The Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Another milestone for the community-based visual and performing arts nonprofit came in late March with the selection of Neil Volz as its new executive director.
Volz brings more than a quarter century of experience as a community advocate, organizer, and nonprofit leader to the role. As Deputy Director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Volz helped champion the passage of Constitutional Amendment 4 in 2018, which restored voting rights to more than a million former felons, which remains the largest expansion of democracy in the U.S. in a generation. The Coalition was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
Since coming to Southwest Florida in 2008, Volz has also held leadership roles with St. Matthew’s House, Next Level Church, the United States Veterans Initiative, the Lee County Homeless Coalition and the anti-human trafficking nonprofit “Be the Light.”
In 2021, Volz was named among Politico’s 40 most influential people in politics and he was named Florida’s Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers.
We spoke with Volz on the Alliance for the Arts campus about the power and impact of the arts, and the challenges and opportunities he’s looking to lead the Alliance through in the coming years.
