GreensboroArtsHub Founding Board Members
Greensboro Arts Hub is a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization.
Our Founding Documents can be found here.
Marikay Abuzuaiter
Greensboro City Council, At-large. Former restaurant owner (Mahi’s, 22 years) .
Mariky is the very definition of tenacious, winning a seat on City Council on her third try in 2011. She has won re-election ever since and quickly earned a reputation for “showing up.” She puts in the legwork.
She has served as the City Council liaison to the Human Relations Commission, the Solid Waste Commission and the Commission on the Status of Women. Marikay also serves on the board of the Latino arts organization Casa Azul.
Marikay’s mother was an accomplished painter and Marikay herself has some experience in theatre (acting).
Doug Baker
Musician / Educator / Songwriter
Doug graduated in 1978 from UNCG with a degree in Music Theory and received his education license in 2011. He teaches guitar and ukulele privately and substitutes in Guilford County Schools, mostly in band, orchestra, and elementary school classrooms.
Doug is a guitarist and songwriter, focusing on composing and recording new music and performing at local songwriter events. He also puts on a monthly “songwriter-in-the-round” event at Scuppernong Books. He also serves on the board of Fiddle and Bow.
Betsy Bevan
Musician / Educator / Composer / Writer / Painter
Betsy lives a highly creative life as a musician, composer, painter and writer. She teaches world music at Greensboro Montessori School and facilitates many expressive arts and spirituality workshops. As a painter since 1995 she has developed her own style through her interest in the present moment process of making art.
Betsy earned her masters degree in music composition from the Eastman School of music in New York and has composed and produced three music albums for relaxation and well being.
She’s won awards for her compositions and essays, sells her paintings in local gallery shows and has written and illustrated children’s books. One of her illustrated books, The Last Fiddler, with composed music by Chris Woehr, was performed by members of the St. Louis Symphony with story reading and illustrations broadcast above the orchestra players.
Gregg Bryant
Visual Artist
Gregg began his journey in art at a young age, taking lessons from a woman in his neighborhood, but he had to stop when his father left and he had to go to work to bring money into the household, It was only 50 short years later that the artistic fire was rekindled.
Greg’s love of non objective art stems from his admiration of painting that represents no object or subject observable with the human eye. Whether emotion or thought or simply a beautiful arrangement of colors and forms to be enjoyed for beauty’s sake alone, Gregg sees his art as a connection to a higher order of nature.
Gregg recently retired from Wellspring Retirement Community.
Michaela Hafley
Director of Education, TAG at Congdon Yards / Visual Artist
Michaela is a recently retired art teacher from Guilford County Schools. She currently the Director of Education with TAG at Congdon Yards in High Point.
Micheala creates art when she has free time. She works with a variety of materials: paint, drawing, clay, printmaking, papermaking, sketchbook/journaling, photography, etc. She loves experimenting and exploring with visual art and incorporating text into her art as her husband is a high school English teacher. In addition, she’s recently started creating “upcycled” art using large cans for yard art flowers, wreaths, and other holiday decorations.
Greg Hausler
Visual Artist / Network Manager, Goodwill industries of Central N.C.
Greg was born in New York but raised in Kansas where he graduated from Kansas State University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting. During his time at college, he developed his signature technique of using articles of clothing and other textiles instead of linen canvas for his mixed-media abstract paintings.
His non-traditional use of painting media is influenced by Marcel Duchamp and street artists while his painting technique draws inspiration from Jackson Pollock and Claude Monet resulting in a style of work that is uniquely his own.
Frankie T. Jones, Jr.
Attorney / Guilford County Board of Commissioners (dist. 7) / Vice President and Managing Director, Commercial Mortgage Lending, Lincoln Financial Group
Frankie has a steady record of community service since moving to Guilford County in 2008. He was appointed to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners on March 3, 2022 to fill a vacant seat, then won election that fall. He is the former chairman of the Guilford County Planning Board and a former member of the Greensboro Planning & Zoning Commission, Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority Board, and the Greensboro ABC Board. He is a former Chairman of the Greensboro Board of Adjustment and a graduate of the City of Greensboro City Academy.
Frankie has previously served or is currently serving on the boards of several organizations, including Gateway Research Park, Triad Stage, Triad Goodwill, Piedmont Land Conservancy, and Preservation Greensboro. He is the current Chairman of the Greensboro Sports Council. He is a Silver Life Member in the NAACP and a past Executive Committee member for the Greensboro Branch. He is also a former chair of the Real Property Section of the North Carolina Bar Association and a former member of the Davidson College Board of Visitors. He is an active member of the Greensboro Bar Association and Guilford County Association of Black Lawyers.
A. E. Reed, III
Visual Artist / Director of Social Media and Visual Design, John-Richard
A. E. is a creator of visual artwork, graphics, styling, art direction and marketing. He graduated from Longwood University in Virginia in 1995. He earned a BFA with concentrations in Graphic Design, Drawing/Printmaking and a minor in Art History.
A. E.’s art is all over the place! He works in a variety of mediums and styles. He loves color and line and describes art as his passion his heart.
A. E. recently took a job with luxury home furnishings and decor company John-Richard as their director of social media and visual design.
A. E. says, “life is to be lived…….life is for the living…..go be ALIVE!!!!!!!”
Marta Richardson
Musician / Retired Educator
Marta is a native of Greensboro who graduated from the UNCG School of Music with a degree in music education. She was a member of the Greensboro Symphony for nearly 20 years and later became a founding member of the band, Songs of Water. She just retired from the Guilford County Public Schools.
Marta enjoys playing the violin in styles from Classical, to New Age to Inspirational. Critics describe Richardson’s music as ethereal, haunting, enrapturing, and evocative. Our State Magazine characterizes her sound as sophisticated and elegant.
Marta perceives the arts to be a vehicle for healing cultural divides. She purposefully moves to help break down racial barriers through her music. In addition, she is the founder of Classical Music Across Cutures (CMAC Project). CMAC advocates for children of color to be able to pursue classical music. A product of public school orchestra programs herself, Richardson believes that a quality in-depth educational musical experience should be available to all children.
Roch Smith, Jr.
Website Designer, Creator of GreensboroArtsHub
Roch’s family moved to Greensboro in 1970, as he was starting second grade. He graduated from Smith High School and went on to earn a BFA in Theatre, with a concentration in Acting and Directing from Western Carolina University.
After pursuing professional acting opportunities throughout the Southeast for a few years, emerging desktop publishing technology captured his imagination and he settled back in Greensboro in 1992 to set up a graphic design shop. Shortly thereafter, the nascent World Wide Web fired his imagination. He has been designing and coding websites ever since.
Throughout the years, Roch has built websites for numerous local businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and politicians. After reading the 2018 Greensboro Cultural Master Plan and its call for a central online portal to the region’s arts, Roch built GreensboroArtsHub.com and launched it in December, 2020.