Walter tabbed as new Allied Arts head

Gil Pound, The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Ga.
·3 min read

Sep. 16—Allied Arts in downtown Milledgeville has a new executive director.

California native Dr. Carla Walter was hired to the post late last month. She addressed Milledgeville City Council at its Tuesday meeting, and sat down with The Union-Recorder for an interview Thursday inside Allied Arts headquarters, the John Marlor House on Wayne Street.

"I have always been passionate about arts organizations thriving," said Walter, who among her career accomplishments also authored a 2014 book on arts management. "It looked like this would be a place where I could actually apply that and have some real impact."

Allied Arts was founded as a nonprofit in 1977 with the mission to bring visual arts, music, performance, dance, and theater opportunities to the community. The organization is funded by the city and any grants it obtains. Walter takes over a position that had been vacant for a while following the departure of former executive director, Brian Renko.

Born in Los Angeles, Walter lived in several cities around the Golden State, including most recently the San Francisco bay area. She carries an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Riverside; an MBA from California State University, San Bernardino; and a doctorate in dance history and theory from Riverside. Walter worked all the way up the higher education ladder at various institutions to interim chancellor of the Peralta Community College District, which operates four colleges in the bay area.

Georgia College & State University's Newell Visiting Scholar program brought her to Milledgeville last year. The program promotes GC&SU's liberal arts mission by bringing eminent scholars in arts, humanities, social sciences and physical sciences to campus. Walter served in that role through last spring semester when she taught a course on indigenous sacred dance and religious histories. Her own dance background includes time spent with the Stuttgart Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, and the Kansas City Ballet. Walter's expertise in that area led her to open a dance studio locally last year called Dance in the Spirit where she taught both adult and child classes, but she now plans on giving all her attention to her new position at Allied Arts.

"We want to be the place people think of when they want to learn something new or bring their children to experience the arts," Walter said of her vision for the local nonprofit. "I like to think of arts as being an integral part of human well-being."

The new Allied Arts director said that she wants the organization to help people connect with arts they maybe have not practiced in a while.

"We see ourselves as being a launching point to provide those experiences for multiple constituents," she said.

Walter also sees Allied Arts continuing its presence in the local schools, providing meaningful arts opportunities to children.

As for the first order of business in the new role, well, there are several.

"There are a number of competing priorities," said Walter. "The main thing we want to do is welcome people to become Friends of Allied Arts. We want to welcome volunteers, and we want to welcome ideas people might have for arts offerings. We want to welcome artists and scholars. We really just want to reignite what people remember about Allied Arts from before COVID when it was, to my understanding, a very much thriving organization."

For information on becoming a Friend of Allied Arts, call the office at 478-452-3940. More about the organization can be found online at milledgevillealliedarts.com.