Laura Allen named as new director of South Arkansas Arts Center
The South Arkansas Arts Center board of directors has announced Laura Allen as the new executive director.
A resident of El Dorado,
Allen will begin her new job Aug. 14, but will attend her first official event as executive director Aug. 12 at an art reception hosted in the Price and Merkle
Galleries. The public is invited to attend and help welcome Allen from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 12.
Allen has been a writer and editor who began working with The
Diamond Agency after moving to El Dorado in
2009, launching “Cloud 9,” the in-flight magazine of SeaPort Airlines in 2012 and El Dorado “Insider’s Guide” in 2013.
A 2001 graduate of Hendrix College with a degree in English, she worked for statewide monthly magazine “At Home in Arkansas” from 2000 to 2009, beginning as an editorial intern and becoming editor in 2003. Under her leadership, the publication won a prestigious Bronze Award for General Excellence from the City and Regional Magazine Association in 2004.
A native of Jonesboro, Allen and her husband, Sam, have two daughters and are active members of First Presbyterian Church. She chairs the Dental Health Play as a member of the El Dorado Service League and has served on the Visual Arts Committee of the South Arkansas Arts Center.
She was appointed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the consumer member of the Arkansas State Board of Registered Interior Designers and served on the Hendrix College Alumni board of governors.
The South Arkansas Arts Center is a complete visual and performing arts center that includes three gallery spaces, a ballet studio, a 207-seat theatre, a scene and costume shop, classrooms, a photography studio and offices – all of which provide artist-in-education residencies, monthly gallery exhibits, community theater productions, classes in visual arts, ballet, photography, drama and music for people of all ages and people with special needs.
For more information about the arts center, located at 110 E. Fifth St., visit www.saac-arts.org.