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Mansfield Center board introduces new chair and hears survey and festival updates
Summary
At its Jan. 16 meeting in Great Falls, the Mansfield Center Advisory Board introduced London Griffith as its new chair, approved minutes, and heard staff report on Theater DNA survey rollouts and low ticket sales for the Great Beyond Festival despite $25,000 in marketing.
The Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts Advisory Board met Jan. 16 at the Great Falls Civic Center Convention Center and introduced London Griffith as its new chair, staff said that Theater DNA surveys were being distributed and that ticket sales for the upcoming Great Beyond Festival were lagging despite substantial marketing spending.
Acting Chairman Randy Knowles called for approval of the Dec. 19, 2025 meeting minutes; Emily Lund moved to approve and Mandy Brumwell seconded. The board unanimously approved the minutes.
Owen Grubenhoff, Mansfield events manager for the City of Great Falls, said Theater DNA surveys for City public employees were sent on Jan. 16 and that surveys for public renters covering the last three years would be sent later that day and posted on the Mansfield and City Facebook pages and on the City website. "Results from Theater DNA will be coming at the end of March," Grubenhoff said.
Grubenhoff introduced London Griffith and described her stage and production background. Griffith, the board's newly introduced chair, said she had "stage managing, lighting director, props, producing, and directing" experience and noted she recently directed the Christmas show at the University of Providence Theater.
Board members asked follow-ups about operations and events. Randy Knowles asked whether parking had surfaced in survey responses; Grubenhoff said it had not and added that maps distributed at the ticket window help attendees find parking. Grubenhoff also said the Mansfield's ELF Christmas movie screening had low attendance despite 4,000 flyers because of a concurrent Cat/Griz game, and staff plan to try a different holiday film next year to evaluate whether the screening should continue.
Grubenhoff said $25,000 has been spent on marketing for the Great Beyond Festival, whose theme is cryptids, but that ticket sales remained low. He asked board members to help spread the word on social media. London Griffith and Emily Lund said they had not seen workshop listings on the event page; Mandy Brumwell said she would share the event on the Spark The Arts page and would contact Shannon at Visit Great Falls to follow up.
Randy Knowles said he would mention to a colleague the possibility of booking an NRA banquet at the Mansfield. Events specialist Lane McAlpine reported on recent and upcoming events, though the meeting record does not provide additional detail of that report. There were no public comments.
The meeting record shows the meeting was adjourned at 12:44 p.m. The transcript contains inconsistent references to who was acting chair at different points: it records "Acting Chairman Knowles" calling for minutes approval, later states "Acting Chairman Lund" called the meeting to adjourn, and the signature block on the minutes lists Carl Donavan as Acting Chairman.
