Grace Mahieu is the new director of Arts in the Gap in the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Science at LMU.
As soon as normal event scheduling resumes, she plans to host educational community workshops as well as regional events that highlight Appalachian culture. Mahieu will also be assisting with theater productions by the LMU Players.
“I was attracted to this position because it had everything I loved doing,” Mahieu said. “The position was looking for someone to help with theater productions and organization as well as working within the realm of arts administration which I had grown to love from working at my internship. So, when I saw the opportunity to do both, I had to jump on it.”
Mahieu is a graduate of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, with a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts and psychology and a minor in arts administration. She served as executive director of Le Moyne’s main stage theater company, Boot and Buskin, and worked in the main office of the theater and as the front of house manager at various events including theater shows, music concerts and guest speaker events. Mahieu completed an internship with CNY Arts in Syracuse, where she learned about art advocacy and was part of planning New York State’s involvement in the National Art Action Summit in Washington, D.C., which was later canceled due to the pandemic.
“Grace will bring to LMU’s theater productions her talent for design, knowledge of stagecraft and love for the creative,” said Dr. Martin Sellers, dean of the Paul V. Hamilton School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. “In addition, she has administrative and web-based abilities that will help the Arts in the Gap program fulfil its mission, either in seated format or online. We look forward to working with her.”
“We have a really beautiful area and so much artistic talent, I want to showcase that on a larger scale and bring people into our community to share in our experiences,” Mahieu said. “I am so happy to be a part of the LMU family. I want to thank everyone for their warm welcome and for being so helpful towards me as I made this very big transition from New York to Tennessee. I can’t wait to see where we can take the program.”
Arts in the Gap is based in the historic town of Cumberland Gap, Tenn., at 703 Brooklyn Street, and strives to bring cutting-edge contemporary art and classic traditional art from local and regional artists to LMU and the local community. Contact Grace Mahieu at grace.mahieu@LMUnet.edu for more information.
Nikki Lockhart is director of public relations at LMU.