What
The Chatham Arts Council nurtures creative thinkers in Chatham County.
That’s the short version. But other folks do that, too. Here’s what makes us unique:
We’re the ones who put our arms around the artists and the kids of Chatham County.
Yep. We’ve focused in on doing two things and doing them really well:
- One: We invest in artists.
- Two: We educate kids through the arts.
We launched this new identity for the Chatham Arts Council in November 2014, a crazy exciting leap after a full two years of internal work and outreach in the community.
Chatham County is home to an astonishing number of artists and arts appreciators—and we’re looking forward to being the arts council this county deserves.
Join us, will you?
Why & How
Because we value artists.
We value artists who paint, perform, draw, dance, act, cook, sculpt, write, sew, film, play, sing, and record.
We value professional artists, emerging artists, artists-in-secret, aspiring artists, and young artists-to-be.
You can check out We Invest in Artists and We Educate Kids through Arts to see more particulars about the whys behind our two focus areas.
Just as important as the Why is the How. And our Board and Staff are committed to doing this work in the following ways:
- Exemplary
- Impactful
- Inclusive
- Innovative
- Intentional
- Reliable
- Sustainable
- Unique
Hold us to that, okay?
Our Staff
CHERYL CHAMBLEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (part-time)
creator . strategist . mama
Cheryl’s professional background includes working alongside arts administration hero Joyce A. Moffatt to build the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago, nine years as a major gifts fundraiser in the Triangle, writing and producing 10 original plays as co-founder of both hands theatre company, and coaching nonprofit arts and education leaders as founder of onebrokenteapot.com Cheryl joined the Chatham Arts Council as Executive Director in late 2012.
What are you doing when you’re not leading the Chatham Arts Council?
I have adventures with my daughter and husband, write and create performance, and coach creative and nonprofit leaders.
Any current obsessions?
Crafting amazing transitions for leaders, communities, and creatives—identifying what to hold on to, what to let go, how to tell the story, and how to implement the logistics. And this: parenting in a way that supports the natural curiosity and creativity of my child.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Making a Three Wise Men craft with Q-Tips, construction paper, and cardboard with my own mama. Age three. And yes, we still have it.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Gotham Woods Farm — art + ag + friends.
MIKI ADAMS, ACCOUNTING (part-time)
painter . stitcher . reader
Traveling, and rejoicing and adjusting to recent retirement.
Art, gardens, domesticated animals.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Walking to and prowling through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC with my father.
Chatham Community Library in Pittsboro.
CATHERINE C. HOBBS, COMMUNITY OUTREACH (part-time)
collaborator . cohort . creative
Catherine is a master at making connections. With one idea, she sees networks and corollaries, then parlays them into marketing or financial boons for the organization she is guiding. Catherine comes to the Chatham Arts Council with a strong background in sales and customer service, where she learned the art of asking the right questions to help ensure a personalized solution.
What are you doing when you’re not working at Chatham Arts Council?
Depends on the day.
Any current obsessions?
Simplification!
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Making a Shrinky Dinks Raggedy Anne-shaped luggage tag. It shrank so tiny you couldn’t read the contact information!
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
My favorite place in Chatham County is my front porch.
KRISTA MILLARD, EVENTS/ARTISTS-IN-SCHOOLS (part-time)
enthusiastic . passionate . Chathamite
Krista has lived in Chatham County for 18 years. She lived in Boston, London, Los Angeles, and Seattle before settling down with her husband, Chip. They have two amazing kids.
What are you doing when you’re not working at the Chatham Arts Council?
Trail running, listening to music, and spending time with my teenagers.
Any current obsessions?
True-crime podcasts and finding my next favorite band.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Performing “We are Family” by Sister Sledge at the YMCA daycare in Cambridge, MA in 1978.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Our little “beach” along the Haw River at our house. I love spotting eagles, herons, and river otters.
APRIL STARLING, MARKETING/PUBLIC RELATIONS (part-time)
writer . organizer . nurturer
April, a NC native, spent the last 18 years in NYC. She “grew up” professionally working for top PR agencies, then joined the non-profit world promoting special education. She’s thrilled to be back home, where she’s helping clients build their brands. April can be spotted chasing her daughters with her husband.
What are you doing when you’re not working at the Chatham Arts Council?
Connecting brands to communities for clients, volunteering, baking and working with my husband to crack the parenting nut!
Any current obsessions?
The Rebirth Brass Band! (and finding a way to squeeze three more hours into each day)
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Making a potato stamp, then promptly using it on my parents’ woodblock kitchen island. Yes, the stains are still there.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Phoenix Bakery (can’t stop eating their cookies!)
Our Board
TAYLOR HOBBS, PRESIDENT
designer . team builder . dad
Taylor has lived in Chatham County since 2005. He joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2014. An architect by profession, he brings an artist’s view and a business owner’s perspective to our table. As a dad, he brings a belief in arts in education.
What do you do with your days?
Work, parent, play, work, work. As a principal at Hobbs Architects, PA, I’m currently spending lots of time as project architect for the CCCC Chatham County Health Sciences Building. I’m also the assistant coach for my son’s AAU basketball team.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Drawing and sketching from a young age.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
The Haw River
BETT WILSON FOLEY, VICE-PRESIDENT
community builder . designer . nurturer
Bett has lived in Chatham County for much of her life. She grew up here until she went off to college, and she moved back in 2002. She joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2012. A Pittsboro Town Commissioner, Bett believes in creativity as a positive force in communities.
What do you do with your days?
I garden, arrange flowers, shoot photographs, hike, and spend time with my family and four dogs.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
My mother kept a large stack of blank newsprint on hand at all times. My sisters and I loved to draw. Mom also filled a cedar chest full of fabric and craft supplies. We created all sorts of things!
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
The Haw River.
GILDA McDANIEL, SECRETARY
planner . collector . cat-herder
Gilda has lived in Chatham County since 1998, and she is our longest-serving Board member, having joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2003. She is a major force behind the wonder that is ClydeFEST.
What do you do with your days?
I’m the Special Events Manager for Fearrington Village.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Listening to my father sing opera to the cats! Seriously, visiting many museums and attending musical events with parents as a small child and growing up.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Home.
SELBE BARTLETT, TREASURER
thinker . maker . strategist
Selbe has lived in Chatham County since 2004. She joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2016. She’s eager to provide Chatham youth with arts experiences that build a love of the arts throughout their lives.
What do you do with your days?
I love, laugh, and work with my family and community and then work some more at AllScripts.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
When I was on the stage crew for a high school theater production, I was amazed at how talented everyone was.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Downtown Pittsboro. I absolutely love to walk around downtown. It is so relaxing to watch the small town wanderings of people enjoying their community.
ELISABETH LEWIS CORLEY
poet . actor . screenwriter
Elisabeth has lived in Chatham County since 2003, and joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2016. An award-winning actor, screenwriter, editor, director, poet, and producer of plays and films, she’s eager to contribute to an increasingly vital life of the arts in Chatham County.
What do you do with your days?
Lately I spend a lot of time working as a producer for theatre and short films for StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance, and Harland’s Creek Productions. When I can slip away (and sometimes when I shouldn’t), I ride horses, studying dressage.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
When I was four I wrote what I hoped was a poem.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
I’m a homebody: Harland’s Creek – our home, our woods, the cabin.
KAREN HOWARD
activist . mother . collaborator
Karen has lived in Chatham County since 2007, and joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2013. With a professional background as an attorney, a mother of six—including a child with special needs, she is passionate about working for arts in education.
What do you do with your days?
Drive kids, cook, clean, and repeat. Service on the Chatham County Board of Commissioners.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Seeing “Finian’s Rainbow” at the Dundas theatre in the Bahamas in 1971.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
The bridge over the Haw River on 15-501 at sunrise.
DANI WISE JOHNSON
curious . determined . compassionate
Dani came to the area for graduate school in the late ’90s and has been a Chatham resident ever since. While she focuses her professional life on environmental pursuits—including time as research faculty at NCSU—her personal interests have always included supporting the arts. She joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2017.
What do you do with your days?
I work independently as an environmental consultant at Blue Line Environmental specializing in river restoration projects and I’m a homeschool teacher for my two daughters, Virginia and Kimberly. I’m also constantly working on the old farmhouse and gardens at my home “Ward’s Hollow”.
Any current obsessions?
Functional art—having as many of the everyday things we use in our lives be those with beautiful form and function!
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Singing along with my grandmother while she played the organ at her home in Currituck County, making drip sand castles on the beach in Carova, and watching my father carve wood into beautiful things that we still treasure today.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Our slice of heaven at the historic Ward’s Hollow property on Mt. Gilead Church Road.
LESLEY L. LANDIS
organizer . introvert . dreamer
Lesley has lived in Chatham County since 2002. She joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2006. She believes that the arts are essential to bridging communities, developing community pride, and educating thoughtful, critical, and innovative thinkers.
What do you do with your days?
I’m a graphic designer at Lesley Landis Designs, work at the Chatham YMCA, walk my dog, and serve on the Main Street Pittsboro board.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Learning to write the alphabet and attributing human characteristics to the letters based on their darkness, boldness, slant, and size.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
My home and the woods that surround it.
DAWN PORTER
community-driven . outdoors-lover . traveler
Dawn has lived in Chatham County for over 20 years and in the Triangle for all her life. She joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2017. Dawn studied community organizing and public health. She has a strong interest in the arts, particularly the role of public art in community development and in community organizing, as well as social justice and health—particularly mental health and wellness.
What do you do with your days?
When not at work as a health educator, Dawn walks to and alongside the Haw River, writes, collages, creates mixed media and enjoys time with her family and neighbors.
Any current obsessions?
I’m obsessed with my new Koi’s Pocket Field Sketch Box.
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Spending time with my grandmother painting or other crafts. During my annual weekly stays during summer vacation, she would guide me through late summer art projects in preparation for entries into the local and state fairs.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
You guessed it….the Haw River.
SUE SZARY
energizer . innovator . optimist
Sue has lived in Chatham County since 2006, and joined the Chatham Arts Council board in 2016. Her two businesses, a retail shop and a wholesale business selling handcrafted fiber art tools, reflect her passion for fiber arts. She’s eager to serve as a conduit to connect the Siler City creative community with the rest of Chatham County.
What do you do with your days?
I tend the critters on my farm, including silk worms, spin fiber, and weave, and run Twin Birch Products and my retail shop “against his will studio.”
What is your earliest memorable arts experience?
Sweeping sawdust from the floor of my Dad’s woodshop.
What’s your favorite place in Chatham County?
Home!
And What We Don’t Do
When you narrow your focus to be the best you can be at two things, there are a lot of cool things you have to let go.
Here are some things you might be looking for, important things that other organizations or people can help you with a whole lot better than we can:
- Do you offer arts classes?
We don’t, but there are some awesome classes around the county—and just beyond our borders. You might start by searching for “teacher” in our Arts and Artists Directory. And you could also check with the good people at Central Carolina Community College, the NC Arts Incubator, and the ArtsCenter in Carrboro.
- Where can I find gallery representation?
Hm. That’s not our area of expertise, but lots of the fine folks at the Chatham Artists Guild and the NC Arts Incubator have gallery representation, so check in with them.
- I need space for my art—performance space or exhibition space or studio space. Where can I find it?
We don’t have a catalog of spaces right now, though that’s a fabulous idea for the future. You might check in with area businesses or the Chatham Artists Guild or the NC Arts Incubator about exhibition space. And the last two would likely have tips on studio space as well, especially space at the Incubator. For performance space, a little more creativity may be required.
