Member at Large

Debra brings a brand new component to Up Your Arts’ frame of reference, as a fan and practitioner of public art. She has the patience and skill equal to the vision needed to create an outdoor presence for the arts in Southport, in part due to two professional careers concentrating on textiles: product development, design and management in the private sector for 25 years, then in academia, as a professor at North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles.

If seeing is believing, just focus on Deb’s first UYA project inaugurated in January 2023, the “Raise Up Your Arts!” pole banner project, which she conceived and executed out of whole cloth working with the City of Southport and Downtown Southport, Inc. Up Your Arts gained partners and prestige in one fell swoop when Debra joined our board.