Walton Arts Center hires vice president of operations

Walton Arts Center announced Wednesday (Nov. 19)  that Wendy Riggs will join the arts center as vice president of operations. Riggs brings over 30 years of arts and venue management, marketing, consulting and teaching experience from arts and cultural institutions including Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, True Colors Theater Company, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Fox Theatre, and Walt Disney World.
 
“We are excited Wendy is joining our team and moving to our community. She was hired for the newly created position of vice president of operations at Walton Arts Center and will support our growing operations and manage and maintain practices and policies for all facilities,” said Peter B. Lane, president and CEO of Walton Arts Center. 

“Wendy’s experience in capital project management, staff management and development, and budgeting and financial management gives her the skills necessary to lead our operations team to implement strategies and procedures that will support our growth. We look forward to having her on board,” Lane added.

Most recently Riggs served as director of arts and entertainment, where she oversaw programming, fundraising and daily operations, for the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, Tuscaloosa River Market and Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum for the City of Tuscaloosa. She has a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and a master’s degree from the University of Alabama. She also served as a professor at the University of Alabama where she taught Arts Venue Management.   
 
“I am thrilled for this new opportunity with Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. We can’t wait to settle in and see all that Northwest Arkansas has to offer,” Riggs notes in the release.


She is relocating to Northwest Arkansas from Tuscaloosa, Ala., with her two daughters.