Lydia Ivanditti, Executive Director of The Plaza Arts Center, has been elected Secretary to the Board of the Georgia Assembly of Community Arts Agencies (GACAA) at their annual conference in Augusta on May 4, 2010.  GACAA is the only statewide arts agency outside the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA).

“I have been delighted to serve on the Board for the past year and, in light of the changes in the economy and our state funding, GACAA takes a real leadership role for advocacy and I am very excited to be part of that leadership,” said Ivanditti.  She continued, “I believe strongly that the arts have an important role to play in the vitality of the local community and I will be proud to showcase the hard work of our board and our volunteers in The Plaza Arts Center as an example of that fact.”

GACAA has been in existence over 30 years and has worked to create a collaborative environment for arts agencies as well as support and promote the arts over the entire State.

In the waning weeks of this years’ legislative session, funding was eliminated from the Georgia Council for the Arts, potentially making GA the only State in the country without a state-supported arts agency and a funnel for National Endowment for the Arts grant funding.  Public outcry was swift and strong and the legislature, ultimately, re-instated funding of $790,000.  The level of funding is a significant reduction from usual previous annual budgets of $2.2 million for the GCA. 

The Plaza Arts Center opened in March 2008 and, since then, has served over 40,000 guests to the Center and has hosted prominent performers including The Five Browns, the Washington DC Ballet, John Berry, Clarence Carter, Manhattan String Quartet, and the Vienna Boys Choir.