The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts elected new officers and members of the board of directors at its annual meeting on Oct. 20.

The new officers are: Steve Watson, board president; Amy Caputo, vice-president; Bob Hicks, treasurer; and Sue Haug, secretary.Steve Watson is a University planner with Penn State’s Division of Campus Planning and Design in the Office of Physical Plant. Amy Caputo is currently director of strategic communications for the Penn State Alumni Association. Bob Hicks is the chief financial officer of Videon Central Inc. Sue Haug is the director of Penn State’s School of Music.The following individuals were elected to three-year terms on the board: Moses Davis, the director of the Multicultural Resource Center at Penn State; Jonathan Friedman, director of development, Friedman Real Estate Group; and Kathleen Raupach, an instructor in Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at Penn State.  The State College Chamber of Commerce and Penn State University’s College of Arts and Architecture founded the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in 1967. It now encompasses five days of visual and performing arts programming. Approximately 125,000 people visit the festival each summer, and “Arts Fest” is considered to be a quintessential part of the Penn State student and alumni experience.In 2015, Sunshine Artist magazine ranked the Arts Festival No. 1 on its list of the 100 best outdoor fine art and fine craft fairs in the United States. In addition to producing the summer festival, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts also produces First Night State College, an alcohol-free, family-oriented New Year’s festival.The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.The 2016 edition of First Night State College will take place Dec. 31. The 50th Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts will be held July 13-17, 2016. Children’s Day will be July 13, and the Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition will open on Wednesday, July 13, and continue through Sunday, July 17.