The Durango Arts Center board has officially named Beth Lamberson Warren the new executive director.
Warren follows a long leadership line since the 1960s when two community art groups merged to form DAC. Back then, the Durango Fine Arts Council and the Durango Artists Association created a 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization to better promote the arts. In the 1990s, DAC secured second-floor office and gallery space of its own downtown.
“I knew Barbara Conrad when DAC was in the Main Mall,” Warren said. “We were neighbors, and we shared a fax machine. It was an interesting time. The DAC has gone through a lot of changes.”
A generation has passed since Conrad’s dream of a community arts center with a permanent home became a reality at 802 East Second Ave. Today, the renovated car dealership includes a gallery, retail shop, offices, a dance studio, a theater, an upstairs educational classroom and additional office space.
Unofficially, the Warren era began last spring when Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Graves became DAC board president on May 4.
“When our development director resigned, I sought Beth’s advice, and she graciously agreed to step into the role,” he said. “From Day One, she drew on her deep nonprofit expertise and strong Durango ties to make an immediate impact. When Jason (Lythgoe) chose to focus on his passion for theater and education, Beth was the clear choice for executive director.”
On July 25, the DAC board appointed Warren as executive director.
Over the years, various directors have helmed the organization after Conrad’s untimely death in January 1996: Brian Wagner, Sherry Rochford Figgs and Cristie Scott, to name three who honored the original mission of promoting contemporary visual and performing arts, arts education, and an active volunteer, Docent, program.
On Nov. 1, 2018, all that changed. The DAC board hired Brenda Macon, who had a different vision for a community arts center. “Looking more short-term,” Stew Mosberg wrote in the Nov. 29, 2018, Durango Telegraph, “Macon said 2019 could see some other big changes (Creative Districts) for how people perceive the Arts Center as well. ‘The Board’s five-year strategic plan has earmarked 2019 as a year for considering a re-brand of the DAC,’ she said.”
Macon upended everything from purpose to programming and staffing. She quickly turned the Center in a for-profit direction with the goal of creating a money-making artist co-op.
“I hope to offer our local talented artists a central hub and gathering place to showcase themselves and advocate for one another,” she told the Telegraph.
She dismissed two key volunteer programs: the Docents and Friends of the Art Library.
According to two docents, Macon abruptly canceled the popular public-school programs and told volunteers to clean out their materials closet in one afternoon. Three FOAL volunteers had a similar experience regarding their library exhibits. She said she needed the upstairs space for co-op studios.
In the middle of the free DAC lecture series’ seventh season, Macon canceled the remainder. Full disclosure: Over the years, I had organized informal art history talks with colleagues as a volunteer project. Bud and Jeani Poe supported the free lectures with an annual $1,000 donation to cover expenses. In Macon’s new co-op scheme, an adult lecture series had no place.
Her rebranding of DAC included asking long-term tenants, like the San Juan Symphony, to leave.
“I, and the Board of the SJS have been very concerned about the situation with the current ED since we were booted out last winter,” Polly Morgenstern wrote in October 2019. “I had at the time a phone conversation with Kristen Fox, the Board president. I expressed our dismay at ending a nine-year collaboration with the arts center.”
In fall 2019, Carol Solomon, a DAC founder, organized a committee to look into Macon’s changes, Morgenstern wrote in an email at the time. Although several people gave depositions, including Myrick, about the drastic changes at DAC, no changes were made by the board.
“The last straws were that membership has dropped from 1,300 to 600 in the 11 months since Brenda took over. Brenda plans to eliminate exhibits in the gallery as of 2020 in order to turn the space into an ‘artists’ co-op,“ Myrick wrote in a subsequent email. ”From what I was told, the DAC may fold and the building may be forfeited to the City of Durango via Alpine Bank very soon. This all makes me very sad, but the only surprise is that it has taken this long for the people with money and power to step up.” (Oct. 26, 2019).
Macon’s move away from a perceived elitist arts organization to a working-artist co-op meant abandoning juried membership shows. Instead, open, fee-based exhibits would serve as encouragement for beginners.
Early in 2024, everything suddenly changed. Macon abruptly resigned and moved back to Michigan. Before moving to Colorado, she ran a commercial art gallery and streamed custom-made art projects.
Since her departure, a lot of fence mending has taken place. DAC board treasurer Tom Donley immediately took over as interim director, and a few months later, the board persuaded DAC’s theater director, Jason Lythgoe, to step up. He said as much in a DAC press release April 25, 2024: “I’m honored. I remain committed to building on the many successes of the DAC, including our youth programming.”
Informally at the time, Lythgoe said he planned to mend fences, first by “walking Main Avenue.” His goal was to visit every Durango art gallery and make peace. Macon had forbidden any promotional materials other than DAC pieces at the Center. A long list of other fence-mending projects followed.
“I think we’re in a good place for a nice rebalancing,” Lythgoe said recently about Warren coming on board.
“When I became DAC board president in May 2025, our priority was to evaluate every aspect of the organization to ensure it could become the community hub Durango deserves,“ Graves said.
An experienced community leader, Warren has arrived just in time. The Center has badly needed a makeover since its last makeover.
“The Durango Arts Center is a nonprofit visual and performing arts organization. We enrich the community through innovative visual arts exhibits, live performing arts shows, and youth/adult arts education. Our goal is to advance appreciation and participation in the arts while promoting the amazing talents of local artists and performers.”
Beth Lamberson Warren uses a Swiss-army knife metaphor when she refers to her multipronged and highly adaptable skill set. Her LinkedIn reads in part: “Public radio maven, proven journalist, community connector, fundraiser, radio host, grant writer, event planner, problem solver, etc.”
Warren made Durango her home for 43 years organizing the Adaptive Sports Program and serving as executive director of KSUT for 18 of those years.
In 2015, Warren ventured out of state to became general manager of North State Public Radio in Chico, California. Her journalism colleague, Ann Butler, quoted Warren describing her complicated path: “Durango created me,” Warren said. “I started as a cocktail waitress at Yesterday’s at the Holiday Inn, and I had a college degree. Then I worked for the Forest Service and in accounting for Purgatory Ski Area before starting at Adaptive Sports.”
Throughout her patchwork career, she has funneled her skills into her own business, Lamberson Capital: Success Strategies for Non-Profits, which is still operational. Warren is a proud “ag” graduate of Utah State University who earned a later master’s degree from the University of Colorado – in political science and nonprofit management.
Warren has returned to Durango and as of last month, heads up the DAC. Her six-month service plan sounds about right for her, she said. It’s enough time to engage the community in consensus building and set a new course for the center.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
