Recipient Information
Location
Sumter, South Carolina
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Leaders of Color Fellowship
Grant Amount
$0
Melanie Colclough
Executive director, Sumter County Cultural Center/Patriot Hall
Melanie Colclough serves as the Executive Director of Patriot Hall and the Cultural Center in Sumter, SC. She has many years of experience working with organizations, committees, and boards to engage staff and volunteers in supporting mutually beneficial goals. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina Columbia and a Master of Public Administration degree from CUNY/Baruch College. A connector and advocate, Melanie served as a nonprofit leader before taking over the Sumter County Cultural Center/Patriot Hall in 2017. She enjoys repositioning the Arts in her community, but is driven by the opportunity to bring people together through her work there. She believes the beauty, diversity, and ambiguity of the Arts give people a much-needed collective experience while offering space for individual ones, a philosophy she hopes people will learn at the cultural center and then transfer to other facets of life. She is a Guardian ad Litem, adoption advocate, National Urban Fellow, and serves on several local arts-related boards. She is a mother of six wonderful children, member of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc. and attends Bethesda Church of God, where she and her husband, David, work on the leadership team.