For starters, Sewell is not an artist. She doesn't paint or sculpt or act or compose music. You're more likely to find her hurtling down a ski slope or navigating a bike trail than browsing an art museum. But nobody who has witnessed her knitting would not call her creative. And nobody who has seen Sewell pushing her body through a grueling, 12-hour triathlon - finishing ninth in her age group - would not call her determined.

Since succeeding longtime executive director Robyn Nelson last August, Sewell has been busy planning the 31st annual event - four festive days of art, crafts, dance, food, global music and street theater - that kicks off June 21 at Salt Lake City's Library Square. But don't suggest to the former assistant director that she's the new face of the Utah Arts Festival.

"I'm not the face of the festival. All the other people are the face of the festival," Sewell says about the hundreds of organizers, volunteers and artists who bring the carnivallike event to life each year. "I'm just the little bandleader."

A little bandleader who oversees a $1.3 million budget, three full-time staffers, three dozen programmers and everyone else who helps stage Salt Lake City's largest annual arts bash, attended by some 80,000 people. By almost any measure, it's not a "little" job. But after almost 12 years with the festival, working without fanfare under other people, Sewell is still getting used to being the boss.

"I like to be the person behind the scenes . . . in a supporting role," she continues. "It's taken me some time to put my foot down and say, 'OK, I guess I am the director of the festival and I'm going to lay down the law.' It's been an adjustment."

That's typical Sewell: cheerful, candid and not one to toot her own trumpet. Despite almost two decades of work in Utah's nonprofit cultural sector, she's not well-known outside Salt Lake City's arts community, and that's fine with her.

Nonprofits' pull: Sewell, 45, grew up Catholic in Holladay and graduated from Cottonwood High School. Her dad was an accountant, her late mother a nurse. The couple met in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he was a champion ski racer in the 1950s. From her father, Sewell inherited an active, outdoorsy lifestyle; from her mother, a Basque, she got her olive skin and a social conscience.

While still in high school, Sewell became fascinated with the peace and civil-rights movements of the '60s. From there she studied political science and philosophy at Linfield College, a small school in Oregon's Willamette Valley. After a brief marriage, a cross-country bike odyssey and a return to Utah, Sewell eventually took a job as membership director for KUER, the public-radio station, where she organized fund drives. That led, after six years, to a fundraising job with the arts festival.

"I've always gravitated towards the nonprofit sector," Sewell says of her entry into Utah's arts world. Calling her a die-hard arts supporter would be a stretch, however. "I always enjoyed going to the arts festival and to movies and theater and galleries. But I wouldn't say that art was my life."

When Sewell joined the staff in 1995, the arts festival was enjoying a streak of stability and prosperity. Throughout the 1990s, the event drew large crowds to the Triad Center to sample artists' booths and see such national musical acts as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Taj Mahal, Ben Harper and the Staple Singers.

For six years, Sewell helped boost the festival's coffers by writing grants and hitting up corporate sponsors. But when the assistant director's job opened up in 2001, she leaped at it.

"I thought, 'I can't ask anybody for any more money,' " she says. Instead, Sewell took a hands-on role each June in building the festival's infrastructure. "I'm not supposed to be the person climbing scaffolding and hanging fabric. Robyn used to yell at me. But that's my personality. If everyone else is doing it, I want to do it, too."

Climbing out of a hole: By this time, the festival was in financial trouble. Light-rail construction and the opening of The Gateway forced the festival to move in 2000 to the State Fairpark, where attendance, and revenue, plummeted. The festival moved again to the Gallivan Center before settling in 2003 at its current home between the sparkling new library and the grand old City-County Building. Attendance has rebounded, but the festival still faces residual debt.

"We lost a lot of money. And we've been climbing out of a hole for four years," says Ken Ament, the festival's technical director. "It was nobody's fault - we just became homeless."

Then last summer the festival's board of directors fired Nelson, who had run the event for 13 years, and replaced her with Sewell. Board members gave no explanation for the change, saying only that they wanted a "fresh approach." Nelson said at the time that she was blindsided and hurt by the move. Now executive director of the Dogwood Arts Festival in Knoxville, Tenn., Nelson declined to comment for this story.

After being reassured by the board that she wouldn't just be a short-term solution, Sewell took over officially last October. Sewell says she worked well with Nelson, whose creative energy complemented Sewell's left-brain organizational skills. Observers say their management styles are different, too.

"Robyn was a very dynamic leader. And Lisa's more of a consensus builder," says Ament, who also serves on the festival's advisory board. "Lisa's real strong point is her ability to get along with people. Everybody likes Lisa."

Sewell says the festival board gave her no specific marching orders. But it's clear from talking to her and to board members that a big priority will be keeping a watchful eye on the budget. Instead of handing the festival books to her assistant director, Sewell is managing them herself. She's also trying to streamline the production side of the festival - downsizing the fleet of staffer golf carts, for example - to save money.

"We can't continue to function if we don't have our financial ship in order. That's one of the things we asked Lisa to focus on," says Ed Havas, chairman of the festival's board. "And we are making very good progress. I expect us to be in the black this year or next."

Time will tell: The public won't judge her job performance until they experience a Sewell-run festival or two, but those who work with her rave about Sewell's smarts, enthusiasm and dedication. They even praise her hesitation at giving orders, saying Sewell's collaborative style will make for better programming.

"Lisa's strength is that she recognizes where her strengths and her weaknesses are. Because nobody can do it all," says Steve "Doc" Floor, the festival's performing-arts coordinator. "She has been dropped into a very high-profile, high-stress position here. And she's handling it like a champ. The only thing that can mess up the festival this year is the weather."

So where will Sewell take the Utah Arts Festival? It's still early, but she has some ideas. She's adding a hip-hop program to this year's event to draw more young people. She wants to make the festival more of a year-round presence in the community, something that's already begun with Gallery UAF, the public-art space that's opened at the festival's new offices in a former brick warehouse on 500 West. She'd like to reaffirm the festival's commitment to Utah artists and performers.

A hard-rock fan, she also laughs about booking Metallica for a future festival. Despite the joke, you get the sense that she just might do it.

Right now, however, Sewell just wants to put on a great show in June.

"I haven't really thought much beyond this year," she says. "It's like any new job - you want to get through the first year and see how things play out. You don't want to make a ton of changes. Talk to me when this year's over."

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* BRANDON GRIGGS can be contacted at griggs@sltrib.com or 801-257-8689. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Lisa Sewell

Age: 45

Job title: Executive director, Utah Arts Festival

Education: Bachelor's degree, Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore.

Work experience: Membership director, KUER, 1989-95; Utah Arts Festival marketing and development director, 1995-2001; Utah Arts Festival assistant director, 2001-06

Relationship status: Divorced

Hobbies: Competing in triathlons, knitting, going to the theater, working out to Metallica