Women in the Arts: From the Cultural Corridors of China to the Stages of California and Atlanta, Lee Foster's Journey Brings New Excitement to RiverCenter

Carrie Beth Wallace
Dec 7, 2025
6 min read

Updated: Dec 7, 2025

Interview by Carrie Beth Wallace

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Lee Foster, Executive Director of RiverCenter for the Performing Arts.

Lee Foster didn’t take a straight line into the arts—she followed a winding, global path marked by music, research, theater, data, and a lifelong devotion to seeking and developing creative community.

From the cultural corridors of China to the stages of California and Atlanta, Foster's story is one of adaptability, curiosity, and deep belief in the power of live performance.

“I came to the arts in kind of a backwards way,” Foster says with a smile. Though she’s always been a singer and performer—dabbling in theater and dance—her academic beginnings led her elsewhere entirely. She majored in Chinese Language in college, a choice that soon placed her at the center of a historic cultural moment.

Following President Jimmy Carter’s recognition of the People’s Republic of China, Foster went to work for the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. There, she helped usher in some of the first major Chinese art exhibitions ever seen in the United States. Audiences encountered work that had previously been inaccessible—rare artifacts, large-scale exhibitions, and a deeper cross-cultural exchange made possible through nonprofit arts work.

From there, a filmmaker named Sue Yong Li invited Foster to China as part of the documentary film series Cities in China —at a time when cell phones didn’t exist and Mao jackets were still daily wear. As a researcher and on-site assistant, Foster helped shape post-production of the films in New York City, spending months editing by day and soaking up Broadway by night with her co-workers and friends.

“We’d run downstairs to the half-price ticket booth at three o’clock and see everything,” she recalls. “We saw 35 shows. We’d get dressed up, go to the theater, and just live inside the arts.”

Tourism, Travel, and the Business of Experience

After her film work wrapped, Foster entered the cruise industry where she worked in sales and marketing for several international cruise lines, including those specializing in Asia travel at a time when China’s tourism infrastructure was still developing.

She traveled extensively across the western United States, building relationships with travel agencies and helping market global experiences long before modern digital marketing existed. Cruise nights, printed brochures, wine-and-cheese events— this was where Foster learned the art of experiential marketing face-to-face.

Sixteen Years of Building a Theater from the Ground Up

Eventually, Foster returned to California to go back to school. While earning her master’s degree in business, Foster walked past a struggling neighborhood theater each day. Hillbarn Theatre, located in Foster City, California, quickly captured her curiosity. As time would tell, what began as a passing curiosity soon became a sixteen-year mission.

Foster ultimately ran the theater as Executive Director, transforming it from a $300,000 operation into a thriving organization with a budget exceeding $1 million. The space seated just 200 patrons, but produced full-scale musicals, robust children’s conservatory programming, and became a central artistic force in its community.

To deepen her artistic leadership, Foster went back to school for an MFA in Vocal Performance with a strong emphasis on directing and acting. During this era, she directed productions of Ragtime and The Color Purple—projects she calls the most meaningful experiences of her career.

One rehearsal still stands out to her this day. After an early run-through, cast members began throwing their shoes at her. Alarmed at first, Foster soon learned it was a cultural sign of deep appreciation from her cast members. “From that moment on,” she laughs, “I hoped every show would end with flying shoes.”

COVID, Data, and the Future of Performance

Foster left Hillbarn after sixteen years to relocate to Georgia and join the team at Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit where she helped to stabilize operations after a capital campaign. A major grant from the Arthur Blank Foundation soon placed her at the center of an ambitious project exploring the relationship between public transportation and arts attendance. The resulting data—developed with TRG Arts and major advertising firms—was presented to 51 arts organizations at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Later, she joined Georgia State University’s Rialto Center for the Arts just months before COVID shutdowns began. The following 21 months reshaped everything. Rather than go dark, Foster and her team turned to livestreaming. Working with GSU TV, Atlanta Ballet, and jazz greats like Russell Gunn, they recorded performances for national audiences—sometimes transmitting performances directly to venues like the Blue Note in New York.

“Sharing tears with an audience, hearing an orchestra live—that’s what I missed most when the shutdown happened,” Foster says. “But artists are resilient. We found new ways to create.”

When not at work, Foster’s life has always been creatively-focused. She leads the Ukeladies, a group formed during COVID that continues to perform today. Her husband, a symphonic conductor and jazz drummer, works throughout metro Atlanta. Their children now live across the globe—from Atlanta to Paris—each pursuing creative paths of their own.

So, Why RiverCenter? Why Now?

After decades of national leadership in arts organizations, Foster arrived this Fall at the RiverCenter with fresh excitement. For Foster, the RiverCenter isn’t just another venue—it’s a civic heartbeat.

“RiverCenter, along with the Springer I believe, is at the beating heart of this city,” she says. “It’s the center of Uptown—of unity.”

That sense of unity came sharply into focus the night she attended MOMIX. As she scanned the audience, she saw every generation, every background, every culture.

“That kind of unity,” she says, “that’s what the arts do. They break down barriers between people. They make us more compassionate.”

It’s a belief shaped not just by aesthetics, but by data. Foster proudly describes herself as a “data nerd,” noting that RiverCenter recently analyzed its entire audience base through demographic modeling. “We know who our audience is now,” she explained. “It’s fascinating, eclectic data.”

But data alone isn’t the destination.

“I truly believe we need to move from STEM to STEAM,” she says. “The arts teach compassion—something no spreadsheet can measure.”

In a world she describes as increasingly divisive, Foster sees arts institutions as rare neutral ground—places where humanity overrides ideology. “That’s what I want RiverCenter to be,” she says. “A place that gathers everyone.”

Already, she’s building those bridges with purpose. She’s met with leadership from the Springer Opera House, the Columbus Symphony, Columbus State University, and several local churches interested in expanding live music partnerships. “This work only happens when we work together,” she emphasizes.

She also spoke passionately about The Columbus Challenge—the historic initiative that led to the construction of the RiverCenter and helped revive Uptown after decades of decline.

“Before the RiverCenter was built, this area had become blighted,” she explains, noting that the Springer itself was thankfully saved from the wrecking ball—twice. “The Columbus Challenge centralized everything right here. It changed the fabric of the city.”

Foster said Columbus really excited her after spending time in such a diverse, myriad of places.

“I see the potential here to bring communities together in a way I never felt was possible in a city as large as Atlanta,” Foster says thoughtfully. “Atlanta does incredible work, but it’s huge. Columbus is relational. It’s connected.”

She recalls her admiration for Atlanta’s former Office of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Experience Project, which paired schools with live performance. She even helped pilot similar efforts through the Rialto with school-day performances for students.

But Columbus, she says, was built for this kind of unity.

She recently met with several of the civic leaders instrumental in the RiverCenter’s creation—Calvin Smirey, Frank Brown, and Jimmy Yancey. “Jimmy told me, ‘If I could show people one thing that says Columbus, Georgia, it would be the RiverCenter,’” Foster recalls. “‘It is what brought the community together.’” For her, that mission isn’t historical—it’s ongoing. “And it’s still doing exactly what it was built to do,” she says. “Bringing people together every day.”

In Foster’s vision, the RiverCenter isn’t merely a stage—it’s a shared space for connection in a fractured world. Through collaboration, education, and live experiences, she sees Columbus, Georgia uniquely positioned to model how the arts can unify across lines of age, race, politics, and background. “This city was built to gather,” she says. “And the RiverCenter is where that gathering becomes visible in tangible ways.”

“So many of the moments that moved me most in Atlanta happened when artists and audiences were enjoying shared experiences together,” she reflects. “Those shared experiences? That’s what RiverCenter represents.”

For Foster, the arts are not just a profession. They’re the connective tissue of a life.“Art moves our hearts,” she says simply. “And when that happens, everything else falls into place.”

Foster added that while she and her colleagues at the RiverCenter know the arts are an essential aspect to a community’s quality of life, it takes the support of patrons and guests to keep venues like the RiverCenter thriving.

“When people give to the RiverCenter, they’re not just funding performances – they’re investing in a civic treasure. They’re helping preserve a place where memories, music and community intersect – a landmark that tells the story of Columbus, Georgia itself.” ◼️