In lieu of our weekly airing of Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition, today we listen back to one of the very first episodes of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories.
Since Thursday’s are typically when we focus on topics pertaining to Southwest Florida’s arts community, it’s only fitting that we hear the episode featuring long-time and tireless local arts supporter Lydia Black.
Black is currently co-owner of Winged Foot Title, LLC in Fort Myers with her partner in life and work, Chris Black. Before that, she spent 13 years serving as executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers.
Black led the Alliance through an era of impressive growth, change, and expansion based on a vision that a community arts organization should serve the needs of the whole community. She spearheaded the first economic impact study providing empirical evidence about the importance of the arts in Lee County. That initiative continues today.
She also serves on the Resilient Lee Arts and Culture Taskforce and the WGCU Public Media Advisory Board.
This fall, her daughter Emerson will enter her senior year as a musical theatre major at the Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts in Fort Myers. This conversation was recorded in March 2018, and was made available online, but this will mark the first FM broadcast of the episode.
