The Shenandoah Arts Council is a nonprofit organization whose part-time staff is dedicated to maintaining and expanding the important work that ShenArts accomplishes in the community.
Lisa Sipp | Executive Director
Lisa Sipp has been with ShenArts since 2018. Her responsibilities include providing strategic direction, implementing and overseeing all operations, programs, functions, activities, staff and interns, communications, community development, grant writing and compliance, fundraising, and donor and member database management.
Lisa enjoys teaching violin to beginners from age 4 to 94. She has a master’s degree in Special Education, an alternative secondary teaching degree, a BA in Humanities, and an AA in Communication and Journalism. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Lisa moved to Winchester in early 2018 from the mountains of northern New Mexico, but has Virginia roots as recent as her parents and grandparents from southwest Virginia to ancestors who settled in Virginia in the 1600s. Lisa is married to David, a ShenArts artist member who is often seen supporting and serving ShenArts wherever needed.
Contact: [email protected]
Lisa Fisher | Associate Executive Director
Appointed Associate Executive Director January 1, 2024, Lisa Fisher joined the ShenArts team as Program Manager in 2022. She is a visual artist whose work has been published, collected internationally, and exhibited across the U.S. In 2022, she completed a summer residency at the Peter Bullough Foundation in Winchester and is also being represented online by five3gallery in Las Lagunas, CA.
Lisa brings with her a vigor for the artist and all those that appreciate the arts. She is passionate about finding ways to develop more artistic experiences for Shenandoah Valley artists and the community.
Lisa graduated with a BS in Behavioral Science at Greensboro College in 1987. She grew up in Bethesda, MD, but moved to the area in 2017 with her husband, daughter, 3 cats and a dog.
Contact: [email protected]
Rachel Smith | Program Director
Appointed Program Director January 1, 2024, Rachel Smith became the first ever ShenArts Education Manager in 2022. With more than 16 years of experience teaching children, she expertly executes the development of art programming for children and teens.
Rachel is an active artist who has exhibited at over 70 shows in 14 states, and at local venues including the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Barns of Rose Hill, and Burwell-Morgan Mill. In 2021, she was the first artist-in-residence for the Peter Bullough Foundation here in Winchester. She discovered her passion for teaching art to children while artist-in-residence at the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum, where she began teaching art workshops in 2018. In 2022, Rachel was awarded the Innovate + Create Grant by Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic.
Rachel received a BFA in Painting and Drawing at Brigham Young University in 2007. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, but she has called Virginia home since 2010. She lives in the Winchester area with her husband, four daughters, and two dogs.
Contact: [email protected]