Leaders establish arts council in Lynchburg

By: Casey Gillis | The Burg
Published: December 09, 2008

Area arts and business leaders voted Monday night to establish an arts council in Lynchburg.

The 33 people who assembled approved a drafting task force’s recommended vision, mission, membership guidelines and a name: The James River Council for the Arts and Humanities.

They also elected the council’s first board of directors, which consists of 20 members.

“We spent a lot of time going over a lot of names, looking for a lot of qualities (in potential members),” said David Neumeyer, president of Opera on the James and one of the key figures behind the council.

These people, Neumeyer said, will “make the concept of a council into reality.”

Seven of the board members are sector representatives, who will represent specific aspects of the community.

They are Tony Camm, a local performing artist and general manager of the Holiday Inn Select (business); Al Coleman, director of secondary education for Lynchburg City Schools (education); Anna Bentson, marketing director for Jefferson’s Poplar Forest (humanities); Lynchburg City Councilman Scott Garrett (local government); Rick Piester, executive director of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra (performing arts); Sergei Troubetzkoy, director of tourism in Bedford (tourism/economic development); and Krista Boothby, a local artist and member of Riverviews Artspace’s board of directors (visual arts).

At-large members are Neumeyer; Tyrone Brooks, executive director of Virginia School of the Arts; Terri Cornwell, a local arts volunteer; George Dawson, CEO of Centra Health; Elizabeth Ford, with the Lynchburg Parks & Recreation Department; Terry Jamerson, publisher of The News & Advance; Susan Klein, a local arts volunteer; Dick Kordos, executive director of the Academy of Fine Arts; Nat Marshall, with BWX Technologies; Carol O’Brien, with Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; Dawn Best, director of corporate development at Hurt & Proffitt; Ken Parks, chairman of Randolph College’s theater department; and Mary Ann Racin, executive director of Riverviews Artspace.

Board members will serve two-year, staggered terms, meaning half the board will be up for re-election every year.

Membership in the council will be open to all individuals and organizations in the Lynchburg area that are committed to the council and its vision, which states that “Central Virginia is a region of physical beauty and connected communities that celebrates human potential by supporting and developing the arts and humanities.”

Neumeyer said he expects the board to hold its first meeting in January, when it will create an action plan for moving forward.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, but those who attended the meeting were feeling good about the council’s progress.

“We need something like this, pulling everybody together and getting some good stuff done,” said Tony Camm, who is also on the board of the Black Theatre Ensemble. “We need to have more stuff where everybody’s tied in.”

Elizabeth Ford, who works for the Parks & Recreation Department, said she’s seen previous efforts to start a council come and go. She said this one is “way better.”

“I think people are kind of realizing we can hang together or we can hang separately,” she said. “And they’re realizing we can get more done if we hang together.”

Local artist Krista Boothby agreed.

“It’s a giving thing,” she said. “It’s wanting Lynchburg to succeed.”