{"id":161125,"date":"2026-02-03T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161125\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T01:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:00:09","slug":"arts-council-for-long-beach-appoints-lisa-desmidt-as-interim-executive-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161125\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Council for Long Beach Appoints Lisa DeSmidt as Interim Executive Director &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.randomlengthsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Lisa-DeSmidt-Director-of-Programs-e1770060412365.avif\" data-caption=\"Lisa DeSmidt, ArtsLB Interim executive director. Photo courtesy of ArtsLB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"508\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image cwvlazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.randomlengthsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Lisa-DeSmidt-Director-of-Programs-e1770060412365.avif\"  data- alt=\"Lisa DeSmidt Director Of Programs E1770060412365\" title=\"Lisa DeSmidt Director of Programs\"\/><\/a>Lisa DeSmidt, ArtsLB Interim executive director. Photo courtesy of ArtsLB    <\/p>\n<p>Long Beach \u2014 The Arts Council for Long Beach or ArtsLB announced that Lisa DeSmidt, director of programs, has been appointed interim executive director, effective Feb. 2.<\/p>\n<p>DeSmidt has spent the past ten years at ArtsLB helping shape the organization\u2019s programs, people, and approach to serving Long Beach\u2019s creative community. She currently oversees ArtsLB\u2019s programs, staff, and interns, and curates the annual Professional Artist Fellows Exhibition. Her appointment reflects years of intentional planning, leadership development, and institutional knowledge built from within the organization.<\/p>\n<p>A Long Beach\u2013based artist and local business owner since 2009, DeSmidt brings both creative practice and operational experience to the role. Her background includes work in marketing, event production, community outreach, and curation, organizing large-scale events for the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, TED Conferences, LLC, The Designory, Blizzard Entertainment, and others. She previously served as assistant curator at the Torrance Art Museum and continues to exhibit her work nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n<p>\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 ArtsLB 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<p>DeSmidt is a local business owner who holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Long Beach, and has completed additional coursework in the Design Communications Certificate Program at the University of Southern California. She is a graduate of the Nonprofit Partnership\u2019s Emerging Leaders program and has served as a Peer Group Leader for the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture\u2019s Internship Program.<\/p>\n<p>\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 said Lisa DeSmidt. \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<p>All ArtsLB programs and operations will continue as planned.<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa DeSmidt, ArtsLB Interim executive director. Photo courtesy of ArtsLB Long Beach \u2014 The Arts Council for Long&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[76341,78265,76343,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-161125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-artsleadership","tag-creativecommunity","tag-longbeacharts","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161125","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=161125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}