Judith Sabatini Named Chair of ExhibitsUSA Committee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2004

Judith Sabatini Named Chair of ExhibitsUSA Committee

Art Thompson, chair of the Board of Directors for Mid-America Arts Alliance, has announced the appointment of Judith Sabatini as chair of the ExhibitsUSA committee. Sabatini will officially assume the role of ExhibitsUSA chair at the November 2004 M-AAA board meeting in Dallas, Texas. She succeeds the current ExhibitsUSA chair, Adair Margo.

“Adair has actively pursued development opportunities so that the department has had the financial support that it needs to produce great exhibitions,” said Thompson. “I have been lucky to chair MAAA while she was running the ExhibitsUSA committee. Judith is equally committed to expansion of the committee's involvement in development while maintaining its oversight of exhibition selection, development and distribution.”

Sabatini, a M-AAA board member since 1999, is a photographer and artist living in Topeka, Kansas. She formerly served as an adjunct Assistant Professor of Photography and Assistant Director of the Mulvane Art Museum at Topeka’s Washburn University. Sabatini and her husband, Frank Sabatini, owner and board chairman of Capital City Bank, have generously supported the arts in the Topeka area.

“Since ExhibitsUSA was established 1988, it has become a highly visible and important component of M-AAA,” said Mary Kennedy McCabe, M-AAA Executive Director. “The ExhibitsUSA chair is key to ensuring the success of these exhibitions. Adair understood that, and Judith is the ideal candidate to carry on that tradition.”

Margo has been a board member since 1993 and has served the ExhibitsUSA committee longer than any other M-AAA committee chair. She is the owner of Adair Margo Gallery in El Paso, Texas, and chair ofthe President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She will continue to actively serve on the ExhibitsUSA committee.

ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance’s national museum service division, reaches more than one million visitors in more than 100 communities across the United States each year with a broad range of touring exhibitions. These exhibitions travel to museums, libraries, and galleries of all shapes and sizes throughout the country. ExhibitsUSA’s mission is to create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurture the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities.

Mid-America Arts Alliance is a nonprofit organization that supports and stimulates cultural activity primarily in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. M-AAA originates and manages regional, multiregional, national, and international arts and humanities programs. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, 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 sarah@maaa.org.

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