Tryon Fine Arts Center has a new leadership team that will work closely with its board of directors and staff in 2010.
The team will be guided by president Loren Smith and new executive director Beth Child.
Both Smith and Child have a two-fold vision for Tryon Fine Arts Centerto provide opportunities and facilities for all people in the Foothills to participate in and experience the arts. They also will seek to further a collective effort among arts nonprofits in order to use resources more efficiently while enhancing each others mission and vision for the community.
Smith has served on the board intermittently since 1996, twice as treasurer, and most recently as Vice President of Operations.
Smith, a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin Law School, began his career as legislative counsel for a business trade association in Chicago, then became Vice President of an auto body hardware manufacturer.
For 15 years prior to his retirement, Smith managed a diversified group of financial services businesses operating throughout northern Illinois, and for a time served as Chairman of the United Bank of Illinois.
Smiths focus on education and the arts has always been an important part of his community service. He was a member of the Rockford Board of Education and President of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra.
Locally, Smith has served on the boards of FENCE, St. Lukes Hospital Foundation, and the Polk County Chapter of the American Heart Association.
He and his wife Marie moved to Tryon in 1988, and say they have found the region unique for maintaining their long-held interest in the arts.
Child moved to Tryon in 2001 after 20 years as a performing artist and teacher in New York.
She comes to Tryon Fine Arts Center after posts as Executive Director of the St. Lukes Hospital Foundation, and, most recently, as Director of Development for Hospice of the Carolina Foothills.
Child has served on the Boards of the Community Chorus and the Rotary Club of Tryon, serving the latter as President for 2008-2009. Her hobbies include playing the Steinway she brought with her from New York and gardening.