From Flute To Leadership In The Arts Community

The Executive Director for the Paramount Center for the Arts is Gretchen Boulka.  She is my guest for this edition of WJON's My Life Series.

Where it began

Boulka was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the family lived near the airport.  Her father was a police officer in the city of Milwaukee while her mother was a public school teacher.  Gretchen is the youngest of 2 children, she has an older brother.

Her Interests

Young Gretchen participated in volleyball, softball, soccer and was on the swim team.   She recalls gaining an interest in music in the 7th grade.  Boulka says she saw someone playing the flute and decided that was the instrument she wanted to play.  She says her mother was very supportive of her musical interests.  Gretchen ended up playing the flute through high school and into college.  She explains she's not sure if she'd be as interested in music if it wasn't for the start in 7th grade.

College Years

Gretchen graduated from Martin Luther High School in Milwaukee and set her sights on college.  She went to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.  She initially set her focus on Geology.  Gretchen recalls being bored with the subject matter and knew she had to change her major after her first year.  She was already in the orchestra at River Falls and changed her major to music.  Boulka wanted to be a professional musician and graduated with a liberal arts degree with a focus on music.  She started teaching private lessons on playing the flute.  Gretchen realized that didn't pay real well.

Masters Degree

Boulka had a friend who was working through an arts masters degree and she was interested in possibly doing that herself.  The degree is for the business aspect of the arts.  She got her arts masters degree from St. Mary's in the Twin Cities.  Boulka really enjoyed the business side of the arts.  She started to work for the Dale Warland singers... a famous choir at the time.  Boulka worked in marketing for them.  She was also working for a record label in Milwaukee.  She then got a job working for the Children's Theater in St. Paul as an intern and was later hired as an employee.

A Big Break

Gretchen got the marketing manager job with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  She recalls being there for a few years before being promoted to PR Director.  Gretchen was married at the time and she became pregnant with the couple's first child.  She thought it was important to stay home and raise the couple's children so she left the workforce in 2005. Gretchen's husband is the middle school band Director at Maple Grove Middle School.  Boulka's 1st daughter was born in 2006 and her 2nd daughter was born in 2009.

Back in the Workforce

In 2011 a former colleague of Boulka's called and said they were looking for someone to work in marketing and PR.  This was a part-time job.  She did this for 5 years. In 2016 she started looking for full time jobs and applied for the Performing Arts Director position at the Paramount in St. Cloud.  She was hired for that job in the summer of 2017.

Promotion

Boulka stayed in the position of Performing Arts Director until 2023 when Bob Johnson stepped down from the Executive Director position.  Gretchen applied for the job and was hired.  Gretchen explains that she really enjoys the challenge of the Paramount and is proud of the growth they've been able to accomplish.

If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Gretchen Boulka, click below.