Usher boosts arts in Atlanta

Atlanta movers and shakers have always dominated the Woodruff Arts Center’s board of trustees, but the addition of Usher to that group gives moving and shaking a new meaning.

Usher Raymond IV, the R&B superstar and philanthropist, was among six new Woodruff trustees announced this week. Usher, 30, is the only entertainer on the 79-member board, and certainly its only member with a Web site where one can purchase limited-edition Armani dog tags (benefiting his youth charity).

But he would appear to be well cast as the Woodruff pushes to expand its educational programming and facilities, hoping to make young people arts lovers for a lifetime. Usher said he was “so honored to be invited,” and has already joined the Woodruff’s education task force.

“I first and foremost would like to give more young people, who wouldn’t otherwise have the means, the opportunity to experience art programming at the Woodruff Arts Center,” he said in an e-mail. “I also hope to share new ideas that can combine art and service as powerful agents of change in Atlanta.”

Two other new trustees are educators: Georgia State University president Mark Becker and Atlanta Public School superintendent Beverly Hall. They join the presidents of Spelman, Westminster Schools, Agnes Scott College and Emory University.

The group helps chart the future for the center, founded in 1968 and parent of the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, High Museum of Art and Young Audiences.

Also joining: Wachovia Bank’s Jerome Byers, Atlanta Life Financial Group’s William Clement and AirTran Airways’ Robert Fornaro.