state arts action network

Brenda Durant

Brenda Durant has been the Executive Director of the Greater Augusta Arts Council since 1997.  The Mission is to Advance the Arts and thus enhance the Quality of Life in Augusta and the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA).

Brenda serves as Past President of the statewide board of the Georgia Arts Network, serving as the State Advocacy Chair. She is Past President of the Leadership Augusta Board and on the Advisory Board of: the Imperial Theatre, the Westobou Festival and the Miller Marketing Committee. She chairs the Leadership Augusta Arts Day program each year. Durant hosts a weekly radio show devoted to art and artists. In 2011, Brenda won the Most Diverse Planner award from the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau for her convention recruitment and was featured on the cover of Augusta Magazine in their Fall Arts issue.

Ms. Durant loves many aspects of her work with the Arts Council. Especially rewarding is her work with the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival. Each year she attends meetings with representatives of local ethnic groups, planning the Global Village and the many performances that bring such flair to the Festival. It is her pleasure to work with the diverse community dancers, musicians, actors, and writers who blend together to make the community festival so loved. The Arts Weekly Radio Show is an opportunity to educate the Augusta community about the amazing cultural community and what is available in the CSRA. Each week Ms. Durant talks about upcoming events and interviews a guest...”pulling back the curtain on art, artists and the people who work hard to make our playing easy."

Brenda and her husband, Edward, have three adult children. Their older daughters have married and moved to far flung cities, but the youngest, Blase, works for the City of North Augusta and has finally made them joyous empty nesters.