Washington County Arts Council's new executive director is Nicole Abuhamada

The Board of Directors of the Washington County Arts Council has named Nicole Abuhamada as the new executive director.

Abuhamada is an interdisciplinary artist and has worked as a gallery manager for Doug Zaruba in downtown Hagerstown and as a creative arts program manager for MADE by Itineris in Baltimore.

Abuhamada has ideas for new initiatives to help WCAC grow in new directions, expand its footprint in the community and strengthen support for community artists.

The search committee was impressed by Abuhamada’s energy and the types of activities she had initiated in the past to foster growth in the arts community.

Her ideas for expanding e-commerce and online presence and her demonstrated ability to forge partnerships with other organizations and relationships with artists were crucial factors for the committee.

The council received a great deal of interest in the executive director position and engaged in a vetting process to determine which candidates seemed to have the combination of business management and arts experience required for this position for the organization. After a thorough two-round interview process, the committee recommended and the board of directors concurred on Nicole Abuhamada.

Abuhamada will start with the arts council on Aug. 26.

Maryland State Arts Council staff members coming to Hagerstown on Aug. 7

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County Arts Council's new executive director is Nicole Abuhamada