SOUTHEAST MISSOURI ARTS COUNCIL NAMED STATE MODEL

The gallery exhibitions, children's art education and community arts programming presented by the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri in 1999 have earned the organization recognition as a state model.

The designation as a state model was made by the Missouri Arts Council, which provides arts councils and programs throughout the state with financial support.

This is the first time the 38-year-old Arts Council of Southeast Missouri has been named a state model.

Daniel North, executive director of the local Arts Council, said increased funding and interest in emulating programs are possible results of the recognition.

He said the organization was noted in part for the variety of its exhibitions 24 annually in two galleries, one exhibiting regional artists and the other nationally and internationally known artists. Its children's programming includes a newly revamped monthly workshop in which children create art inspired by a variety of disciplines: music, theater and dance, for instance. Its annual summer workshops have been revamped with all-new programs such as mural making and multicultural art.

The new Second Tuesday Demonstrations at the Arts Council provide members of the community with face-to-face interactions with artists from the region. Programs thus far have been on mountain dulcimers, classical guitar and Celtic music and dance.

Another example of its community programming was last summer's local tour by a brass band from the Netherlands.

Earlier this month, North attended a weeklong workshop at the Smithsonian Institution titled "Moving On-Line: Crossing the Digital Divide." Over the next four months, he and the 14 other recipients of fellowships will develop an online exhibition titled "Noted and Notorious" at the Center for Museum Studies on the Smithsonian website (www.si.edu). The exhibit will include three or four pieces of art provided by each of the participating curators.

As a result of the workshop, the Arts Council is developing its own online permanent collection that will have a link to the Smithsonian site.

North said the Arts Council has never made an effort to acquire a strong permanent collection. The result, he says, is that the work has "disappeared from visual memory."

When it goes online in March, the new website will permanently preserve the galleries' upcoming exhibitions in cyberspace.

Having the permanent collection also will open the Arts Council to receive museum-based funding and grants, North says.

He was the only director of an arts council among the fellows invited by the Smithsonian. All the others were museum curators from across the U.S.

"We were accepted because of the diversity of our gallery exhibits," he said.