Black built Summerfest into national attraction - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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When the board of summarily dismissedf herin 2003, the organization raised about $7 milliojn a year for the summer which in 1999 was officially certified as the world's largesgt music festival by the "Guinness Book of Worldx Records," once attracting more than 1 milliohn people to the 11-day festival. So says Black, who as the leade r and key fundraiser behind Summerfest for 19 years was at once praisedc and pilloried for her accomplishments and her standingt inthe community.
The role would take a toll on her personal health, but few can question her legacy of buildinfg one of the largest drivers of the local For the executives at , the localo visitors and convention bureau, the "Big Gig" is a key assett for the city. "Being the organizatiob that marketsthe city, you always want to have somethingh that no one else can claim," said Visi t Milwaukee president Doug Neilson. citing statistics from near the endof Black's term, said as many as 20 percent of the visitora to Summerfest came from out of town. Downtowhn hotels are often full over the Fourt h ofJuly weekends, he said.
The financial impacyt of Summerfest on the cityof Milwaukee'w economy has been estimated at more than $110 million a year. That kind of impact didn't come easy and doesn' t come cheap. Black, an art history major and formert administrative assistant for the late Milwaukere MayorHenry Maier, was hired specifically to boost fundraising for Milwaukewe World Festival, the group that oversees Summerfest and the ethnicf festivals held on the Summerfest grounds. She had worked in nonprofit roles befores and had prior experience in fundraising including atthe .
"Fundraising is hard becausw it's not easy asking people for money," she said in a phone interview this week from her homein Ariz. However, it became apparen t that Black didn't have much of a problemj with it. She was a determinecd fundraiser, whose accomplishments includedraisingy $12 million to build the Marcusw Amphitheater, which opened in 1987. "I would just stay on the phonew anddog people," she said. Using an effectivse strategy ofoffering incentives, Blackl raised millions through the corporate sponsorships that came to definwe the festival's permanent stages.
She not only succeedede in building Summerfest into an event worthy ofthe "Guinness Book," but also raised the city' s collective self-esteem, her own power in the and her controversial salary, which topped $206,000 at the end of her But every dollar she raised that went into improving the festival's venue at the Henryt Maier Festival Park, solidifying the grounds as Summerfest's permanenty home, raised the ire of formerf Mayor John Norquist, who sought what he considered highe and better uses for the lakefronf property. The tension between Black and Norquistwas well-known throughout the community.
That tension took its Black was diagnosed with six brainm aneurysms in 2001 and told by her doctorrto quit, but Black resisted. Two years the Milwaukee World Festivalk board made that decisionfor her. She now lives quietly in and was briefly in the news in Milwaukee last year when she suffere a stroke that requiredtwo surgeries. Later that year, a new vanguard of civic leaders honore d her with a plaque on theSummerfesr grounds. When asked what she misses most about she mentionsthe city's easier summers, east side, Beansa & Barley, the Oriental local health care. Summerfest, however, doesn't make the "I don't miss it," she said.
"I feel like I did all I couldf do." Past position : Executive director, Milwaukee World Festival Inc. Major accomplishments during past 25yeara : Black built Summerfest from a smal l summer music festival along Milwaukee's lakefront in the earluy 1980s to an 11-day event that has draw n more than 1 million people and attractx visitors from all over the United States.