Kathy Beachler joined the Garrett County Arts Council as Executive Director in 2019, after 20 years experience in arts education management, partnership development, and community engagement. She has worked at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Arts Education Partnership, Arts Every Day, and Kirkland Performance Center.
Kathy, her husband, Nate, and their two boys moved to Garrett County in 2015, so they could open a local eatery, Deep Creek Seafood. Reopened after spring renovations in June 2024, the restaurant is now called Deep Creek Seafood & Quarry Burgers because it is on Quarry Road and their practically teenage sons are strong enough to hand cut fries.
Kathy was hired in 2018, as the Garrett County Arts Council’s Community Arts Development Coordinator to assist with management of the Grantsville and Oakland Arts & Entertainment Districts and outreach to other Garrett County municipalities related to development and expansion of their arts programs.
Kathy served two years as the Greater Oakland Business Association Vice President, and currently serves as a board member to the Mountain Maryland Gateway to the West Heritage Area.
In 2023, Kathy was announced as an Appalachian Regional Commission Leadership Institute Fellow, where she has been attending skill-building seminars and conducting field visits across Appalachia. She is looking forward to fellowship graduation at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. in July 2024.
Nominated by Governor Wes Moore, Kathy will begin her first term as a Maryland State Arts Council board member on July 1, 2024, representing Western Maryland’s arts organizations, artists, artisans, and rural entrepreneurs.
When she is not running the boys to trumpet lessons, marching and community band rehearsals, robotics team meetings, soccer games or cross country meets, Kathy continues to work as an independent artist, running her “illegible ink printmaking studio” in her Oakland, MD home. Her 2D work has been displayed at galleries, restaurants and art shows in Grantsville, Oakland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Richmond and Seattle.