New AAME officers are, left to right (top): President Dottie Havlik; Vice President Kalonn Roberts; Treasurer Ben Collins; and Secretary Lisa Blankenship Boardwine.
The Arts Alliance Mountain Empire (AAME) Board of Directors recently elected new officers.
President: Dottie Havlik also chairs AAME's Arts for Youth Committee, which is planning an Artistic Excellence juried art competition for local high school students. Havlik is Director of Children's Ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Tenn. She has served on the following arts-related boards: Bristol Ballet; Theatre Bristol, past president and actor; and Don't Touch That Dial! Radio Theatre, founding president. Previously she was executive director for the American Red Cross, Mountain Empire Chapter, and a city editor, reporter, and PR person in Austin, TX.
Vice President: Kalonn Roberts is a marketing and public relations expert who worked for Virginia Intermont College in Bristol prior to her present employment at HAPCO in Abingdon, Va. She serves on AAME's Public Relations and A! Magazine for the Arts committees.
Treasurer: Ben Collins works for The Bliss Agency in Bristol, helping area businesses and organizations to craft websites, web-based software, branding, and professional communication and marketing solutions. He helped design three websites for AAME, including A! Magazine for the Arts and the Art in Public Places (AiPP) competition. He serves on AAME's AiPP and Board Development Committees. He continues to be involved with numerous local and non-local arts-related creative and technical projects.
Secretary: Lisa Blankenship Boardwine also serves on AAME committees for A! Magazine for the Arts, Arts for Youth, and Board Development. She is a visual artist and owner of Golden Palette Gallery/Studio in Grundy, Va. She taught a gifted/talented art program in elementary schools for 10 years, and currently teaches art classes in her studio as well as workshops to various groups. She has worked with regional ballet companies, studying and painting dancers for special exhibitions. She travels throughout the South exhibiting her artwork, and has participated in the Virginia Highlands Festival's Juried Arts & Crafts Show for 25 years. She is a member of the Depot Artists Association and Gallery Committee in Abingdon, serves on the Arts Advisory Board for Southwest Virginia Community College, Associate Member of National Watercolor Society and Virginia Watercolor Society.
