“It’s about creating a gallery everyone can trust and enjoy.” – Elizabeth “Lily” Moreland
By Kara Dicker
If you’ve stepped inside the Galleries of Heartland Art Club this year, chances are you’ve encountered the cheerful greeting of its new executive director. Elizabeth Moreland, aka “Lily,” spends regular Gallery hours working with the volunteers, getting to know the patrons, and strategizing how to steer HAC’s growing momentum.
“I’m coming in at a really exciting time,” she says, acknowledging the foundational work by former directors Mary Drastal and Sarah Ball and the positive impact of the opening of the upstairs gallery last year. “I’d like to turn the increased foot traffic into deeper engagement by turning these new visitors into members, donors, advocates.”
Elizabeth “Lily” Moreland is Heartland Art Club’s new executive director.
Lily joined HAC at the end of last year after an extensive search by the executive committee. Thanks to a grant from the Regional Arts Commission, HAC was able to transition the executive director’s role from a volunteer position to a part-time, salaried directorship.
“I see my role as stewarding the growth in a way that is sustainable and aligned with Heartland’s mission,” she says, noting goals that include diversifying and stabilizing revenue through fundraising, grants, and partnerships with businesses and organizations. She also aims to strengthen HAC’s visibility across the Midwest and nationwide. “We want to be a cultural destination, not just a venue.”
Lily points to this month’s “Paintings Along the Trail of Tears” (March 4 – April 4), a fundraising exhibit supporting a Trail of Tears memorial in Steelville, as an example of how HAC is expanding its regional footprint. “We are in a position of strength to hold a fundraiser such as this,” she says. Later in the year, HAC will host a
“Malcolm Terrace Park,” by Elizabeth Moreland, 11 x 14, oil. The painting won grand prize at the Creve Coeur Plein Air Competition in 2024. It resides in the St. Louis Mercantile Library Art Museum.
retrospective for the late Henryk Ptasiewicz (1955-2025), a renowned British-American painter who made St. Louis home. Additionally, she says HAC can look forward to more solo shows, a revamped “Ticket to Pick It” fundraiser, and greater engagement with the Kirkwood community.
A native of the St. Louis area, Lily is an accomplished oil painter and professional artist. In 2024, she won first prize at the Creve Coeur Plein Air Competition. Her award-winning landscape, “Malcolm Terrace Park,” was acquired by the St. Louis Mercantile Library Art Museum. A commissioned portraitist and muralist, Lily has several works in area businesses. For years, she ran a paint-and-sip studio in downtown Kirkwood, where she became active in the Chamber of Commerce. She taught art at St. Louis Community College and teaches privately to students of all ages, “from five to 99,” noting with pride that her most dedicated pupil was a WWII veteran.
It was Lily’s passion for representational art, she says, that first led her to HAC. That was in 2009, when the space was operating as a co-op gallery. “I was in my twenties and looking at all the rooms and considering renting a space, though I didn’t have the funds,” she recalls. Then, in early 2018, Lily attended the gathering of artists who gave birth to the concept of a gallery devoted to representational art. “The excitement was palpable. The main room was packed with so many leading artists, and it was exciting to hear renowned portrait artist Lisa Ober get up and describe her passion.”
In the eight years since that pivotal meeting, Lily has watched HAC grow. The Gallery’s first executive director, Mary Drastal, led HAC through COVID-19, using the quarantine as an opportunity to articulate HAC’s mission and develop its multiple steering committees. Sarah Ball took the helm in 2025 as interim director. She secured grant funding and initiated outreach to area organizations. Moving forward, Lily says her work will be about responsible, informed stewardship, deep respect for skilled art, and artistic rigor paired with the ability to communicate that value clearly to the public. Most importantly, she says, “It’s about creating a gallery everyone can trust and enjoy.”