The Art Film Foundation named Porshe Garner, a College of Education graduate with a Ph.D. in Education Policy Studies, as the new executive director for Champaign’s Art Theatre.

According to the Art Theatre’s website, its mission is to promote culture and education through film and cinema. Last year, the Art Theatre Co-Op merged with the AFF and became its main program.

“The Art Theatre offers many things to students like allowing them to get to know the community in which they live,” Garner said in an email. “Oftentimes, students may remain in the bubble that is the University, but the Art Theater allows students to venture off campus and engage in conversations that are important to this area as well as our global world.”

Garner’s position will include maximizing the financial stability of the AFF through community engagement, fundraising and making sure the theatre remains an integral part of the Champaign-Urbana Community.

In the past ten years, the University grad organized Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths, a collective that engages artistic mediums for the purpose of Black girlhood celebration and freedom.

Garner said this experience has taught her Champaign-Urbana is very community-oriented, and film is just one way to gather and interrogate lived experiences.

“For students who are having challenging conversations in their classes, the Art builds on those conversations,” she said. “It puts students in contact with those community and campus leaders who can assist students in their growth as critical creative thinkers.”

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