Allied
Arts Council History [
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Us" ]
History
Charter
Board Members -
1963
Presidents
of the Allied Arts Council Board
Thoughts
from David Morton - 1964 or 1965
A
speech on the Founding of
the Council - 1978
Executive
Directors of the Council
Bringing Arts and People Together
encapsulates the mission of the Allied Arts Council of
St. Joseph, Missouri. As the leadership organization for
the arts in St. Joseph, the Council fulfills its mission
in several ways: by supporting its fourteen member
organizations in promoting artistic opportunities; by
providing financial support, and fostering coordinated
cultural planning; by offering programs to educate and
develop future audiences; by providing forums of
expression for local artists; and by advocating for arts
and its member organizations at the local, state, and
national levels. Organized in 1963, the second oldest
arts council in Missouri has an over fifty year history
of service to arts organizations, artists and the
general public.
St. Joseph, in Buchanan County, Missouri, is the regional
base for artistic programming to a rural, underserved
agriculturally based population of 290,000 people of
Northwest Missouri. The Allied Arts Council serves
Northwest Missouri as a regional arts council.
Since
1963, the Allied Arts Council has coordinated planning
efforts, assisted emerging arts groups and provided
services to member organizations. In 1982, the Council
reorganized to inaugurate the Arts Fund Drive. Since then,
the Allied Arts Council has expanded its role in aiding in
the development of professional arts for St. Joseph, while
adding multi-disciplinary arts education programs, public
art projects, city-wide marketing efforts and programs to
showcase the work of area artists.
The Arts
Fund has grown from $67,000 in its first drive in 1982 to
over $200,000 in its campaign last spring. These dollars
are a vital 25% of the dollars necessary to provide top
quality arts programming for the St. Joseph area.
Currently, six organizations receive allocations from the
Fund.
In 1982,
Allied Arts inaugurated the Artists in the Schools
program. From 28 sessions its first year, this enrichment
program now reaches 4,500 children annually with up to 100
sessions. This successful partnership with the St. Joseph
School District led to the creation of the residency
program in 1988. Begun with one visiting artist, the
program now reaches around 3,000 students and community
members. Also begun in 1988 in cooperation with Missouri
Western State University, Artscape is the only
integrated summer arts program for children 8 to 15.
Poetry Out Loud and Kennedy Center Partners in Education
are national programs in which the Council partners with
the St. Joseph School District. Visual arts programs
include Traffic Box Art, turning traffic boxes into works
of art, and the Sculpture Walk, in partnership with the
City of St. Joseph. The Mayor’s Awards for the Arts
recognize outstanding artistic achievement and
contribution.
In 1983,
Art for the Health of It, a partnership with
Heartland Regional Medical Center, became the Council’s
first program to benefit area artists with two annual
juried exhibits. As of 1991, Art for Business’ Sake
allows the winners of the hospital shows to exhibit for
the benefit of the business community. Another visual arts
program is the Biennial Award, honoring lifetime
achievement and commitment to the arts. These programs
were rested as other arts organizations fulfilled this
community need and the Council chose to focus on public
art projects.
In the
early 1990s, the Council secured a Missouri Arts Council/NEA
grant for a cultural plan, which funded St. Joseph 2000’s
Arts and Cultural Task Force. Its objective, “creating a
festival to showcase St. Joseph’s unique cultural
heritage” was the final impetus in Allied Arts leadership
in Trails West!®,
first as the 150th birthday celebration for St. Joseph in
1993 and then its adoption as the Council’s signature
event. Now in its nineteenth year,
Trails West!®
is operated by the Allied Arts Council in partnership with
the City of St. Joseph and the St. Joseph Convention and
Visitors Bureau. The three-day festival is Northwest
Missouri’s largest annual arts festival, drawing over
45,000 visitors, and featuring 60 fine artists and
crafters, food vendors, and local, regional and national
entertainment. The founders of the festival instituted a
high quality, all juried process that insures adherence to
the mission statement:
Trails West! ®is an annual arts festival celebrating
the unique cultural heritage of St. Joseph, Mo. The
interpretation of this heritage will include arts and
crafts, music, re-enactments, demonstrations,
presentations, historic architecture, food, games, and
drama in ways that will appeal to people of all ages,
income levels, and interests. St. Joseph's significant
role in the expansion of the American West, especially the
years before 1900, will be emphasized.”
In June,
2008, the Allied Arts Council, in partnership with the St.
Joseph Public Library, Rolling Hills Regional Consolidated
Library, and the St. Joseph School District received an
NEA grant to host The Big Read in St. Joseph. Our event
took place in May 2009, featuring The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, with a wide variety of activities
appealing to a variety of age levels.
In 2008,
the St. Joseph community was awarded the prestigious
“Creative Community Award,” and in 2009, the Allied Arts
Council was awarded the Missouri Arts Organization Award.
St. Joseph’s strong arts community is proud of its
substantial contribution to economic development and for
enhancing our city’s livability. A 2003 Arts and Economic
Prosperity study by American for the Arts found the local
non-profit arts industry generates $8.3 million in local
economic activity. A common misconception that
“communities support the arts at the expense of local
economic development” was put to rest as the study pointed
out that when we support the arts, we not only enhance our
quality of life but we also invest in St. Joseph’s
economic well-being. Over 303 full-time equivalent jobs
are generated and expenditures of over $8 million
demonstrate that spending by the arts organizations is
far-reaching: they pay their employees, purchase supplies,
and acquire assets within the local community. In
addition, non-profit arts programs leverage significant
amounts of event-related spending by their audiences. Our
arts events act as a magnet to attract visitors to the
community: while 2/3 of attendees at arts events are from
the St. Joseph community, 1/3 from outside the city.
During their visit, visitors shop, dine and fill their
cars with gas.
Our
services to member agencies include an Artist Registry
promoting artists living in our area, marketing support
through our quarterly newsletter Voice of the Arts,
bi-weekly e-mail updates and an online calendar of events
and the Missouri Theater website. Council staff also
provides grant-writing reviews, access to patron database,
and promotes arts funding at the local, state, and
national level. Americans for the Arts, the nation’s
leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts
selected AAC as one of 100 communities to participate in
the inaugural Local Arts Index, which measured the health
and vitality of arts in Buchanan County and AAC conducted
an Arts & Economic Prosperity IV Economic Impact Study.
The report shows that nonprofit arts have a $10.9 million
economic impact. The study provides important information
to the Council and its member agencies about the important
role the arts play in our community. The Council was
chosen again as one of 200 communities to be part of Arts
& Economic Prosperity V.
St.
Joseph is a unique community for its size: being so close
in proximity to Kansas City, it would be easy to defer to
the larger city for quality arts opportunities. That has
never been the case. It would be unfair to our children
and our residents to take a “pass.” Instead, St. Joseph,
through the leadership and support of the Allied Arts
Council, supports member arts agencies, stimulates new
programs, fosters audience development, forges community
partnerships, and seeks financial support to ensure that
our citizens have opportunities to experience the power of
the arts as active participants, not just passive
bystanders. The arts are alive and thriving in our
community!
THE
ALLIED ARTS COUNCIL OF ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI, INC. was
incorporated August 28, 1963 by the Junior League of St.
Joseph, MO, Inc. and the following CHARTER
BOARD MEMBERS:
Mrs.
William Abramson
Mrs.
Bartlett Boder
Mrs.
David Bradley
Mrs.
Henry D. Bradley
Mr.
Jordan Bushman
Mrs.
Stuart Campbell
Mrs.
Jerre Cooper
Mrs.
R. W. Fletcher
Mrs.
Hugh Gettys
Mrs.
M. E. Grimes
Mr.
Christopher Harris
Mrs.
Raymond Herschman
Miss
Majory Hine
|
Mr.
James M. Hower, Sr.
Mrs.
James E. Josendale
Mr.
Jack Killackey
Mrs.
Russell G. Kinkaid
Mrs.
John R. McDaniel
Mrs.
Wilbur McDonald
Mr.
David H. Morton
Dr.
Thompson Potter
Mrs. Whitney W. Potter
Mr.
John A. Ross, Jr.
Mrs.
Barkley Vineyard
Mrs.
W. C. Wessell
|
PRESIDENTS
of the Allied Arts Council Board of Directors:
1963-64
|
Mrs.
Henry D. Bradley
|
1964-65,
1965-66
|
David
H. Morton
|
1966-67,
1967-68
|
Jordan
Bushman
|
1968-69
|
Jack
Killackey
|
1969-70,
1970-71, 1971-72
|
Byron
D. Myers
|
1972-73,
1973-74
|
Phillip
A. Lawrence, Jr.
|
1974-75
|
Mrs.
J. R. Taliaferro
|
1975-76
|
Robert
G. Powell.
|
1976-77
|
Dr.
James V. Mehl
|
1977-78
|
James
M. Hower, Jr.
|
1978-79
|
Byron
D. Myers
|
1979-80,
1980-81, 1981-82
|
Dr.
George S. Richmond
|
1982-83
|
Michael
Meierhoffer
|
1983-84
|
James
Carolus, Joe McCarty
|
1984-85,
1985-86
|
Dr.
James V. Mehl
|
1986-87
|
Gloria
Davis
|
1987-88,
1988-89
|
William
I. McMurray
|
1989-90
|
Richard
C. Vicklund
|
1990-91,
1991-92
|
Creath
S. Thorne
|
1992-93,
1993-94
|
Karen
L. Graves
|
1994-95,
1995-96
|
James
V. Barry
|
1996-97,
1997-98
|
Ali
Wray
|
1998-99
|
Dick
Sipe
|
1999-2000
|
Merry
Burtner
|
2000-2001
|
Dr.
James Roever
|
2001-2002
|
Nancy
Reese-Dillon
|
2002-2003,
2003-2004
|
Janie
Findley
|
2004-2005,
2005-2006 |
Bobbie
Cronk |
2006-2007,
2007-2008 |
Kathy
Hill-Bahner
|
2008--2009, 2009-2010 |
Richard Crumley |
2010-2012 |
Alison Schieber |
2012-2014 |
Natalie Redmond |
2014- |
Larry Stobbs |
David Morton
was very active in the arts during his lifetime, and
was instrumental in gaining control of the Missouri
Theater and deeding it to the City of St. Joseph. The
Morton Fund of the AAC was created in his honor. Below
follows his comments from 1965.
LOOKING
AHEAD
With the Council’s 1965 budget substantially
underwritten, we should re-examine our plans for the
months ahead.
We have already outlined the tangible services
performed by the Council during its first sixteen
months. We have perhaps faltered in one main
function – to do long-range planning for the arts.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, in describing
cooperation, that coming together is a beginning,
keeping together is progress, working together is
success. Just starting our second fiscal year,
we can hardly claim to be more than “keeping
together.”
The great potential service of the Council is to
bring together persons vitally interested in the
various arts for discussion and planning, in order
that bridges of understanding may be built between
the arts groups. Our committee structure must be
activated, and interested persons, who are
representative of the whole community, must be
engaged in these deliberations.
As a new organization we have been primarily
concerned with the many administrative problems
common to the arts: tax exemption, membership
campaigns, ticket drives, public relations, mailing
lists, etc. Here the advantages of cooperation
are apparent to even the most individualistic
artistic temperament.
Now we should move into the more substantive fields,
recognizing that the Council is no panacea.
With energy and imagination we can do much to
strengthen all of the arts and to rally public
support for these important causes. The
Council offers an effective forum for the discussion
of common problems and for the removal of irritants
before they become major crises. This facet of
the Council has not been put to full use.
The accomplishments will not be as dazzling and
immediately apparent as in the case of our more
tangible services. Some sage once said, “The
arts are not cast in a mold, but are formed and
protected by degrees, by often handling and
polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into
form.” If we adopt some of this patience, I
believe we will not be disappointed with the work of
our Council as a planning instrument.
David Morton
|
Below follows
a speech presented 11/17/78 to the local chapter of the P.E.O.
from a representative of the Allied Arts Council .
Mrs. Edward (Madeline) Barlow was Executive Director at
this time.
The St. Joseph Art League
was in existence for many years with meetings in
various places and no real home of their own.
They then fell heir to some funds from an estate and
acquired the Hax Art Center on Francis St. (Dr.
Fields’ office area, I think) next to the Robidoux
Hotel. They set up an office there and also
used the building for exhibition purposes.
They acquired a few paintings of their own, forming
the nucleus of the present Albrecht permanent
collection.
The Allied Arts Council was formed in 1963 (Mrs.
Henry Bradley served on Governor Dalton’s Missouri
Committee for the Arts back in 1963 and could see
the value of the arts to the state. If it was
good for Missouri, why not St. Joseph, must have
been her thought.) So she brought together a
group of residents who were also interested in the
arts and together with their leadership and the
willingness of the Junior League to serve as the
catalyst, the Arts Council was incorporated in
August of 1963.
In 1965, the Arts Council moved to the new Albrecht
Gallery at 2818 Frederick, the gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Conger Beasley to the Art League, but in 1967 or
1968, moved back to the Hax Center with the Symphony
until the Chamber of Commerce took them into their
office in September.
Martha Ann Thompson, Allied Arts Council Director
for three years, suggests the old Hax Art Center was
often like working in a sauna bath with pipes
falling down.
Jean Duncan Wright served as the first director of
the Council and with the help of numerous Junior
League volunteers set up all the office procedures,
mailing lists, billing process and methods for
handling the various problems of the member groups.
The Junior League gave literally thousands of hours
during their two-year probationary period, and many
of those volunteers continued to serve the Council
in the years following. Many of them still
continue as board members of the various groups and
as volunteers with the other members of the Council.
The League gave the Council $5,000 to begin their
first year, and in the next year added to that fund
with another lesser sum. Dues were set up for
the member organizations on the basis of the amount
of work requested in the Council office – which
meant that every volunteer who did work in the
office kept track of every minute they spent on
every job for a full year. Jean Wright
directed all of this activity and also acted as
hostess for the Albrecht Gallery while the Council
was there.
After the move back downtown, the director of the
Council was on a part-time basis, receiving pay by
the hour (and with no fringe benefits involved!) and
doing what had to be done for each group using the
Council office. Benefits to the groups
included being able to print several years supply of
stationery at a time which gives you a nice saving
in printing costs; a central telephone and
information center for the arts groups; a place
where people know they can buy tickets for certain
programs; a desk from which publicity can be issued
either for a single group or for a collaboration of
sponsorship (The Acting Co. – Community Concerts,
MWSC, AAC), (St. Louis Symphony – AAC, MWSC, St.
Joseph Symphony & Community Concerts), etc.
A calendar of events is one of our major services,
both to the members and to the general public.
Any group in town is welcome and requested to call
and see what is listed for a certain date before
they set the date for another event. The
Chamber of Commerce also has another list, which
includes many of the regularly scheduled
“association” and service club meetings –
those meetings that are on a regular basis…the
last Tuesday of every month, etc., as well as other
special events (political, organizational, etc.).
We maintain Addressograph mailing service for those
members who desire that service. Have been
able to make a savings in that area through use of a
local firm which made plates for us for nothing for
several years…but since that firm changed to a
computer system, we have had to buy them again…and
found a retired Addressograph salesman who has his
own machines to make the plates and also repairs
machines and keeps us in supplies for a lot less
than the big company would. As a group (with
several lists to maintain) the larger quantity
ordered at one time again makes for savings for all.
The Director of the Council also serves as program
coordinator for the Community Concert programs –
guidance on what to expect from the theatre at this
particular time is vital. Construction
contracts will be “let” soon, we hope, and then
there may be problems in presenting shows.
Volunteers simply don’t have the time to handle
all the details anymore. And to find the right
place to get 100 chairs for a symphony orchestra or
some such job takes a little experience and
knowledge of the city that the average person simply
doesn’t have.
We, as members of state and national organizations,
are listed in several national publications, and as
a result receive mailings on educational
opportunities, competitions of various kinds in the
arts, arts and crafts shows in the area, program
possibilities from universities as well as booking
agents…publications from federal and state offices
on the arts and humanities, and these are all for
the use of our member groups, the schools, the
college, and the public in general.
Our funding comes principally from the dues we
receive, and the past two years the Missouri Arts
Council has paid half my salary (doubling it), we
have gone to the public with requests for individual
and patron memberships which has truly kept us
alive. If we increase our dues to member
organizations, either they have to drop out because
of lack of funds, or turn that increase over to
their membership in a dues increase, and this could
hurt them. At times, we have asked for and
received large donations from several of the larger
firms and banks in town, but we don’t like to
resort to that kind of funding. Every group in
our membership as well as many others approach these
same businesses for support, and there are just so
many dollars available. We are now thinking
about proposing to members of the Council that
fundraising events be cleared through a special
committee of the Council to try to keep this kind of
thing under control. Should one group feel
free to go after a very large sum every year when
other groups are fighting for survival? The
AAC cannot tell a group that they MAY NOT hold these
activities, but some control or reservations must be
put into effect. Something like a Federated
Arts Fund Drive similar to the United Way might well
be the answer. It’s been very successful in
several other communities and it could work here,
too.
An Albany, N.Y. newspaper editor described an arts
council in this way: “Your problem is that
you have to face in two directions at once.
From one side you have to look like a bunch of
CPA’s; from the other, like you’re really with
it. And every now and then you get caught
facing the wrong way.” It’s a conflict of
irreconcilables - - amateur vs. professional; elite
vs. the broad public; excellence vs. equity;
discipline vs. imagination; tradition/revolution/the
force of a concept vs. the limitations of the
materials used; innovative vs. sustaining…
Thank you for letting me tell you about the Arts
Council. We sincerely hope you will feel free
to call on us for any group you are active in or
just for your own information at any time.
Theodore Bikel story – Appropriations Committee
– investigation of why they should set up a large
fund for the National Endowment for the Arts,
“Gentlemen, no one will remember you! NO!
No one will remember you or what you do---unless
someone writes a poem or composes a symphony or
paints a portrait…”
|
Executive Directors
of the Allied Arts Council
1964-68
|
Mrs.
Edwin R. Wright
|
1968-71
|
Martha
Ann Thompson
|
1971-72
|
Jean
Laurent
|
1972-81
|
Madeline
Barlow
|
1981-83
|
Evelyn
Candler
|
1983-85
|
June
Walsh, Executive Secretary
|
1985-95
|
Mary
C. Brock
|
1995-05
|
Wally
Bloss
|
2005- |
Teresa
Fankhauser |
|