Lois Brace has been a driving force behind Presser Arts Center’s successes for nearly 20 years.

Now, as her second decade serving as Presser Arts Center’s executive director comes to a close, Brace prepares to retire. Her final day will be Dec. 31, and she will officially pass the reins to Katie Azdell, who currently serves as Presser Arts Center administrator.

Brace said Azdell has been a familiar face at Presser Arts Center on and off over the last 15 years. She came in with no real experience in program development but has since become the program developer. Azdell has developed all of Presser’s workshops, seminars, after-school programs, and grew the summer camp program from the ground up.

“She’s a visionary, and that’s this job,” Brace said. “Katie is going to do so well because she sees all of that umbrella that the arts encompass.”

From theater director to visionary

Brace began her career at Presser as a theater director in 1993.

She directed the Mexico Area Community Theater group, which was part of the Missouri Association of Community Theatres and competed in the American Association of Community Theaters. The group performed in Presser Hall, which was originally constructed as part of the former Hardin College campus.

While Brace remembers it fondly, she had noticed some shortcomings as time went on.

Rather than hold formal auditions, Brace said Mexico Area Community Theater would often decide to do a show and assign roles within. That worked for a while, but soon the group that started off strong began to dwindle quickly as members aged.

Even if it wanted to, the adults-only theater group couldn’t cater to children because it had no reliable rehearsal space. Instead, rehearsals took place in the basements of members or local churches — really anywhere they could find space.

Despite the challenges, Brace said the Mexico Area Community Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol in 2003 really set the stage for everything Presser would do theatrically in the coming years.

Presser Hall was governed by the Presser Restoration Society, which was established in 1987 to halt the building’s impending demolition. After reading in the newspaper that the restoration society had received a sizable donation, and with A Christmas Carol’s success under her belt, Brace went to the board with an idea.

“I approached the board of directors and said, ‘I think if you hire me to be the executive director of a full-fledged arts center, we could do this,’” Brace said.

The evolution of Presser programs

The restoration society was on board with her vision, and Brace was named executive director of Presser Performing Arts Center in 2007. Her first order of business was adding a dance program in collaboration with the Missouri Contemporary Ballet, which partnered with Presser for three years.

“It flew like hotcakes, and we had a wonderful program,” she said.

With Presser’s newfound footing in the arts through dance, Brace turned her attention back to increasing inclusion in theater. Mexico Area Community Theater started producing its own productions based on open auditions with new policies that required auditions to be posted, publicised, and open to all community members.

Next, she hired Tim and Debbie Baldwin of Columbia to run the first theater camp, which produced “The Music Man”.

“It was like gangbusters,” Brace said. “I think we had 500 in attendance for those shows. It was amazing — not what we expected at all.”

From there, Presser’s popularity snowballed. Brace added a second camp the next year and a third the year after. Then she incorporated art camps and children’s camps before Azdell came on board and added even more camps.

“We realized early on that if we were going to have a full arts center, we were going to have to grow it because a lot of our adults were shy about participating,” Brace said. “So if we grew it from our children up, then we’d have a built-in audience, always, for our arts engagement, and that’s what we did.”

Presser Arts Center now offers 52 summer camps, steadily growing a culture of participants who have built a legacy of their own at Presser.

“Many of our children that grew up on our stages through those camps are now our teachers,” Brace said.

Presser Hall — A piece of history

Presser Arts Center’s inclusivity initiatives and emphasis on the arts will serve as Brace’s legacy — one that started in Presser Hall.

The name Presser Hall is often used when referring to the arts center, but Brace said that doesn’t represent what it actually is.

“Presser Hall is a building,” Brace said. “It doesn’t indicate what it is or what we do or the offerings that are given to the community.”

In 2007, Presser Hall became Presser Performing Arts Center. Its next name change in 2023 was driven by two main factors — money and community. Brace said it was cheaper to put “Presser Arts Center” on the street sign. It was an added bonus that the name better encompassed what Presser was striving to become. In Brace’s experience, community members would shy away from being involved because they didn’t want to be onstage.

“They were interested in painting or ceramics, but they didn’t know we did that,” Brace said. “So we took the word ‘performing’ out of the title. It opened up a door to those who were bashful about being onstage.”

Now, Presser Arts Center is experiencing an explosion of growth.

The show must go on

Moving forward, Brace will continue to promote and expand the arts at the state level.

Brace, who currently serves as vice chair, was reappointed as chair of the Missouri Arts Council by Gov. Mike Kehoe on June 26. In that role, Brace said her primary duties will include leading meetings and enforcing the bylaws and policies set by the board.

“I’ll be asked to represent the state as far as arts engagement, arts education and arts economy — those are the three main legs — but the priority is grants and awarding dollars to all organizations across the state.”

Brace’s appointment came during a period of decline in participation in the arts across the state — a topic she said was discussed at a recent board meeting. But throughout her time at Presser, Brace has built a foundational knowledge in how to make arts more accessible and appealing to communities.

She added that one of her first orders of business will be updating old bylaws.

While the timelines matched perfectly, Brace said her retirement had nothing to do with her appointment to chair.

“That position will require time and travel, so I think it just worked out,” Brace said, adding that it will also free her up to spend more time with her grandchildren.

Brace knows her last day before retirement at Presser will come with some tears, but she is ready to embark on her new journey. Part of her plan includes not being in the building for the first year of her retirement to give Azdell a chance to establish her own authority.

Brace leaves behind an organization positioned for continued success, and she has complete confidence in Azdell.

“People are creative,” Brace said. “I believe everybody has a God-given responsibility with creativity. Finding those people who think they’re not creative is a great challenge for me, and I'm here to prove them wrong.”