“I’ve always been an adventurer, eager to experience new places, so I like to say that we headed west and just kept going until we eventually landed back in Winnsboro. Our kids would come to Texas every year and it was the highlight of their summer. They learned to drive on the property and fished in the pond. They didn’t want to see the house leave our family. It feels right for us to be here now.” Mary White, Winnsboro
So when White moved to Winnsboro in 2014, she became active in the Winnsboro Center for the Arts, founded in 2001 to provide more cultural and artistic opportunities and to make them accessible to everyone. “I came into the center just as major renovations were being completed.” A new listening room was added – The Bowery Stage – which seats around 100 people and has now become the center’s “claim to fame,” hosting a popular series of intimate concerts each year. Renovations also included space for an art gallery and instruction as well as for a small gift shop.
HOMETOWN continued from page 43 Expanding Cultural Opportunities in Winnsboro Mary White Mary White left her hometown of Winnsboro for a successful 30-year biomedical career on the East Coast, never really expecting to live there again. But as the years passed and her children’s summers spent at their grandparents’ home became a cherished tradition, she began to think more about a return. Today, she’s making an impact on cultural opportunities for the community with her involvement at the Winnsboro Center for the Arts. A biology major at Southern Methodist University, White received her master’s degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and a doctorate in immunology and medical microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She married an SMU classmate, Brad Scharf, from Arlington, whom she met while attending an SMU summer math program for high school students. After spending three years in Germany, the couple settled in the Bos-
ton area, where White worked in biotech and her husband was an electrical engineer. In 2002, White left her position as senior vice president of research for a small biotech company so that she would have more time to manage her aging father’s care and also to spend more time playing the piano. Music has always been a serious hobby for White, who is classically trained in piano; however, in recent years, she has spent more time learning to play jazz. She studied jazz at a community music school in Winchester, a suburb of Boston, where she later served on the board of the school, using her management skills honed in biotech to help the school grow. “I realized the importance of the arts and how everyone needs that exposure. You don’t have to be a performer to benefit,” she says. White and her husband purchased her parents’ home in the 1990s when her parents began to consider downsizing, and with that purchase came the decision to eventually return to Winnsboro.
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“Everyone was very enthusiastic, but it seemed to me that they were unsure of how to move to the next step,” White says. “I felt like I had arrived at a good time in that my skill set and nonprofit experience might be useful in helping them to build their development program and add more structure to the organization. The arts community here is a wonderful group of dedicated people, and I really enjoy working with them.” Today, as president of the board for the center, White is working to expand arts educational opportunities, especially for children. One of the center’s biggest successes is the summer drama camp where students write and perform a musical. A second drama camp was added this past summer and White hopes to add a third camp featuring arts and crafts or perhaps music next year. “We also offer private lessons in guitar, keyboard, ukulele, and we’re looking for a children’s art instructor so we can add children’s art classes to the program in the future.” Membership is expanding and White hopes to build grant opportunities for the center. “Small towns really have a lot to offer,”