The Arts Council of Long Beach has a new executive director \u2014 on an interim basis.<\/p>\n
Lisa DeSmidt, who has worked with the nonprofit for a decade, most recently as its director of programs, took over the role on Monday, Feb. 2. She takes the helm from Griselda Suarez, who announced her departure from the Arts Council last week.<\/p>\n
DeSmidt is both a local artist and business owner, according to the Arts Council\u2019s Monday announcement. She has helped shape the Arts Council\u2019s programs, people and approach to serving the city\u2019s arts communities for years. She also curates the Arts Council\u2019s annual Professional Artist Fellows Exhibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cLisa has been a central part of ArtsLB for many years, and the Board\u2019s confidence in her leadership is unanimous,\u201d said Anne Lattime, president of the Arts Council\u2019s Board of Directors. \u201cShe knows this organization, she knows this community, and she has helped shape the programs and partnerships that artists and cultural organizations rely on. We are proud to support her as she steps into this role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides her background in the arts, DeSmidt brings experience in marketing, event production, community outreach and more to the position, Arts Council said. She has previously organized large-scale events for Ted Conferences, Blizzard Entertainment, Visit Long Beach and more.<\/p>\n
She previously worked as an assistant curator at the Torrance Art Museum, the announcement said, and her own work continues to tour both nationally and internationally. DeSmidt has a bachelor\u2019s degree from Cal State Long Beach and additional education from USC, the Arts Council said.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtsLB has been my professional home for the past decade, and I\u2019ve been deeply involved in building the programs and partnerships that support our creative community,\u201d DeSmidt said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to Griselda for her leadership and mentorship, and I\u2019m honored to step into this role. I\u2019m ready to continue strengthening an organization that plays a vital role in Long Beach\u2019s creative economy and cultural life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nonprofit\u2019s programming and operations will continue as normal, the Arts Council\u2019s announcement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arts Council of Long Beach has a new executive director \u2014 on an interim basis. Lisa DeSmidt,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5282,7,23,131,133,132,137],"class_list":["post-160601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-arts","tag-california","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}