Florida Cultural Alliance (FCA) Board Members
January 2008
Listed in alphabetical order by last name
Mary Becht, vice chairman of the FCA
Mary Becht has served as Director of the Broward Cultural Division since 1984. Ms. Becht has served as on-site evaluator for the Florida Cultural Institution Program and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also served as President of the Florida Association of Local Arts Agencies, Chair of the South Florida Cultural Consortium, President of the Broward Women's Alliance. Ms. Becht is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Florida Cultural Alliance. She has served on many advisory committees and grant review panels for the Florida Arts Council, Florida State Division of Cultural Affairs. Ms. Becht received the Arts Management’s Arts Administrator of the Year award in 2002.
Mary Becht joined Broward County government in 1982 as an economic development planner for the Community Development Division. Prior to accepting a position in Florida, she was Director of Planning for Bayfront NATO, Inc. (Erie, PA), from 1977-1982 and served as a partner in the consulting firm, Power Allen and Associates.
A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, she received a masters degree in art in 1975 from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She has also completed all course work toward a second masters degree in public administration from Edinboro University. Additional education experiences include an Arts Management Workshop conducted by the National Endowment for Arts, graduate study in Europe and a Certificate Program in Arts Management from the University of North Carolina.
Rena Blades, secretary / treasurer of FCA
Rena Blades is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council. She joined the Council in May 2004. Previously, she was Executive Director of The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science (MOAS) in Tallahassee, where she shepherded the organization from its infancy – with a budget of a few thousand dollars and one full-time staff person – to an institution with a $1.7 million budget and over 24 staff members that serves more than 100,000 visitors annually.
In Houston, Rena was Alumni Director for St. John’s School and owner of R M Gallery, where she managed careers for over 20 artists from the Southeastern U.S. An expert on outsider art, she was a guest lecturer on contemporary and folk art at Rice University.
Rena earned a B.A. in art history from Connecticut College and an M.A. in Art History from Rice University. She served as President of the Florida Art Museum Director's Association and graduated from Getty's prestigious Museum Leadership Institute.
Dr. Robert Stahr Hosmon, FCA board member
Dr. Robert Stahr Hosmon is a Vice Dean in the School of Communication at the University of Miami and a nationally syndicated columnist, home-based at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has also served as Chair of the English department at the University of Miami and as Dean of Development and Public Affairs at Miami Dade College.
Hosmon has been a member of the Florida Arts Council, vice-chair of the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council and has served on the board of directors of several arts organizations. He was a founding board member of Miami City Ballet and Maximum Dance Company.
Margot H. Knight, FCA board member
Margot H. Knight is President and Chief Executive Officer of United Arts of Central Florida, a position she’s been in since October 2001. She currently serves on the executive board of the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce, the board for the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and is on the alumni board of James Madison University. In addition, Margot is a member of the Rotary Club of Orlando. The Orlando Business Journal listed her as one of its 100 most influential people in 2002 and named her as finalist for “Women Who Mean Business” in 2005. In 2004, the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council honored her with a Woman of Distinction award, and she received the Woman’s Achievement Award in Arts & Culture in 2006.
Margot enjoyed a brief theatrical career before working in history and the arts. She was the oral historian for the Whitman County, WA Historical Society, director of the Oral History Office at Washington State University, regional coordinator of the Washington Women's Heritage Project, and interim director of the Washington (State) Commission for the Humanities where she designed and raised funds for several oral history projects, including one for pioneering women journalists on behalf of the Washington Press Club Foundation.
She served as president and CEO of the United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County from 1998-2001 and executive director of the Idaho Commission on the Arts from 1990-1997. From 1985-1990, she was assistant director of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies in Washington, DC.
She has served on the executive committees of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, Western States Arts Federation, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and the Idaho Rural Partnership, which she chaired in 1996. In 1997, the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs honored her for her contributions to the Hispanic community.
Michael Spring, chairman of FCA
Michael Spring is Director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs with an annual budget of $24 million and a staff of 26. He also serves as the chairman of the board of the Florida Cultural Alliance, chairman of the 5-county regional arts alliance, the South Florida Cultural Consortium, and as the director of the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council.
In 2007, he assumed the additional responsibility of leading Miami-Dade County’s Art in Public Places program. He represents the Department on numerous cultural and civic committees including service as Secretary of the board of directors of Americans for the Arts, a founding board member and officer of Americans for the Arts Action Fund, a member and past President of the United States Urban Arts Federation, a past President of the Florida Association of Local Arts Agencies, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
Michael Spring has helped build Miami-Dade County’s cultural community into a more than a $922 million annual industry comprised of more than 1,000 non-profit cultural groups and thousands of artists. He has been responsible for securing more than $80 million of public funds used to improve existing and build new theaters county-wide. In 2004, he helped lead the work to pass a referendum for the Building Better Communities bond program, dedicating more than $450 million for building the next generation of Miami-Dade’s cultural facilities, ranging from major new art and science museums to theaters and neighborhood arts centers.
He has a B.A. degree from the University of Miami and earned an M.A. in painting from New York University, involving studies in Venice, Italy. He continues to paint and develop his interests as a visual artist.
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