{"id":229290,"date":"2026-03-20T23:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229290\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T23:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:42:08","slug":"amid-scandal-fresno-arts-council-appoints-new-interim-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229290\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid scandal, Fresno Arts Council appoints new interim leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s at stake?<\/p>\n

The shakeup comes as the Fresno Arts Council has faced mounting criticism over its handling of Measure P and changes to ArtHop \u2014 and that was before the organization\u2019s embezzlement scandal.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Arts Council has a new leader, about a month after the alleged embezzlement of $1.5 million in Measure P funds by a former employee<\/a> of the organization rocked the arts community and lost the Arts Council its deal to administer the arts grant program.<\/p>\n

The Arts Council\u2019s board shared in an email late Friday afternoon that Andrea Mele, the organization\u2019s former program manager, has been appointed interim executive director. Mele replaces longtime Executive Director Lilia Gonz\u00e1les Ch\u00e1vez.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 a brief call with Fresnoland on Friday, Gonz\u00e1les Chavez said that she retired earlier in March, but declined to elaborate or comment further.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1les Ch\u00e1vez had led the organization as executive director since 2011<\/a>, including through controversies over changes to ArtHop and the Arts Council\u2019s handling of Measure P, even before the bombshell revelations of alleged embezzlement.<\/p>\n

The Board of Directors is also now seeking a permanent replacement for Gonz\u00e1les Ch\u00e1vez, according to Friday\u2019s email.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also launching a search for a new permanent Executive Director \u2014 someone with the vision, experience, and courage to help guide the Fresno Arts Council into its next chapter,\u201d the email from the Board of Directors reads. \u201cThis is an opportunity to strengthen our foundation and to enhance our reflection of the creativity and resilience of the communities we serve.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s at stake? The shakeup comes as the Fresno Arts Council has faced mounting criticism over its handling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-229290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229290","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=229290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}