Susanne Theis
Thursday, March 10, 1:30 pm.
Mobile workshops meet at registration area
Visit the award winning 12 acre park which includes a century old oak allee, lawns, gardens, permanent works of art, 2 stages, 2 restaurants, a one acre lake, an interactive fountain, playground, dog runs and promenades. While we walk, we’ll discuss the history of this public-private partnership between the non-profit Discovery Green Conservancy and the City of Houston, public input, design and development phase, the opening and current operations and programming, and see the impact of the park through the 1.5 billion dollars in development being constructed now around the park.
Inclusion of this session was suggested and aided by the Greater Dallas Planning Council.
Programming Director,
Discovery Green
From 1983 to 2007, Susanne served as the first executive director of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art where she helped create signature events such as the Art Car Parade and to acquire, conserve and operate important folk art sites. Suzanne has curated several art exhibitions including Wind in My Hair at the American Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore, lectured in the U.S. and Europe and written for numerous publications.
In 2007, she became the first programming director for Discovery Green, a 12-acre, $122 million park formed by a public private partnership that opened in April 2008. Discovery Green welcomes more than 1.2 million visitors a year. At Discovery Green, her team has created a nationally recognized dynamic schedule of 400 arts, entertainment, healthy living and family events annually while overseeing 200 licensed public and private events.
Ms. Theis provides support to Discovery Green’s Public Art Committee, which is charged with planning and overseeing temporary art exhibitions. She oversees the park’s marketing efforts and Discovery Green was named 2012 Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association, Houston Chapter.
Ms. Theis has served on panels for the Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and presented at national meetings of the Urban Land Institute and Association of Performing Arts Presenters. She is a member of Class XXXII of the American Leadership Forum.
