Marian Donnelly has a long history of management in the creative industries since her 1976 start at Regina-based concert production company, Star Kommand Productions (SKP). SKP managed local rock groups Streetheart and the Queen City Kids and produced the majority of music concerts that occurred in Saskatchewan in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, at the Centre of the Arts and the Agridome in Regina, at the Arena and Centennial Auditorium in Saskatoon, and at various venues in rural Saskatchewan. Donnelly’s ten years of employment with SKP saw her producing 200 shows per year in their territory of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, coordinating multiple national tours and managing the offices of SKP, working her way to the position of Vice President, Operations.
The next ten years were spent working independently as the business manager for Polygram recording artist Sue Medley. During that time, she conceived and executed a national marketing campaign for the Ride For Sight, a motorcycle rally that raises funds for research into degenerative eye disease. (Donnelly’s efforts helped to raise a record-breaking $2,000,000 for that campaign.) During this time she developed a training program that included instructional manuals and weekend workshops for young managers and independent artists that was delivered in most provinces in Canada. She was also commissioned by the Canadian Independent Record Producers Association to co-author (with Tony Tobias) a “Professional Development Strategy for the Canadian Music Industry”. In 1996 Donnelly was offered a position in Regina as the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association (now SaskMusic).
Marian arrived in Regina at the end of March 1996. On July 4 (three months later), SaskMusic launched the first Flatland Music Festival, an event that immediately gave the Saskatchewan recording industry a much-needed boost in profile. This annual festival continued to grow under her executive guidance until her departure from SaskMusic in 2002, when she crossed to the “other side” as a consultant to the Department of Culture Youth & Recreation. During her six year tenure with SaskMusic (1996-2002), Donnelly was the Chair and Co-Chair of the National Advisory Board to the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records (FACTOR), as well as the founding Chair of the Canadian Council of Music Industry Associations. She was the founding Chair of the Saskatchewan Cultural Industries Development Council, and a founding member of the Saskatchewan Cultural Human Resources Council. She was the recipient of the Prairie Music Award for Industry Builder in 2001, recognized by then Premier Roy Romanow. Through Donnelly's leadership, SaskMusic was the recipient of the Saskatchewan Labour Force Development Board’s Excellence in Human Resource Planning Award in 2002. Marian was a co-author of the "Saskatchewan Cultural Industries Development Strategy", commissioned by the Government of Saskatchewan as a framework for the growth of the province’s film, book publishing, visual arts and crafts, and music and sound recording industries (1997).
The transition to a contract position with the province occurred in 2002 when Donnelly was hired by the Deputy Minister of CYR to deliver three main objectives: 1) to write a response to the Cultural Industries Development Strategy she had co-written five years earlier, 2) to develop a cultural policy for the province, and 3) to develop a cultural tourism strategy. While Donnelly had a strong commitment to those three proposed objectives, she was asked to set them aside to assist the department with the renegotiation of a multi-year funding agreement for the Saskatchewan Science Centre, and to oversee the development of a five year business plan for the restructuring of the Science Centre’s management and programming.
Six months into her position with CYR, she was offered the job of General Manager at the largest performing arts organization in Saskatchewan, Regina’s Globe Theatre. (She ran as fast as she could from the "slow as molasses" pace of government and jumped with both feet into the exciting world of theatrical production.)
During her Globe tenure, Donnelly attended a conference in Toronto called Creative Places & Spaces. The conference introduced Donnelly to the possibilities of creative renovation and reuse of vacant or underutilized heritage buildings. As soon as Donnelly left Globe Theatre in early 2005, the idea of working to develop a heritage building in Regina began to percolate.
In 2005, Donnelly co-produced with her brother John (ex-Queen City Kid, now CEO of a Vancouver based event production company) the Saskatchewan Centennial Canada Day Celebration. Both sides of Wascana Park were booked with acts and artists ranging from Aboriginal hoop dancers to Great Big Sea, and over 65,000 people took in the festivities. It remains one of the largest one-day festivals in Saskatchewan’s history.
Donnelly began discussions with the owners of the Leader Building in the summer of 2005. By the end of that year, she had been contracted by the non-profit research body Regina ArtsAction, a University of Regina-based organization, to undertake a feasibility study on the proposed development of the vacant Leader Building (Hamilton Street), and a redevelopment and renovation of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 001 building on Cornwall Street.
Donnelly was accepted into the University of Regina’s Executive Master of Business Administration program in the fall of 2006, and convocated in June 2008. She is now teaching a new course at the University of Regina, a joint offering from the Faculty of Business Administration and the Faculty of Fine Arts called "Arts Administration". The course is offered during the January - April semester.
Donnelly is also set to pilot a new Entrepreneurial Training Course for the Saskatchewan Arts Board, to begin in March 2010.