, oversee existing programs, develop new ones, line up exhibits and, “if the floor needs scrubbing, well, I guess I'll do that, too.”

        It's a big job and Ms. Hardin knows it: “Oh yes, I have my work cut out for me. But I have a plan. We'll go after grants and do some fund raising (current funding comes primarily from the Ohio Arts Council and the city), such as the 30th anniversary gala we're planning for this fall.

        “And, I know I have a lot of relationships to re-establish with the arts community and city council. I plan to, no I'm determined to, meet someone new every day and spend an hour and a half with them.

        “I also know the quality of work that has gone on at the Arts Consortium before I came along. I have big shoes to fill. But I have big feet.”

        Hmmm. How about a few fill-in-the-blanks before she heads out to that new job?

        “Fire away.”

        My No. 1 regret leaving the Urban League . . .

        That I will not be as close to my mentor. Sheila Adams (Urban League president) was and still is my mentor. I'll still be talking to her a lot, but the comfort level of knowing her office was right across the hall, I'll miss that.

        My No. 1 apprehension with the new job . . .

        I guess maybe being accepted by the arts community. Some know me, a lot don't.

        What I'm most looking forward to . . .

        Bringing the organization to the level of prominence I know it deserves. That excites the hell out of me. You see the potential and you know all it needs is a little kick.

        What the Arts Consortium needs most . . .

        A clearer vision of what it wants to be in the future, along with a vision of how to go after it, act upon it and gather the people who will take it there.

        What Cincinnati needs most . . .

        Healing. Unity. Understanding. Continued arts in the form of theater, opera, whatever. The Arts Consortium hopes to help in that process.

        One question you wish you'd been asked . . .

        What I see myself doing in old age. I would like to be a volunteer for hospice and provide grief counseling. I feel God has given me the gift of comfort and I'd like to share it.

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