Mid-America Arts Alliance Board of Directors Confirms Nomination of Sally Aton Baird

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 24, 2003

Mid-America Arts Alliance Board of Directors Confirms Nomination of
Sally Aton Baird

Kansas City, MO – At the biannual meeting on November 21, the Mid-America Arts Alliance board of directors unanimously elected Sally Aton Baird as their newest member.

Mrs. Baird, a resident of Springfield, Missouri, has had an extensive philanthropic career. She was recognized for her devotion to the cultural health of her community earlier this year when she was granted the 2003 Ozzie Award. The Ozzie is the highest award given for volunteer arts involvement by the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

Mrs. Baird has been a long-time supporter of Juanita K. Hammons Hall, a multipurpose performance facility on the Southwest Missouri State University campus in Springfield. She served on its Opening Night Gala Committee, and she has been a member of the Hammons Hall Advisory Council since 1999. Mrs. Baird also served for five years on the committee for the John Q. Hammons Salute to the Performing Arts. The Baird family has established a donor-advised fund with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. The fund endows ventures such as Arts Patronage Initiative, a program of the Springfield Regional Arts Council; Pulitzer Prize Poet Readings at SMSU; and diversity programming at Hammons Hall.

Mrs. Baird is a five-year member of the SMSU College of Arts and Letters Advisory Council, for which she initiated the a la cArte series to raise funds for internationally recognized speakers, including painter Faith Ringgold, choreographer/dancer Edward Villella, and playwright Moises Kaufman.

In 1999, Mrs. Baird organized and funded the Springfield Program for Public Art, an on-going downtown arts project. She has also served on boards for the Springfield Little Theatre Inc., the Springfield Regional Opera, and Discovery Center, a hands-on museum for children.

Mrs. Baird earned an AB in Soviet Studies from the University of Missouri, Columbia. After graduation, she worked as a translator of Russian language materials in the Acquisitions Department of the University of Missouri Library. She is married to Robert McBride Baird. They have one son and one daughter.

The M-AAA Nominating Committee is responsible for recruiting and nominating new board members. Current Nominating Committee members include Committee Chair Nancy Meinig of Oklahoma, Carolyn Dillon of Kansas, June Freeman of Arkansas, Kay Goebel of Oklahoma, Ruth Keene of Nebraska, Ann Liberman of Missouri, and Terry Pruden of Texas.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a nonprofit regional arts organization based in Kansas City, Missouri. It is governed by a board of directors drawn from its partner states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, participant state arts agencies, and leading foundations and corporations. For further information, visit the Mid-America Arts Alliance Web site at www.maaa.org or contact Sarah McGreer at (816) 421-1388.