{"id":68542,"date":"2026-06-02T15:50:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=68542"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:51:03","slug":"bok-tower-gardens-chooses-miles-arnott-as-its-next-president-and-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/bok-tower-gardens-chooses-miles-arnott-as-its-next-president-and-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Bok Tower Gardens chooses Miles Arnott as its next president and CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"898949\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #898949;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"479\" height=\"270\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/unnamed.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68543 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/unnamed.webp 479w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/unnamed-300x169.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a massive moment for Bok Tower Gardens. Selecting a new leader is a rare event for the historic Lake Wales sanctuary\u2014<strong>Miles Arnott<\/strong> will be only the sixth director in the gardens&#8217; 97-year history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arnott is stepping into the role of president and CEO to succeed <strong>David Price<\/strong>, who is retiring after an incredible 39-year tenure with the organization (serving the last 19 years at the helm).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is what we know about the transition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Official Start Date:<\/strong> July 6, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The New Leader&#8217;s Background:<\/strong> Arnott is a highly seasoned public garden and conservation professional. He most recently served as the Vice President of Horticulture and Conservation at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina, and previously spent years as the Executive Director of Bowman\u2019s Hill Wildflower Preserve in Pennsylvania.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Legacy to Continue:<\/strong> Arnott inherits a vastly expanded footprint. Under Price&#8217;s leadership, the estate grew from its core historic grounds into managing roughly 850 acres, focusing heavily on land preservation, native pineland restoration, and adding modern community features like the Hammock Hollow Children&#8217;s Garden.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the iconic Singing Tower approaching its centennial milestone in a few years, Arnott&#8217;s deep background in both ecological conservation and public garden administration makes him a perfect fit to carry Edward Bok&#8217;s original &#8220;make the world a bit better or more beautiful&#8221; mission forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a massive moment for Bok Tower Gardens. Selecting a new leader is a rare event for the historic Lake Wales sanctuary\u2014Miles Arnott will be only the sixth director&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL3VubmFtZWQud2VicD9maXQ9NDc5JTJDMjcwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiQm9rIFRvd2VyIEdhcmRlbnMgY2hvb3NlcyBNaWxlcyBBcm5vdHQgYXMgaXRzIG5leHQgcHJlc2lkZW50IGFuZCBDRU8iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.Uxf8XL0WIlVtQErCm8YUhhcGYWVmxdgkpkZ4r64fH_IMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC91bm5hbWVkLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJCb2sgVG93ZXIgR2FyZGVucyBjaG9vc2VzIE1pbGVzIEFybm90dCBhcyBpdHMgbmV4dCBwcmVzaWRlbnQgYW5kIENFTyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.bn7p7XuJC6V8V6LLm-A0OIhjg-YuAk8q9ZH9FzjtJ7QMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14751],"class_list":["post-68542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bok-tower-gardens-chooses-miles-arnott-as-its-next-president-and-ceo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68544,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68542\/revisions\/68544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}