Arts Council director resigns
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on July 27, 2018 5:50 AM
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Wendy Walker has resigned from her position as executive director of the Arts Council.
Wendy Snow Walker has resigned as the executive director of the Arts Council of Wayne County, and today is her last day.
She took the position in November 2016 when then director Sarah Merritt moved out of state.
"I came here specifically to help connect the community with the military base through the arts," Walker said. "I had created the Heroes project in Pittsburgh, which focuses on a lot of United States Army veterans. With Seymour Johnson in your back yard here, I was hoping to use the same formula and write an original stage production based on the lives and stories of local Air Force veterans."
The VetStories project will culminate with a stage production Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. at Wayne Community College. Tickets are $10, with discounts for veterans, available the middle of August at the Arts Council or through its Facebook page. People can also buy a seat in honor of a veteran in their family.
The two 45-minute segments, with a short intermission, will feature performers from Legacy Dance, Center Stage Theatre, StageStruck and Goldsboro Ballet doing poetry, songs and interpretive dance and giving a lot of historical facts from World War II to the present.
The VetStories project is a tribute to all who have served and a way to share their stories with future generations, Walker said. The production will be filmed and available for schools and other groups to use in the future.
"I think it's important to share stories through a creative outlet," she said. "Most people relate to things when presented in a creative way."
Although she will no longer be in charge of the Arts Council, Walker said she will still be involved with the VetStories project and see it through to the end.
And she plans on coming back to Goldsboro for all of the Arts Council's big events.
"I'm not leaving leaving you high and dry," Walker said. "Goldsboro is in my heart and always will be."
She said she believes her most important contribution to this community has been the development and implementation of the Multicultural Music Series. Through the series, the Arts Council has been able to expand its programming to reach more diverse audiences. Some of the programs include Mexican Independence Day, Oktoberfest, Native American Heritage Festival and Blue Dragon Festival.
"We have a lot of diversity in this area," she said. "I felt it was important to reach out to those different diverse communities that really had not been addressed before. It had been a goal of the Arts Council for a long time, but this year we really took that goal and ran with it."
That included increasing the percentage of Hispanic people coming to events at the Arts Council from several dozen to more than 500 throughout the year.
But Walker feels her legacy will be the Peeps.
"I think when people think of me, they think of Peeps," she said. "It (the Peep sculpture show) is a wonderful way to get people into our gallery. Then maybe they'll come back and see some of the other amazing and wonderful fine art that we do have here. I think the Peeps will live on without me."
Walker said she's leaving the Arts Council because she feels she's accomplished the work she came here to do.
"Now it's time to move on to something else," she said. "I have some film opportunities in D.C., and I have some advocacy work that's really important and needs to be done on Capitol Hill."
Come 7 a.m. Monday morning, Walker will be on a set working with a film crew on a commercial coming out later in August. Earlier this year, she was also elected as a delegate to IATSE, the local union for stage technicians, and will be spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill talking to legislators about arts advocacy for artists all over the country.
"It has been an honor and a privilege to promote the arts in Wayne County," Walker said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed working with local government officials, community pARTners and local agencies to help ensure the arts are thriving in this community."
The Arts Council board is taking applications for a new director to start around September/October. Applications are being accepted through Aug. 17 or until the position is filled.