For the Love of FAFO

Beth Cannon is the president of the Fine Arts for Ocala (FAFO) board, a proud mother of two children, and a dog lover. She was born in North Carolina but moved to the Ocala area when she was just 1 year old.

She spent three years in New York simply for the experience of it. “It was not a career move. I just wanted to try it out. I did the project management for a company that did aerial filming of sporting events. It was an office job.” Besides the aerial videography, the parent company sold shares of thoroughbreds. “It allowed me to go off and have an adventure and come back.”

Beth has several degrees, including Art, English, and Computer Science. “I laugh and sometimes tell people I went to school as an art major, but I didn’t have the courage. I was like, ‘Oh, I will starve.’ I’m not going to starve, so how can I make this work? Computer Science. I worked in tech for [over] 10 years.”

Beth left her career to be a stay-at-home mom, and she now works part-time in her husband Craig’s law office, The Cannon Law Firm.

She still enjoys dabbling in art and scratches that itch with fun little projects, such as single-shirt screen printing or tie-dying, and joining FAFO in 2015 has allowed her to be involved in Ocala’s arts community.

She attributes a lot of the ease and success to her current presidency to the team of volunteers who help her. “I feel I’m really lucky to get to spend time with the other people that are on the board. There may be people that, if I just stayed in my age group, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to know and [to know about] the things they are doing. I love that. I really do. I love the festival and the student art component of the festival, too. I like working that weekend. I think it makes the whole year worth it.”