LEWISTON — The longtime director of the Bates Dance Festival, Laura Faure, received the National High School Dance Festival’s Outstanding Service Award in a ceremony at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh on March 3. The award was presented during the festival’s biennial conference.

Faure has served as the director of the Bates festival and lecturer in the arts at Bates College since 1988. She has developed the festival into an internationally acclaimed contemporary dance program known for artistic excellence, curatorial vision and commitment to building community through dance.

A former dancer, choreographer and teacher with 35 years of experience in the field, Portland resident Faure is also a freelance arts manager and consultant specializing in the performing arts.

She has been a project coordinator, consultant and evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and other arts agencies and foundations, as well as for individual artists and arts groups.

She is a founding member of The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium and has been developing cross-cultural exchanges with artists from across the globe since 1994.