The letter nominating Jim Johnson for this year's Stanislaus Arts Council Excellence in Arts Award for lifetime achievement has a theme of renewal. Its writers, Johnson's longtime Modesto Junior College faculty colleagues Lewis and Shirley Woodward, praise him for in 1981 "re-establishing the entire theater program at MJC," which had been canceled two years before. They also wrote that Johnson, when he was the college's dean of arts, humanities and communications, "played a major role in the total renovation" of the little theater. And "most recently," the Woodwards noted, "he has helped spearhead the renovation of the MJC auditorium complex, which will reopen this fall."
Though Johnson said his wife, Linda, a humanities instructor at MJC, heard from "a little bird" that he was up for the award, it came as a complete surprise to the speech and theater instructor. "I got the letter at home and thought it was a fund-raising letter," he said with a laugh, "so I casually opened it up and read the first paragraph and ... whoa!"
Noting that he and the Woodwards "go way back," he added, "I've worked with Lew on numerous artistic projects, so it's an honor coming from him and Shirley."
Johnson will be recognized at the arts council's awards banquet Saturday at the West Side Theatre in Newman. Also receiving awards will be Glenn Mount in the category of music, Lori Snable for visual arts, Colton Dennis for theater arts, Cleo Griffith for literary arts, Christie Camarillo for cultural history and Randy Siefkin for film.
As Johnson prepares to retire from the college he joined in 1969, he's pleased to witness another process of renewal: "I'm excited that I'm being replaced," he said. "We're hiring a new full-time instructor, and that was a real concern I had. ... These are difficult financial times, yet the college has said, 'We need to continue the program and we are going to hire another full-time theater instructor.' "
It wasn't a given that Johnson would be replaced. The reason he announced his retirement so early — about a year ago — was to give the dean the time to build a case that the position should be filled. As for choosing his replacement, Johnson decided to step away from that process. "That's the future, and I kind of represent the past," he said. "I didn't want them to be thinking about old Jim here and the way he did things."
Last week, after he learned of his award from the arts council, Johnson took some time to talk about his own future — and present and past.
Q: Your leadership in the renovation projects at MJC — is that all part of the job, or are you an overachiever, or did someone twist your arm?
A: It's that I'm so fortunate to have a job where I've had opportunities to do things that I just absolutely love. No one's forced me into any of these things. It's just that I've felt so lucky to be able to contribute and to help bring these things to be. I'm just so excited about the auditorium — it's been kind of a dream for the last 20 years, and to see it finally on the verge of reality, it couldn't be better. I'm retiring at the end of this year but I'm going to stay involved working on helping with the programs going in there.
Q: What's been your specific role in projects like the little theater and the auditorium? Is it artistic, is it a knowledge about things like acoustics and lighting?
A: More of the artistic. My division dean, Mike Sundquist, is more of the technical expert — though also an artistic expert — so he and I have collaborated over the last 18 years or so on this auditorium project, but he's the one who deserves the credit for the technical expertise. Mine has been more administrative and artistic and just trying to do everything I could to keep the project moving forward.
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