A GIFT FROM THE HEART: After opening her parting gift from her now-former colleagues, Yost fondly recalled seeing the works of Steve Woodham at an arts festival by the Tifton Council for the Arts during her early days working with the organization, and thanked them for remembering how much she enjoyed his work.

TIFTON — The Tifton Council for the Arts has bid farewell to its executive director Joy Yost, but with high hopes in both of their futures.

After serving the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center for nearly a decade, the executive director for the arts will begin work at the Colquitt County Arts Center in Moultrie this week.

Yost will be stepping into a position very similar to the one she is vacating, albeit for a larger and older organization as Moultrie’s arts center has been operating out of a former high school building for nearly forty years. In this new role, she will oversee both permanent and rotating exhibit spaces, theatre productions, and a wide array of music and art education programs.

The Tifton Council for the Arts held a celebration for Yost the evening of Jan. 5, offering her well wishes for this new chapter in her career.

During this farewell party, arts council president Cindy Hammond spoke on the tremendous effort Yost had given to the center during her tenure, thanking her for everything she had done for Tifton’s art scene and attesting that Moultrie would be getting a truly capable new executive director for the arts.

“We’re going to miss her,” Hammond said. “It’s going to be a big haul–everybody loves Joy–but this is good for her, it’s good for her family, and I’m happy for her.”

Yost was presented with a parting gift in the form of a decorated wooden pendulum, beautifully carved by local artist and arts council president elect Steve Woodham. She expressed her own thanks to the council for working alongside her and asserted that this would certainly not be the last time they would be working together.

“I had no idea what I was getting into when I showed up the first time, walking through these doors,” Yost said. “But I appreciate you all–and Syd, who really mentored me and gave me the love of the arts that I have now. I will forever treasure this place and all of you; you make it what it really is.”

Indeed, both Yost and Hammond have expressed interest in future collaborations between the Moultrie and Tifton arts centers, including sharing exhibits and working together on events and programs. In her own work, Yost is also excited to expand the arts education and theatre programs for the arts community of Moultrie, as well as a renovation to the center’s theatre, thanks to a recent grant from the Fox Theatre Institute.

Moving to fill Yost’s old position as interim executive director will be Bruce Green, a former arts council board member both last year and during the inception of the arts center in the 1990s.

While the Tifton Council for the Arts works on finalizing the job description and starting their search, Green aims at the core of his work to maintain the Syd’s normal routine, beginning with the upcoming “Water and Wood” exhibit and “The Wacky World of Cousin Dave’s Home-Made Instruments” 3rd Thursday event later this month. However, he hopes to bring a few improvements to the arts center during his tenure, including upgrading the lighting system to better illuminate future exhibits.

“There are a lot of things that are out there floating, in a good way,” Green said. “We have grants that are open, there’s a lot of due diligence that has to be done to make sure all the things fall into place.”