Alex Sanso has been tapped to lead marketing and publicity efforts at Bainbridge Arts &Crafts under the newly created title “Chief Storytelling Officer.”

Sanso, a Bainbridge-based artist and entrepreneur, has a long career history in design and graphic arts, as both an individual contributor and creative leader. She served as product development manager and art director at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri, and design manager/designer at Disney Design Group in Lake Buena Vista, Florida — which included a short expatriate position as creative development manager at Walt Disney Attractions Japan in Urayasu.

She is currently lead designer and principal at Alex Sanso Creative, a branding and design firm here on Bainbridge Island.

“Alex will bring incredible intelligence and energy to her role and she is coming to us at exactly the right time,” BAC executive director Lindsay Masters said. “As Bainbridge Arts &Crafts approaches our 70th birthday in 2018, we want to honor our venerable history while looking at our organization with fresh eyes.

“Alex brings us a strong visual sensibility, an understanding of the role that new media plays in nonprofit promotion and a knack for compelling, relevant storytelling,” she added. “That title is no accident. She also truly grasps the breadth and depth of what Bainbridge Arts &Crafts offers our community as a nonprofit art gallery and education center. It’s a knockout combination.”

Since moving to Bainbridge Island in 2007, Sanso has lent her expertise to numerous nonprofit and education-focused community endeavors, including PAWS, Arts &Humanities Bainbridge, Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church, Friends of Fort Ward, Bainbridge Performing Arts and more.

“Joining Bainbridge Arts &Crafts seems like a natural step for me at this point in my creative career — I can tell by how eager I am to jump in!” Sanso said. “I have long been a vocal advocate for the arts — and creative expression in general — so I’m honored to now have the opportunity to share that passion from the perspective of this well-loved island institution.

“While BAC has been around a long time and has a vast history, I’m excited to join on the cusp of this milestone anniversary, and to have a role in shaping the future that lies ahead for Bainbridge Arts &Crafts. That’s a story I can’t wait to tell.”

Sanso joined BAC on Monday, Dec. 12.

Georgia Browne will move from her current role of publicist into the role of programming and outreach director.

In this position, Browne will manage free community education and K-12 programming, along with visual art outreach programs such as Art After 60, which sends teaching artists into local retirement centers, and Art in the Lobby, which takes therapeutic art activities into the waiting area at Harrison Hospital Bremerton weekly each summer.