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FESTIVAL STAFF AND BOARD
Click to view STAFF and our BOARD!
STAFF
About Our Staff
Rick Bryant, Executive Director
Rick Bryant joined the paid staff of the Festival as its Director of Visual Arts in 1999, though his involvement with the CPFA which stretches back to 1984 when he first volunteered on the Trash Crew. Rick was named Executive Director in 2005.
Born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania before the county hospital moved to State College, Rick attended public schools in State College, and afterward the University of Virginia, where he took a bachelor’s degree from the School of Architecture in 1979.
After college he entered the family insurance business and pursued professional education, earning a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation in 1986. He retired from the insurance business in 1998 to pursue other interests.
In addition to serving as a long time Festival volunteer, he served as a founding board member, and later as president of The AIDS Project, an independent AIDS service organization providing client services and education regarding HIV/AIDS in Centre and Clinton Counties. He was the treasurer of the Centre CARES steering committee, which hosted two visits of portions of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt (the largest community art project in the world), to State College/Penn State. He served as President of the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania, an independent art school founded in 1968. He is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians and the Society for Commercial Archaeology.
Rick serves on the State College Board of Health and on the Community Advisory Board for Penn State’s Center for the Performing Arts and is Chairman of the State College Historic Resources Commission. He is also a member of the Board of Deacons of the State College Presbyterian Church.
Carol Baney, Operations Manager
Carol Baney has been with the Festival for 13 years. She is a native of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and attended public schools there, and afterwards attended the Hagerstown Business College, Hagerstown, Maryland, where she received an Associate in Arts degree.
Following college, Carol worked at the Washington Hospital Center for twelve years as a medical assistant for the chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics, and also in the Office of Public Affairs and Marketing. Carol notes that the stress levels of the Festival do not compare to those of a large urban hospital.
Carol is responsible for the considerable and valuable presence of her family at the Festival and First Night® State College. Her parents, Dick and Shirley Baney, her brother Allen, her sister-in-law Katie, and her roommate Cindy Schultz, answer the call for volunteers whenever it goes out. They tackle every task asked of them, from selling Festival buttons, to leading children’s craft workshops, to operating one of the Festival’s rented forklifts.
Carol enjoys fishing, quilting, the company of her nephews Ross and Ian, and playing with her dog, Cheyenne, and her cat, Lily.
Diane Bloom, Director of Development
Diane Bloom joined the Festival staff in January 2007. She worked for Penn State for 35 years, the last 31 at the Center for the Performing Arts where she was responsible for fundraising and special events. Obviously, her retirement was short lived!
Diane's approach to sponsorship is simple - create and nurture a partnership that is mutually beneficial. Through these relationships, the Festival can continue to grow and thrive while the sponsors receive significant exposure and recognition.
Diane has served as a volunteer with the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association as well as with the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. On occasion, you will find her serving as classroom "grandparent" in the schools attended by the little ones. She takes great pleasure in nurturing her many gardens, which serve as a source of mental therapy. She and her husband, Barry, also "retired", enjoy traveling - both on their Harley as well as to places such as Alaska and the Caribbean. Part-time work has afforded more time with family and friends. They have two children, Krista and Jason, as well as three granddaughters, Paige, Katelyn and Julie. Destin, FL, serves as the extended Bloom family's annual family retreat.
Anne Schettig, Intern
Meet The Arts Festival’s Board of Directors
To many people the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts is something that “just happens” each summer. School lets out for the summer, and in what seems like the blink of an eye, the Festival is upon us. Landscapers, stage hands, musicians, artists, volunteers, all appear, and in their wake both State College and the Penn State campus are alive with visitors.
The festival is governed by a volunteer board of directors that determines the mission and goals of the organization. The Festival’s mission is ”to celebrate the arts with presentations of diverse, high-quality visual and performing arts through the cooperative volunteer support of the community and The Pennsylvania State University.”
The Board of Directors is made up of men and women from both Penn State and the State College community. They set policies, raise funds, monitor budgets, and of course, attend lots of meetings.

The 2009 Arts Festival Board of Directors:
Seated, L to R: Connie Wheeler, Sally Kalin, Deborah Marron
Sanding: L to R: Sharon McCarthy, Katherine Allen, Robert Mountz, Pam Lautsch, Ron Filippelli, Adam Duff
Missing from photograph: Bill Ryan
The current Festival directors are:
Sally Kalin, Board President. She is the Associate Dean for Libraries at Penn State, and has been on the festival board since 2004. Her festival involvement started as a volunteer in the Festival’s information booth.
Bill Ryan, Vice President. Ryan teaches and does research on air quality forecasting in Penn State’s Department of Meteorology. Ryan has been a stalwart member of the Festival’s Trash Crew for several years.
Connie Wheeler, Treasurer. She is the President of the Penn State Federal Credit Union and has worked as a Festival Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition Ambassador.
Pam Lautsch, Secretary. An infrastructure architect with First Quality Enterprises, Laustch serves as the Coordinator of the Festival’s award winning Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Katherine Allen is an attorney at the McQuaide Blasko law firm, working primarily in the area of employment law and litigation.
Adam B. Duff is a financial advisor with Weinken and Associates in State College. A recent Penn State graduate, he was the chair of the Penn State Dance Marathon.
Ronald Filippelli is a retired from Penn State where he served as the Associate Dean of the College of The Liberal Arts. He serves on the State College Borough Council.
Deborah Marron is the Director of Program Development and Enrichment at the Penn State Alumni Association. She has worked as a Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition Ambassador.
Sharon McCarthy was formerly a fine craft and wearable art retailer in Washington, D.C.
Robert Mountz taught high school in Berks County. He and his wife Ginny serve as chairs of the festival’s silent auction.
2009 FESTIVAL BOARD
Sally Kalin, President
William Ryan, Vice President
Pam Lautsch, Secretary
Constance M. Wheeler, Treasurer
Katherine Allen
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Adam B. Duff
Ronald Filippelli
Deborah Marron
Sharon McCarthy
Robert Mountz |
QUESTIONS?
Contact us by phone or e-mail
(814) 237-3682
(814) 237-0708 FAX
e-mail: office@arts-festival.com |
2009 COORDINATORS
| Children & Youth Sidewalk Sale |
Sharon Frazier
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| Cuisine |
Duke Gastiger
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| Sales Booth |
Kim Ache
Loretta Marley
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| Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition |
Pam Lautsch
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| Ambassador Committee |
Duane Funk
Lori Hartman
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| Silent Auction |
Bob and Ginny Mountz
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| Trash Crew |
Judy Albin
Laura Chandler
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| Italian Street Painting Festival |
Holly Foy Bob Baumbach |
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