FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2001

Contact: Lisa Cordes (M-AAA) 816.421.1388

New Program Manager for Heartland Arts Fund

Kansas City, MO - Mid-America Arts Alliance and Arts Midwest announce the appointment of Diane Y. Green as Program Manager for the Heartland Arts Fund. Green, who oversees the Heartland Arts Fund Community Connections program from the Mid-America Arts Alliance office in Kansas City, Missouri, brings to her new responsibilities extensive experience in the areas of performing arts presenting, festival and special event production, national arts service consulting, and public radio administration and programming.

Established in 1998 as a joint venture of Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance, the fund is the largest program in the country providing multi-disciplinary support for performing arts touring. Through grant awards for artist fees and educational residencies, the Heartland Art Fund's Community Connections program assists performing arts presenters of all sizes throughout the 15-state territory of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

"We created the Fund to enhance community cultural life and increase public participation in the arts. Diane Green's commitment to these objectives has been essential to her successful career," states David Fraher, executive director of Arts Midwest and chairman of the Heartland Arts Fund. Henry Moran, executive director of Mid-America Arts Alliance adds, "We are delighted and fortunate to have attracted an arts professional of Diane's qualifications and background to advance the goals of the Fund, namely, connections between artists and audiences, performance events, residencies, and education. We welcome Diane's leadership."

Green is the past vice president of programs and marketing for the Madam C. J. Walker Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she set the main-stage season and the family performing arts series and also managed productions at the historic facility. From 1994-1999, she was education director at the Carver Community Cultural Center in her home town of San Antonio, Texas. At the Carver Center, she established the School of Visual and Performing Arts and the Jazz Legacies Youth Concert Series.

She worked in Washington, D.C., as a producer for WPFM-FM Radio and held positions at The Smithsonian Institution, including work with the Duke Ellington collection, the Program in African American Culture, and the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folk-Life.

Ms. Green has been an advisory panelist or consultant for the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the National Dance Project, and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest National Jazz Network.

The Heartland Arts Fund is supported by the 15 participating state arts agencies of Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance and by the Regional Touring Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. For further information on the Heartland Arts Fund, visit the Web sites, www.artsmidwest.org, www.maaa.org, and www.nea.gov/touring.html.