Arts Advocate/Patron
Eminence, IN
Leonard Pas was the first director of the first community arts council in the United States, in Quincy, Illinois. He went on to serve as he first director of the Lake View Center of Arts and Sciences in Peoria, Illinois. He was the first director of the Illinois Arts Council. He served as the Arts Czar (Secretary of the Division of Cultural Affairs) for the State of Florida, which included five historic sites, the Ringling Museums, the Asolo State Theater, and the State Arts Agency. He went on to become the Executive Director of the American Research iIstitute for the Arts at Indiana University, where he taught graduate-level arts administration. He was recently appointed to the Indiana Arts Commission. He has served on several advisory panels of the NEA. He was a founding member of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and its Chair, as well as the Southern States Coalition and its Chair. He has lectured at the following universities: Illinois, Harvard, New York, Princeton, Stanford, and Utah. He has served as consultant to more than twenty state arts agencies; the Arts Council of Great Britain; U.S. State Department; the cities of Chicago and Detroit; and has founded arts foundations in Illinois and Florida.