Press Releases

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Announces Election of Board Officers

Baltimore, MD – July 15, 2008 – Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) elected officers for its fiscal year 2009 at a board meeting in Baltimore on June 6, 2008.  Lisa Frigand was elected to her third term as Chair, Dorothy McSweeny was elected to her third term as Vice Chair, James McDonald was elected to his first term as Secretary, and Laura Scanlan was elected to her second term as Treasurer.

Chair Lisa Frigand is Manager, Special Projects, Public Affairs, for Consolidated Edison Company of New York.  Ms. Frigand is on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/NY.  She is also on the Board of Advisors for The Arts and Business Council, Dancing in the Streets, 3-Legged Dog, and Franklin Furnace.  In June 2006, she was honored by the Arts and Business Council of New York with the Encore Award as Business Volunteer of the Year.  She has served on the Mid Atlantic board since 1997.

Vice Chair Dorothy Pierce McSweeny is the Chair Emeritus of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She serves or has served on the boards of the National Symphony Orchestra, Americans for the Arts, DC Arts Collaborative, Washington Ballet, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.  She received the Mayor’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. She was chosen Washingtonian of the Year in 1995 by Washingtonian Magazine.  She has served on the MAAF board since 1999.

Secretary James McDonald is First Vice President and Director of Philanthropy at the Bank of New York Mellon.  McDonald is also President of the BNY Mellon Charitable Foundation and a trustee of the Bank of New York Mellon Foundation.  He currently serves as a Board Member of the United Way of Allegheny County and on the Board of Visitors of the School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh.  He is an Advisory Member of the Center for African American Urban Studies and Economy at Carnegie Mellon University.  McDonald is a past member of the Corporate Advisory Committee of the Council on Foundations and the Advisory Committee of the Nicaraguan Development Corporation. He has served on the MAAF board since 2005.

Treasurer Laura Scanlan is founder of Creative Cultural Strategies, a consulting practice serving the cultural sector.  She serves on the boards of the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Wilmington Rotary Club and St. Michael’s School and Nursery.  She formerly served five years as director of the Delaware Division of the Arts, preceded by a 16-year career in financial services.  She has served on the MAAF board since 2001.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation welcomes these accomplished professionals and is grateful for their service, expertise, and guidance.

For a complete list of Mid Atlantic’s Board of Directors, please visit http://www.midatlanticarts.org/about/board.html.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation celebrates and supports the wealth and diversity of the region’s arts resources and works to make those resources widely accessible both in the region and beyond.  To learn more about MAAF, its programs and services, visit our Web site at www.midatlanticarts.org.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation fosters and supports arts programming for the benefit of arts organizations, artists and audiences and encourages exchanges that link the arts resources of the mid-Atlantic region to the rest of the nation and the world.  The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region’s state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional perspective.  The region includes nine states and jurisdictions:  The District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S.Virgin Islands, Virginia and West Virginia.