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Felicia Shaw Steps Down As Executive Director Of Regional Arts Commission

Felicia Shaw is the executive director of the Regional Arts Commission.
Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Felicia Shaw is the executive director of the Regional Arts Commission.

Updated at 4:27 p.m., with comments from Mont Levy, chairman of the Regional Arts Commission — Felicia Shaw, executive director of the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, resigned today.

Felicia Shaw is the executive director of the Regional Arts Commission.
Credit File Photo | Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Felicia Shaw has stepped down as executive director of the Regional Arts Commission. She started as executive director of the organization in May 2015.

The organization announced Shaw’s departure Monday and named Celia Hosler as interim executive director. Hosler, former chief operating officer of COCA, will start immediately.

Shaw could not be reached for comment. RAC officials gave no reason for her departure.

"Felicia made the decision, which we mutually agreed with, for her to resign and move on to, as she has described, her next adventure," said Mont Levy, chairman of the Regional Arts Commission.

Levy said that Shaw has made many contributions to the arts community in St. Louis in the past few years and that the commission's leaders are grateful for her vision. He said they look forward to implementing the plan she helped build to fully serve the region's arts-and-culture community.

"We're just coming off several years of in-depth, important planning for what the future's going to look like," Levy said. "Our expectation is that we will continue with these new directions."

He said the organization will release a strategic plan early next year.

Shaw had served as the RAC executive director since May 2015. She replaced Jill McGuire, who founded the commission in 1985. Since then, the organization has awarded more than $100 million in funding to artists and art institutions.

The commission aims to find a new executive director within nine months. 

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Chad Davis is a 2016 graduate of Truman State University where he studied Public Communication and English. At Truman State, Chad served as the executive producer of the on-campus news station, TMN Television. In 2017, Chad joined the St. Louis Public Radio team as the fourth Race and Culture Diversity Fellow. Chad is a native of St. Louis and is a huge hip- hop, r&b, and pop music fan. He also enjoys graphic design, pop culture, film, and comedy.
Jeremy D. Goodwin joined St. Louis Public Radio in spring of 2018 as a reporter covering arts & culture and co-host of the Cut & Paste podcast. He came to us from Boston and the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, where he covered the same beat as a full-time freelancer, contributing to The Boston Globe, WBUR 90.9 FM, The New York Times, NPR and lots of places that you probably haven’t heard of.