Newark Symphony Hall has a new CEO and president, its parent, Newark Performing Arts Corp., announced this week.

Taneshia Nash Laird joined the organization in November after a national search, succeeding interim Executive Director Leon Denmark, NPAC said in a news release.

“Today, a new curtain rises at Newark Symphony Hall,” Alfred Bundy, chairman of the NPAC board, said in a prepared statement. “Our board of directors is proud to announce that we have selected Taneshia Nash Laird as our new president and CEO of our historic arts organization. The members of our search committee recognize that we have chosen a bright and shining star for the Newark arts community.”

Laird was most recently the executive director of the Arts Council of Princeton — only the third executive director since 1967 and the first one of color. She has decades of leadership in the nonprofit, government and private sectors, NPAC said.

Read the entire story online here:

https://www.roi-nj.com/2019/02/27/lifestyle/hitting-a-high-note-new-ceo-aims-to-revitalize-newark-symphony-hall/

Laird was one of about 10 panelists who spoke at the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls event. The seven-hour session was hosted by U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who became New Jersey’s first black woman elected to Congress in 2014.

Read the entire story online here: http://www.trentonian.com/20170401/taneshia-nash-laird-to-black-girls-its-important-i-became-leader-of-princeton-arts-council

Taneshia Nash Laird is the new executive director of the Arts Council of Princeton, replacing Jeff Nathanson who is stepping down after 11 years. Ms. Nash Laird was executive director of the Trenton Downtown Association and co-founded MIST Harlem, a cultural and entertainment center.

Read the entire story online here: http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/2016/11/23/acp-names-new-executive-director/

Nash Laird is best known for her tenure as executive director of the TDA from 2006 to 2011, where she promoted the arts and cultural tourism in the city. She was married to Trenton activist Roland Laird, who died in 2013.

She is also been involved in the arts in Princeton. In 2014 she founded the Baker Street Social Club, a group focused on the black community in Princeton. The club hosted cultural events, mainly at the Princeton Public Library, including a poetry reading by Danny Simmons, an author, painter, and co-creator of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

Read the entire story online here: http://princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=&key=11-23-16laird&more=1&action=comment