Women to Watch Awards Finalists – Arts
Meet the 2025 finalists
CHARLOTTE “CHARKY” ARMSTRONG
Volunteer Docent for Tours & Board Member, Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts
Describe your role and work that you do.
“I love history and the arts, so Thalian Hall is the perfect place for me to volunteer in retirement. … As a docent guiding tours through this iconic theater, I am privileged to share these amazing stories with area residents and tourists alike.”
What are some of your career highlights so far?
“In 2018, Tony Rivenbark, Thalian Hall’s longtime executive director, asked me to develop a docent program. I am proud to say we now have an enthusiastic, trained, and dedicated team of docents who volunteer their time to showcase Thalian Hall’s history, architecture, and culture with several tour themes to choose from and more in the wings.”
What themes/issues are most important in your work?
“In addition to my involvement in the docent program, as a (Thalian) Board of Trustees member, I am also looking forward to playing a role in the planned transformation of the building’s City Hall wing, which will provide additional venue spaces and facilities for education, job training, and entrepreneurships in support of Wilmington’s vibrant and diverse arts community. This will enable Thalian Hall to continue to be a major innovative and cultural center just as it was in 1858.”
CAMMERON BATANIDES
Artist & Owner, Art by Cammeron
Describe your role and work that you do.
“In my role as an artist, business owner, president of Veterans Creative Arts Program, and teaching artist through DREAMS Center for Arts Education, I create community within the classroom while empowering veterans, first responders, military personnel, neighbors, families, youth, and teens through art.”
What are some of your career highlights so far?
“Some of my career highlights include but are not limited to, spreading love and joy through art, using art to uplift and empower others, seeing others experience the joy of creating, and exploring new mediums. I love using my gift of art to humbly serve those around me.”
What inspired you to start creating art?
“Creating art is a gift I have been given. I have been creating art since birth, and I am very thankful for the gift of art.”
How do you hope to make an impact through art?
“Art positively changes lives, and I hope to continue to foster creativity inside and outside of the classroom.”
What themes/issues are most important in your work?
“Providing equitable access to the arts, the arts are for everyone. Cultivating confidence and lowering barriers.”
CARSON HOBBS
Artistic Director & Director of Education, Opera House Theatre Company
Describe your role and work that you do.
“I develop programming including classes, camps, and workshops for OHTC (Opera House Theatre Company) to train performers in all areas of theater arts. As an artistic director, I work with our creative team to shape and oversee OHTC’s artistic vision. This includes many moving parts: determining our seasons, casting and working with performers, fundraising, crew and creative team selection, and maintaining the artistic strategy and integrity that Opera House Theatre Company is known for.”
What are some of your career highlights so far?
“I genuinely love teaching, and between OHTC and UNCW, there isn’t an age range or skill level I don’t enjoy working with – as long as they want to be in the room! Our classes and camps are something I am very proud of. I have had insanely good fortune with casts and shows I have worked on, especially Newsies, The Prom, Annie, and Cabaret – all of which had unique challenges, but each was personally and professionally extremely fulfilling. Lastly, teaching at Dreams of Wilmington for fifteen years introduced me to an entirely different teaching passion, one that carried into work in Atlanta and now back at Dreams. A performing highlight was being in the Broadway show Wicked – being part of such a global phenomenon was wild!”
SEPTEMBER KRUEGER
Director of Lifelong Learning, Cameron Art Museum
Describe your role and work that you do.
“Lifelong Learning at CAM involves the many aspects of our public programs and education that help our community engage with the exhibitions and learn about art. I manage our music series like Jazz@CAM and coordinate our lectures and community events. I oversee our Museum School, which offers classes to adults and kids throughout the year, as well as Wellness initiatives, such as Art Enhances Health and creative writing for veterans, that use art as a tool for healing and well-being. In education, I work with our teachers for professional development and connect teaching artists with schools for unique outreach experiences.”
What inspired you to start creating art?
“My first love is with textiles. It began with a sewing machine as a child and a love for fashion. In school, I studied textile design, and cloth became the canvas for all of the things you love to do as an artist: drawing, painting, printing, and creating three-dimensional forms.”
What themes/issues are most important in your work?
“Arts education in public schools: It must be available, woven across the curriculum, and valued in our communities. Art builds critical 21st-century skills, sparks passion and creativity, and can build empathy. … Our educators and art spaces like museums and theaters are essential for building a love for creating art together, listening to music together, and building strong community bonds through art in all of its forms.”
LORRAINE PERRY
Healing Arts Coordinator, Lower Cape Fear LifeCare
Describe your role and work that you do.
“An expressive arts therapist, I provide opportunities for patients to engage in creative arts activities, in a safe and encouraging studio environment.”
What are some of your career highlights so far?
“Completing a master’s degree in gerontology, with an internship in Bath, England, under supervision from Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice care movement. I returned to work as a bereavement counselor with LCF, Hospice Care Center in 2004. In 2017, I received the Albert Schweitzer award from UNCW. I served on the ethics committee for PACE, a program for all-inclusive care for the elderly. Currently, I am an expressive arts therapist, providing studio arts for Life Care-Memory Care, palliative patients. I’m contracted as an expressive arts co-facilitator, at the AEH, Arts Enhances Health program, for cancer patients at the Cameron Art Museum.”
How do you hope to make an impact through art?
“My use of the expressive arts includes creative writing, music, movement, meditation, and visual arts. I use the arts to empower others to be creative, by providing the materials and a safe space to express as well as to provide support. By giving patients the freedom to express themselves through an art form, it strengthens their abilities to see themselves as creative beings.”
To view the Women to Watch Awards Finalists main page, click here.
To view more of photographer Madeline Gray’s work, go to madelinegrayphoto.com.
To view more of photographer Sasha Sheldon’s work, go to sashasheldon.com.
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