Staff & Board

Board of Directors

The Cabarrus Arts Council serves the entire county and carefully selects its board members to provide community-wide representation. Directors are nominated by a committee that includes board and non-board members who consider a matrix of priorities including municipalities, race and gender, arts expertise, professional expertise, and many other factors. Every director fills a specific need on the board in order to build an effective team.

The arts council board is a working board. Every director attends monthly board meetings and is active on at least one committee. 100% of board members donate to the council and raise funds for it. The arts council board of directors works closely with the executive director and actively promotes the arts.

Staff

Every staff member of the Cabarrus Arts Council was meticulously interviewed and selected by the executive director to create a team of professionals who bring a combination of knowledge, experience and talent to the council. Skill, character and competence are evident in each member, and the team has specialists in a variety of art disciplines: theatre, dance, music, literary and visual art.

Visitors to the galleries and theatre discover a friendly, warm atmosphere where everyone is accessible. Community partners quickly learn that the arts council director and staff are team players, working for the good of the whole.

Staff Members

Noelle Rhodes Scott

President and CEO

The Cabarrus Arts Council hired Noelle Scott as its President and CEO in September of 2000. Noelle’s profession in arts administration began shortly after graduating magna cum laude with a BA degree from Wake Forest University. She interned with the Arts and Science Council in Charlotte during its first $1,000,000 fund drive, and then was selected as an intern with the North Carolina Arts Council where she worked with the United Arts Council of Greensboro and the Goldsboro Arts Council. Following these internships, she was hired by the High Point Arts Council as Associate Director, and then served as Interim Director after one year. During this time she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Business Management Institute for Arts Administrators, based on the Harvard program.

Instead of accepting the offer of becoming Executive Director of the High Point Arts Council, Noelle married Edward Scott and moved to Alexandria, Virginia. While there, she was selected as a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and upon the conclusion of this program she was hired by the NEA as a research assistant. When the research was completed, Noelle was hired by the Arts Council of Fairfax County as its Program and Marketing Assistant where she served as curator of the council’s art gallery, helped coordinate the International Children’s Festival at Wolf Trap, and promoted the arts.

Returning to North Carolina, Noelle served as Sawtooth Center for Visual Design’s first Associate Director and then as Interim Director before she was hired by the Winston-Salem Symphony as its Marketing Director. She has enjoyed working for arts council-supported agencies as well as arts councils and feels that it gives her the advantage of understanding both sides of the equation.

Growing up in Davidson as a professor’s daughter, Noelle had the opportunity to learn from excellent teachers. From an early age she took ballet and then modern dance, piano, and flute. Noelle attributes her passion for all arts and especially the theatre to her teacher, Constance Welsh. Noelle took Connie’s Children’s Creative Drama classes from the age of eight and revelled in the creativity and precision that Welsh nurtured. When Noelle was in high school, Welsh dreamed of a creative drama troupe that would go into the elementary schools and perform shows of excellence. When this became a reality, she called it Tarradiddle Players and selected Noelle to be a part of its first cast. At about the same time, Connie developed the Davidson Community Players and cast Noelle as Abigail in The Crucible. Both Tarradiddle and the Davidson Community Players are strong, years after Welsh’s death.

At Wake Forest, although majoring in French, Noelle concentrated her energies on acting. She performed in numerous plays, took many theatre classes, and seriously considered going to New York after graduation, but she realized that although she adored acting and was encouraged to make it her profession, she wanted to do something in the arts that would nurture communities. She found the right fit with arts administration.

Noelle@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Pat Verner

Communications Director

Pat Verner became involved with the Cabarrus Arts Council in 1999 when she began editing the council's newsletter on a freelance basis. She joined the staff in February 2003 as Program Director and became Communications Director in 2008. A native of Grassy Creek in the North Carolina mountains, she received bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where a senior year internship led to three years as a newspaper reporter. Her career also has included jobs in media relations, publications and fundraising for several nonprofit organizations, including Hospice of Cabarrus County, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, and Peace College. Her freelance clients have included Cannon Memorial YMCA, the UNC Center for Public Television and the Ackland Art Museum.

Pat@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Lin Barnhardt

Visual Arts Director

Lin Barnhardt received his undergraduate and masters degrees in art education from Appalachian State University.  After teaching for nearly 30 years, Lin retired from the classroom in January 2006 with plans to allow more time for studio production. However, within weeks he joined the Cabarrus Arts Council staff to oversee the visual arts programs. His clay architectural models have been exhibited across the United States, including a Piccolo Spoleto Invitational showing in Charleston. Lin's art works have been featured on HGTV, UNC-TV, and Turner South networks. He is the recipient of two Regional Artist Project Grants and a member of Piedmont Craftsmen. His work is included in the White House collection.

Lin@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Lisa Baker McCombs

Operations Manager

Lisa was first introduced to the Cabarrus Arts Council after participating in downtown Concord's Art Walk with her family and friends. She joined the arts council staff in July 2008. She is a cum laude 2008 graduate of the University of North Carolina Charlotte. As a student, she completed the Disney College Program internship in Orlando, Florida. She also interned with and was hired by Clear Channel Radio, working mostly with traffic producing, high-definition radio programming, and event promotions. Lisa has been involved with arts all of her life. As a child, she participated in art camps, dance choreography, and competition choirs. At Concord High School, she took several semesters of theatre and was the winner of the 2003 Theatre Award for "Outstanding Leadership and Director Assistance."

Lisa@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Sara Heiser

Performing Arts Manager

Sara Heiser received a BA degree in Elementary Education from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Education degree from Mississippi State University. She first learned of the arts council in 1998 through her involvement with Art Enrichment. Teaching children about artists and art history became such a passion that she was soon coordinating this all-volunteer program which serves the elementary schools in Cabarrus County. In 2002 she joined the Board of Directors, acting first as program chair, then president. Sara joined the Cabarrus Arts Council staff as Education Coordinator in September of 2007. She often draws upon her experiences as a former third grade teacher while overseeing the Students Take pART in the ARTs program. As Theatre Manager she enjoys working with professional performing artists and their agents to present excellent entertainment for Davis Theatre audiences.

Sara@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Alisa Mason

Business Manager

Alisa Mason was introduced to the Cabarrus Arts Council during an intern partnership between Rowan Cabarrus Community College and Charlotte Research Institute at UNC Charlotte on the North Carolina Research Campus. She worked as a Continuous Improvement/Lean Manufacturing project coordinator and Continuous Improvement Facilitator for Daimler Trucks North America for 13 years. She enjoys volunteer work and has worked with the Rowan County United Way as a volunteer panel chair for its allocation process. Alisa has an Associate Degree in Marketing from Rowan Cabarrus Community College where she is currently finishing her Associate Degree in Accounting. She lives in Salisbury where she is the Neighborhood Watch Program coordinator for her neighborhood association.

Alisa@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Jennifer Livingston

Administrative Assistant

Originally from Lenoir, North Carolina, Jennifer Livingston graduated from Appalachian State University with a BFA in Studio Art and a BS in Art Management in 2008. As a student, she spent three years working as a Gallery Assistant for the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and the Catherine J. Smith Gallery. In addition, she was awarded a Windgate Museum Internship Fellowship and completed an internship at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. After graduating, Jennifer spent two years serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, first at Maine College of Art in Portland, then at the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. Upon completing her second VISTA term, Jennifer moved to Los Angeles where she spent a few months studying architecture and working at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2011, she returned to North Carolina to explore career opportunities in community arts organizations. Almost immediately, she began volunteering with two nonprofit organizations: the Asheville Design Center, supporting public art and design projects through grant writing, and the Caldwell Arts Council, assisting with exhibitions, marketing and social media. Jennifer currently lives in Charlotte and has been working for the Cabarrus Arts Council since September 2011.

Jennifer@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Sandy Pettyjohn

Galleries Assistant

Sandy Pettyjohn received her BS in Art Education from Western Carolina University.  She worked as an Elementary Art Specialist in Gaston County Schools for 5 years.  She was Lower School Art Teacher at Charlotte Latin School for 24 years and chairman of the Visual Arts Department (grades K-12) for 20 years.  She currently volunteers at the Mint Museum of Art as a docent and staff volunteer for the Historic Costume Collection.  She is on the faculty of the New Teacher Seminar for Southern Association of Independent Schools and serves as assistant to Dr. E.J. Fox, Jr. and Dr. James Hendrix for the Administrative Institute.

Sandy@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org

Megan Sayre

Program Assistant

Megan Sayre received her BS in Art Management from Appalachian State University in 2008. Throughout her college career she worked at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and the Catherine J. Smith Gallery as a Gallery Assistant and presided over the Appalachian Popular Programing Society by planning, promoting, and operating over 200 concerts, films, and events a year. She interned and was later hired by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. Over the course of three years she worked in the Special Events, Public Programs, Public Education, and Marketing and Communications departments. She is thrilled to be back in North Carolina and have the opportunity to enrich lives through art and art education.

Megan@CabarrusArtsCouncil.org