The Beverly Arts Center (BAC) has named leading arts administrator and Chicago native Dr. Carla “CC” Carter, Ph.D., its managing director. Carter joined the leadership team of the BAC on July 25.
Carter, who has roots in South Side Chicago neighborhoods, brings 15 years of arts management, event operations and logistics planning experience to the managing director’s role. Her extensive experience includes managing her own nonprofit and 20 years in arts education, including the appointed position of Department Chair of Visual and Performing Arts at Philander Smith College, an HBCU college in Little Rock, Ark.
“I am thrilled to return to Chicago,” Carter said, “and I cannot wait to apply the skills I’ve learned in my career as an artist, educator, and administrator to BAC’s important work in our communities of Beverly/Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, and surrounding South Side communities and south suburbs.”
In this new role, Carter will lead the business areas of the BAC, including operations, facilities, development, and marketing. As managing director, she will work as a peer alongside BAC Artistic Director Kevin Pease.
“I look forward to having a partner to lead our staff, guide our business operations, and liaise with and build our board,” said Pease. “I could not be more thrilled to have her expertise to help resource and advance our artistic vision for the professional mainstage series, School Partnerships and the School of Fine Arts.”
“Carla joins the BAC at an exciting time for our organization and our community,” said BAC Executive Director Denise Powell. “Her leadership skills, in addition to her arts and educational experience, will serve her superbly in this role, and we warmly welcome her home to Chicago.”
Powell, a change management leader who has served as executive director since July 2021 for a one-year appointment, will return to the BAC Board of Directors at the end of August.
The BAC Board expressed its gratitude to Powell for her work in the role of executive director. “Every transition is bittersweet,” noted Board Chair Stacey Recht. “I want to thank Denise for fulfilling her unprecedented commitment to the Beverly Arts Center. And while we will miss her in the role of Executive Director, I am delighted that she will be able to both enjoy her well-earned retirement and return to the board, where she will support Kevin and Carla’s success leading the artistic and administrative initiatives at the BAC.”
In addition to her career as an arts educator and arts administrator, Carter also has professional theatrical and dance experience and has appeared nationally and internationally as a performance poet gracing the stages with Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Haki Madhubuti, and a host of other notable poets and performance artists.
Carter is a graduate of Spelman College (Atlanta), has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Queens College (Queens, NY), and earned her Ph.D. in Christian Education from Jacksonville Theological Seminary (Florida).
