Board History

Tim Branaman, Jina Brenneman, Lynn Roth, and Garcia Wood met for the 1st 9me in August of
2020. We met on the request of Karen Stuth who was organizing the Palmer Lake Economic
Development Group. Her vision was to focus on the arts, history, dining and outdoors to
increase tax revenue for the town. Within that year, the four of us held a workshop led by
Garcia Wood to form the Palmer Lakes Arts. We worked on a five-year plan, mission and vision
statements. The group became the Palmer Lake Arts Council (PLAC).

In September of 2020, Garcia Wood left the board, to pursue other interests and Susan
Kuehster was added.

Within the first year (2021) the council held a successful meet and greet party at the home of
Tim Branaman. Its purpose was to gather community members who had an interest in the arts.
From that we gathered a volunteer list. The participants who wanted to volunteer filled a form
according to their interests. Our second event was a booth at the Taste of Wine. There we sold
donated art pieces, but again a side purpose was to gather interested community members and
volunteer information. The most recent event was the Masa Ito, Classical guitar event at the
Palmer Lake Town Hall. This event was a benefit concert gifted by Masa. The concert was a
success. The last event for 2022 takes place on December 9 and 10. It is a family friendly
contemporary performance of “A Christmas Carol” which will take place at the Palmer Lake
Town Hall. Through all these events we studied how to market our events, what we did right
and wrong, and began brainstorming other events based on the success of these.

In September of 2022, Karen Stuth (president of the Palmer Lake Economic Development
Group) sent a letter to PLAC via email severing PLAC from the Palmer Lake Economic
development group. This decision gave us our independence. We immediately began the
process of laying the groundwork to become our own 501C3, establishing a bank account,
getting insurance and so forth.

Currently, the board consist of Tim Branaman, Lynn Roth, Susan Kuehster, Jina Brenneman and
new to the board, Vicki Mynhier. Because of our 3-year plan, we felt it was necessary to see 2-3 new board members. We held discussion for over a month, discussing potential new board
members and settled on 5 candidates that we feel bring much to the table and will bring a
positive, forward-thinking vision.

On January 1, 2023, The PLAC board welcomes new board member Nicole Currier. On March 14, the Board of Directors welcomed Amy Hutson.

The Arts Council has obtained 501c3 status.


Mission
The Palmer Lake Arts Council Exists to grow and sustain the Arts in Palmer Lake.

Vision
We will be advocates and facilitators with presence for all forms of Art; enhancing individual and our community’s world view.
Values
Everyone has a voice at the table.
Respect for each other.
Listen.
Be kind.
Stay objective.
Focus on task.