BANGOR – The board of directors of the Bangor Region Arts and Cultural Council has appointed Susan Potters as its new executive director. Potters takes over the position held by Tracy Michaud Stutzman, who resigned the part-time post in November to accept a full-time job in regional arts marketing.

The Bangor Region Arts and Cultural Council, a committee of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce since 1995, is in the process of becoming a nonprofit organization. The council is structured as a board, headed by Bangor Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Susan Jonason.

The council recently completed work on the Bangor Region Cultural Directory, an inventory of the arts and cultural resources in the Bangor region, compiled under the direction of local artist Jeannie Mooney. The Maine Arts Commission, which helped to fund the cultural research for the directory, also helped to fund the new staff position for the arts council this fall.

Potters, a member of the council’s steering committee that worked on the directory, has been involved in the local arts scene for some time. As director of the Penquis Regional Office of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, Potters has been assisting local artists in contacting schools and also helping the schools locate artist resources. Her most recent project, “Building Community Through the Arts,” has brought visiting artists in creative theater and dance into all 19 of the Penquis region’s public high schools. For that project, whose purpose is social as well as artistic, Potters has created a collaboration between the alliance and other nonarts organizations, most notably Acadia Hospital, Orono-based Center for Student Aspirations and the University School for Education and Human Development. In volunteer-related work Potters served as a docent at the Hudson Museum, and is president of the board of the Arcady Music Festival. She also served briefly on the steering committee of the Maine Arts Sponsors Association.

Susan Jonason, the arts council’s board chairman, sees the introduction of a staff leadership position as an opportunity to develop to a new level of service to the community.

“With Susan on board as our executive director,” she said, “we now have someone with the skills and enthusiasm we need to broaden the scope of the Bangor Region Arts and Cultural Council to serve the needs of our organization and community.”

Potters is eager for the work to begin.

“The Maine Arts Commission honored the Bangor arts council several years ago in its Tri-City Initiative, which in effect put BRACC [the arts council] on a par with more well-developed arts councils in Portland and Lewiston-Auburn,” said Potters. “There’s also a healthy awareness within the Bangor community itself about the value of the arts. It’s time now that BRACC build on that confidence and take its place as one of the major urban arts councils of the state. The cultural directory is just a beginning.”

Potters, who will work part of the week from her home office in Veazie, will hold office hours at the Bangor Convention and Visitors’ Bureau from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays. She can be contacted at home at 990-2805 and at the bureau at 1-800-91-MOOSE. Her e-mail address is MAAEBangor@aol.com.