The NCI ARTworks Board announced Monday the retirement of executive director Julia Mautino Messina and welcomed new leadership.

Sara O’Dell has been selected to lead NCI ARTworks as executive director, continuing to grow and improve the regional nonprofit that hosts art exhibitions, music events, and facilitates the creation of public art installations in La Salle, Bureau, and Putnam counties.

Messina had led the creative team at NCI ARTworks since 2021. Over the past five years, she and the board and staff have:

• helped bring world-class musicians to local schools and provided rural schools with music instruments
• offered free public concerts with our Christmas and Summer Tubafest series and ensemble concerts
• showcased over 160 emerging and affirmed local, regional, and national artists
• hosted 65 professional-level exhibitions at the NCI ARTworks Gallery
• provided about 210K of revenue to local, regional, and national artists
• conducted a cash-award juried art show, emerging artist shows, and youth art shows
• brought in the White House Senior Policy Analyst, Peter Gaumond, for the Trauma & Recovery exhibition and published 2 books: “The Life & Art of Father Joseph Heyd, O.S.B.” and “From Harm to Hope, A Multi-Artist Retrospective of Trauma & Recovery”
• built partnerships with other local galleries and venues to showcase local & regional artists
• developed annual fundraising tours focused on art and culture in the USA and abroad
• celebrated and recognized the top talent at the high school level in the tri-county area
• partnered with local municipalities to host summer art camps and offered workshops and classes

“The relationships I have been able to build with the artists, the NCI ARTworks Board, and the community of art-and-culture lovers mean the world to me,” Messina said. “I am grateful and truly blessed to have been able to connect with and work with so many talented people who are committed to building the arts in the Illinois Valley. As I take my leave of this amazing organization, I am confident that the NCI ARTworks Board has chosen the right people to continue its mission.”

O’Dell brings community volunteer experience to her new position. A longtime advocate for the arts, her focus has been primarily on the music component of the NCI ARTworks mission, assisting both at NCI ARTworks-sponsored music events and at the La Salle-Peru Township High School music program. She is expanding her artistic repertoire to include the visual arts as she has been helping to curate and organize art exhibits at the NCI ARTworks gallery in Peru.

Sara attended Michigan State University and Southern Illinois University. After moving to the Illinois Valley in 2007, she led the STEM program at a local summer day camp since 2017, where she shares her expertise in science and technology. Outside of her professional work, she is an avid traveler and outdoor enthusiast.

“I am delighted to keep the NCI Artworks mission moving forward bringing the arts to everyone in our community and showcasing our very talented artists,” she said.

In addition to welcoming its new Executive Director, NCI ARTworks welcomes Don Grant Zellmer to the NCI ARTworks creative team. Don will be responsible for developing and curating arts and cultural events and trips to help sustain the mission of NCI ARTworks.

Zellmer’s background as a group tour travel expert and his many decades as a professional entertainer will ensure that local art and culture lovers who travel with NCI ARTworks have the most enjoyable experiences at local, regional, national, and international music and theater performances. Zellmer has taken groups from NCIArtworks to New York for Broadway tours in the past and will continue that very popular tour.

Zellmer was a director/choreographer/featured performer for Cargill Productions, NYC. For 20 years, he owned and operated Zellmer’s Dinner Theatre in the Peoria area and spent two seasons headlining two shows in Branson, Missouri. He and partner Dr. David Kuester have operated the Follies Theatre in Utica and Yorkville, and for 21 years, Zellmer was the director and choreographer of musical theatre at Illinois Valley Community College.

“As a long-time supporter of NCIArtworks,” Zellmer said, “this is a sterling opportunity to combine a lot of elements that are in my ‘wheelhouse,’ combining entertainment and group travel, as well as fundraising for such a worthwhile and integral part of the Illinois Valley.”