MERIDIAN, Miss.—Daniel R. Barnard is the new executive director at the MSU Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts, one of the Southeast’s premier performing-arts and conference facilities.

Terry Dale Cruse, administrative director and head of campus at Mississippi State University-Meridian, announced the appointment.

“Everybody who visits the MSU Riley Center falls in love with it,” Cruse said. “Since it reopened in 2006, it has soared to the top of its class as a place to experience wonderful performances, hold effective and efficient meetings, and to learn.

“Dr. Barnard, with his wide-ranging experience as a performing artist, an arts administrator and programmer, and a professor, will take the Riley Center to even greater heights.”

The Riley Center anchors MSU-Meridian’s Riley Campus in historic downtown Meridian and is housed in two renovated 19th-century buildings. Offering state-of-the-art performance, conference and education spaces, it features a beautifully restored Victorian theater.

Since 2015, Barnard has been associate dean of cultural affairs and director of Bailey Hall performing-arts center at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He previously directed The Arts Center at the University of Texas at Brownsville. He also has been director of the music program and composer-in-residence at Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota, and director of choral music programs at Western Nebraska Community College and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. He has a doctorate in musical composition from the University of Kansas.

After a national search, MSU-Meridian selected Barnard to be only the second leader of the Riley Center. Founding Executive Director Dennis Sankovich retired at the end of March.

Barnard began programming arts performances when assigned to run a chamber music series at Penn State Erie in 1999.

“It opened up this whole world of presenting that I had no idea existed,” he said. “For me it is literally the same skill that I use as a composer, when I’m choosing what note to write and asking, ‘How is an audience going to react to what I write?’ Now I’m thinking, ‘How is an audience going to react to what show I give them?’”

He said he is looking forward to getting to know Meridian and east central Mississippi, and especially to bringing amazing performing-arts experiences to Riley Center audiences. “The part that I live for is choosing the shows, trying to get the season just right,” he said.

“It’s the best job in the world.”