Recently named by Atlanta Convention & Visitor Bureau’s as one of “50 Influential Atlanta Women You Should Know,” Center for Puppetry Arts’ Executive Director, Beth Schiavo, took on her leadership role at the 41-year-old arts organization at the height of the COVID crisis. In spite of the challenges, Schiavo spearheaded a number of initiatives to elevate the Center’s programming on a global scale while continuing to focus on enriching the arts and cultural community in Atlanta. Under Schiavo’s leadership, the Center moved quickly to offer free digital programming over Facebook Live within 48 hours. With families sheltering in place, the Center wanted to offer children a way to decompress during a challenging and disruptive time. “I’m so proud of the resiliency of my team for recognizing that need and coming up with innovative opportunities to share our digital offerings with families.” said Schiavo. That digital programming reached 200,000 viewers across the U.S. and in 87 countries around the world.
Another one of Schiavo’s first priorities was increasing the diversity of the board of directors. Since Schiavo has been involved, the Center has appointed four new board members coming from various professional backgrounds. New members include Catherine Love Kraft, Matthew Pritchard, Sundeep Reddy and Sydney Langdon.
On being featured as one of the top “50 Influential Atlanta Women You Should Know,” Schiavo said “I am particularly honored to be included with the leaders of other arts and cultural institutions in Atlanta. We have taken this challenging time as an opportunity to lean on each other, learn from each other, and be supportive of each other’s institutions. Seeing their resilience and ability to develop innovative solutions to meet the challenges over the last year has been incredibly special to me.”
Long known for its performances, under Schiavo’s leadership, the Center is currently working with her team to create dynamic content beyond the stage with more special exhibits, more educational programs for children and adults, and continued expansion of their award-winning digital programming for schools everywhere.
“This International Women’s History Month the Center for Puppetry Arts celebrates Schiavo and all of the outstanding women who lead a super-majority of our departments (museum, ticketing & sales, production, development, marketing, administration, finance, education, digital learning) and represent our board, staff, educators, and artists,” said Allen Yee, Chairman of Center for Puppetry Arts Board of Directors.