by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If your professional background is in banking and finance and the arts and theater and you want to return to your hometown, what do you do?
If you’re Angela Gieras, you move to Jacksonville and become the new director of development at The Florida Theatre.
Gieras moved from Dallas into her office in the Florida Theatre Building Monday, but it won’t take her long to get her bearings Downtown. Several years ago, she worked for SunTrust Bank at its offices a few blocks away on Forsyth Street.
While in Dallas, she was the general manager of the Dallas Theater Center and also served for a time as the vice president for major gifts and planned giving at KERA Public Television and Radio.
Gieras earned a bachelor’s degree in finance at the University of Florida and a master’s degree in arts administration and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
“I worked in Dallas for nine years and missed Florida all that time. Now I have the opportunity to do what I love to do, working at a theater, and be close to my family. I was born here and grew up here. I love the arts and I love this city. I felt it was time to come back home and make a difference,” she said.
Gieras is already working on the theater’s perpetual fundraising campaign and other initiatives that support the organization. Donations of both time and money are sought throughout the year to maintain the venue, which opened in 1927 as a silent movie and vaudeville house and was renovated in 1983. She’ll be working with major donors and the grassroots effort, the Friends of the Florida Theatre.
Gieras said her first big project is to enhance the theater’s endowment and raise funds for repair and maintenance of the historic building and to improve the venue’s production capabilities.
“The Florida Theatre is really a gem,” said Gieras. “It’s amazing what good shape it’s in and how much the community supports the theater.”
She said the transition from finance to the world of philanthropy was an easy one.
“Being a commercial lender and being a development director aren’t that different,” said Gieras. “I learned to do the things I’ll do here when I learned banking.”
She’s also finding it’s good to be back home and good to be working Downtown again.
“The last job I had in Jacksonville before I moved to Dallas was three blocks from here on Forsyth Street. I like the energy of Downtown. There’s life going on,” said Gieras.
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