Tallahassee, FL -- Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning is pleased to announce that Katharine Horn Dickenson has been elected to serve a one-year term as the new Florida Arts Council Chairman.

As an active community historical preservationist for Boca Raton, Mrs. Dickenson serves on such boards as the Children’s Museum at Singing Pines, the Boca Raton Historical Society, Boca Raton Junior League, and The Mounts Botanical Garden. In Vermont, where she has a summer residence, she has served on the boards of the Dorset Theater Festival and the Manchester Music Festival. Other activities include the boards of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington and the Board of the Edith Wharton House in Lenox, Massachusetts.   Her current restoration project interest is the “Old Courthouse” project, the new history museum in West Palm Beach.

A life-long Floridian, Mrs. Dickenson was appointed to the Florida Historic Preservation Advisory Council for a seven-year term and served as chairman in 1988. She was first appointed to the Florida Arts Council in 2001 and reappointed for a second term in 2003 by former Governor Jeb Bush. She is the only Floridian to have served as both chairman of the Arts Council and chairman of the Historic Preservation Advisory Council (now the Florida Historical Commission).  Mrs. Dickenson was appointed by three governors to the Palm Beach County Historic Preservation Board and served as chairman for eight years.

Her many awards include the 1989 Florida Trust Distinguished Service Award, Palm Beach County’s Judge Knott Award in 1996, Boca Raton’s Myrtle Butts Fleming Award in 1995, and was she recently inducted into the publication Who’s Who in America.

Mrs. Dickenson graduated from the University of Miami with a master’s degree in education. She resides in Boca Raton with her husband David, an attorney. She has three sons practicing law in Palm Beach County, three daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren.

The 15-member arts council advises the Secretary of State on matters pertaining to culture and the arts and recommends funding for cultural grants statewide. Also serving as Florida Arts Council officers are Mr. Stephen Hogge, Tallahassee, as Vice Chairman and Mrs. Jacqueline Bradley, Windermere, as Secretary.

For more information about the Florida Arts Council or the Division of Cultural Affairs, please visit www.Florida-Arts.org.