Staff & Board
Board of Directors
The Cabarrus Arts Council serves the entire county and carefully selects its board members to provide community-wide representation. Directors are nominated by a committee that includes board and non-board members who consider a matrix of priorities including municipalities, race and gender, arts expertise, professional expertise, and many other factors. Every director fills a specific need on the board in order to build an effective team.
The arts council board is a working board. Every director attends monthly board meetings and is active on at least one committee. 100% of board members donate to the council and raise funds for it. The arts council board of directors works closely with the executive director and actively promotes the arts.
Staff
Every staff member of the Cabarrus Arts Council was meticulously interviewed and selected by the executive director to create a team of professionals who bring a combination of knowledge, experience and talent to the council. Skill, character and competence are evident in each member, and the team has specialists in a variety of art disciplines: theatre, dance, music, literary and visual art.
Visitors to the galleries and theatre discover a friendly warm atmosphere where everyone is accessible. Community partners quickly learn that the arts council director and staff are team players, working for the good of the whole.
Cabarrus Arts Council
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| Executive Committee | |
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Dakeita Vanderburg Johnson, President Bill Dusch, Vice President |
Margaret West, Secretary Glenda Steel, Treasurer |
| Directors | |
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Betty Ann Alicea Dan Boone Betty Cannon Alan Cress John Crump Gayle Deal Lauren Edney Jim Hipp Betsy Liles |
Carole Price Georgann Athanaelos Sapp Chris Shoemaker Betsy Hamilton Smith Kim Stamey Sam Treadaway Kay Wall Jackie Whitfield |
| Ex-Officio | |
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Roy Davis Mike Downs |
Austin Entwistle Mike Legg |
Staff Members
Noelle Rhodes Scott
Executive Director
The Cabarrus Arts Council hired Noelle Scott as its Executive Director in September of 2000. Noelle’s profession in arts administration began shortly after graduating magna cum laude with a BA degree from Wake Forest University. She interned with the Arts and Science Council in Charlotte during its first $1,000,000 fund drive, and then was selected as an intern with the North Carolina Arts Council where she worked with the United Arts Council of Greensboro and the Goldsboro Arts Council. Following these internships, she was hired by the High Point Arts Council as Associate Director, and then served as Interim Director after one year. During this time she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Business Management Institute for Arts Administrators, based on the Harvard program.
Instead of accepting the offer of becoming Executive Director of the High Point Arts Council, Noelle married Edward Scott and moved to Alexandria, Virginia. While there, she was selected as a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and upon the conclusion of this program she was hired by the NEA as a research assistant. When the research was completed, Noelle was hired by the Arts Council of Fairfax County as its Program and Marketing Assistant where she served as curator of the council’s art gallery, helped coordinate the International Children’s Festival at Wolf Trap, and promoted the arts.
Returning to North Carolina, Noelle served as Sawtooth Center for Visual Design’s first Associate Director and then as Interim Director before she was hired by the Winston-Salem Symphony as its Marketing Director. She has enjoyed working for arts council-supported agencies as well as arts councils and feels that it gives her the advantage of understanding both sides of the equation.
Growing up in Davidson as a professor’s daughter, Noelle had the opportunity to learn from excellent teachers. From an early age she took ballet and then modern dance, piano, and flute. Noelle attributes her passion for all arts and especially the theatre to her teacher, Constance Welsh. Noelle took Connie’s Children’s Creative Drama classes from the age of eight and revelled in the creativity and precision that Welsh nurtured. When Noelle was in high school, Welsh dreamed of a creative drama troupe that would go into the elementary schools and perform shows of excellence. When this became a reality, she called it Tarradiddle Players and selected Noelle to be a part of its first cast. At about the same time, Connie developed the Davidson Community Players and cast Noelle as Abigail in The Crucible. Both Tarradiddle and the Davidson Community Players are strong, years after Welsh’s death.
At Wake Forest, although majoring in French, Noelle concentrated her energies on acting. She performed in numerous plays, took many theatre classes, and seriously considered going to New York after graduation, but she realized that although she adored acting and was encouraged to make it her profession, she wanted to do something in the arts that would nurture communities. She found the right fit with arts administration.
Noelle@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org
Pat Verner
Communications Director
Pat Verner became involved with the Cabarrus Arts Council in 1999 when she began editing the council's newsletter on a freelance basis. She joined the staff in February 2003 as Program Director and became Communications Director in 2008. A native of Grassy Creek in the North Carolina mountains, she received bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where a senior year internship led to three years as a newspaper reporter. Her career also has included jobs in media relations, publications or fundraising for several nonprofit organizations, including Hospice of Cabarrus County, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, and Peace College. Her freelance clients have included Cannon Memorial YMCA, the UNC Center for Public Television and the Ackland Art Museum.
Lin Barnhardt
Visual Arts Director
Lin Barnhardt received his undergraduate and masters degrees in art education from Appalachian State University. After teaching for nearly 30 years, Lin retired from the classroom in January 2006 with plans to allow more time for studio production. However, within weeks he joined the Cabarrus Arts Council staff to oversee the visual arts programs. His clay architectural models have been exhibited across the United States, including a Piccolo Spoleto Invitational showing in Charleston. Lin's art works have been featured on HGTV, UNC-TV, and Turner South networks. He is the recipient of two Regional Artist Project Grants and a member of Piedmont Craftsmen. His work is included in the White House collection.
Anita Burnette
Arts Center Manager
Anita Burnette received her Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Gardner-Webb University. Throughout college, she interned with various arts organizations including the Roanoke Symphony, Opera Roanoke, the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in Wintergreen, VA, and the Spoleto festival in Charleston, SC. Her first involvement with the Cabarrus Arts Council was as an intern with the North Carolina Arts Council Community Arts Administration program in Fall of 2006. Upon the completion of her internship, she accepted a full time position as office manager and has since moved into the role of arts center manager. An accomplished pianist, Anita has performed as a soloist, as an accompanist for choirs and theatre and opera productions, and as a member of a piano trio.
Sara Heiser
Theatre Manager
Sara Heiser received a BA degree in Elementary Education from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Education degree from Mississippi State University. She first learned of the arts council in 1998 through her involvement with Art Enrichment. Teaching children about artists and art history became such a passion that she was soon coordinating this all-volunteer program which serves the elementary schools in Cabarrus County. In 2002 she joined the Board of Directors, acting first as program chair, then president. Sara joined the Cabarrus Arts Council staff as Education Coordinator in September of 2007. She often draws upon her experiences as a former third grade teacher while overseeing the Students Take pART in the ARTs program. As Theatre Manager she enjoys working with professional performing artists and their agents to present excellent entertainment for Davis Theatre audiences.
Jill Irvin
Financial Officer
A native of Concord, Jill Irvin joined the Cabarrus Arts Council in February of 2001. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Wake Forest University with a BS degree in Mathematics. Her work background is in bank accounting and finance, having worked for CK Federal Savings and Loan and Southtrust Bank, and she has always been involved in the arts. She has played the piano since the age of 7 and was the pianist for the very first Old Courthouse Theatre Production “A Chautauqua Show” as a high school student. She accompanies various choruses and theatre productions, including the last four Concord High School musical theatre productions.
Carrie Myers
Events Coordinator
A native of Rushsylvania, OH, Carrie received a BS in Nursing and an MS in Nursing from The Ohio State University. While a critical care nurse and nursing educator she kept an active hand in the arts as a performer and choreographer. As a newcomer to North Carolina in 2000, connecting through musical theatre was a natural. She helped found the Cabarrus Playmakers and served as president of that group for its first four years.
After being introduced to the arts council at the 2003 fundraising breakfast, Carrie co-chaired the event in 2004. She joined the Board of Directors in July 2004 and became the Office Manager for the arts council in 2005 and the Events Coordinator in 2007. In this role, she oversees the Arts Council Galleries docent program and the Davis Theatre usher program and plans special events held at the arts council.
Carrie@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org
Lisa Baker
Executive Assistant
Lisa was first introduced to the Cabarrus Arts Council after participating in downtown Concord's Art Walk with her family and friends. She joined the arts council staff in July 2008. She is a cum laude 2008 graduate of the University of North Carolina Charlotte. As a student, she completed the Disney Channel College Program internship in Orlando, Florida. She also interned with and was hired by Clear Channel Radio, working mostly with traffic producing, high-definition radio programming, and event promotions. Lisa has been involved with arts all of her life. As a child she participated in art camps, dance choreography, and competition choirs. At Concord High School, she took several semesters of theatre and was the winner of the 2003 Theatre Award for "Outstanding Leadership and Director Assistance." Now she visits the theatre as a season subscriber of the 2008-2009 Stanford Broadway Lights Series to supplement her attendance at On Stage at the Davis.
Sandy Pettyjohn
Galleries Assistant
Sandy Pettyjohn received her BS in Art Education from Western Carolina University. She worked as an Elementary Art Specialist in Gaston County Schools for 5 years. She was Lower School Art Teacher at Charlotte Latin School for 24 years and chairman of the Visual Arts Department (grades K-12) for 20 years. She currently volunteers at the Mint Museum of Art as a docent and staff volunteer for the Historic Costume Collection. She is on the faculty of the New Teacher Seminar for Southern Association of Independent Schools and serves as assistant to Dr. E.J. Fox, Jr. and Dr. James Hendrix for the Administrative Institute.
Upcoming Events
7/28 - Annual Meeting
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Davis Theatre
Join the Cabarrus Arts Council for its Annual Celebration including a reception and recognition of our major corporate donors and outgoing board members.
7/31 - Tams
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Tams perform as part of the Kannapolis Summer Concert Series Beach Music Festival.