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Ali Dee/Contributing Photographer The National Danish Performance Team performs at Murphy High School in 2017, one of many excellent programs brought to the area by the Cherokee County Arts Council over the last decade.
Murphy Ten years ago this month, the Cherokee County Arts Council became an official umbrella for the arts in the area. Although there had been different incarnations before then, March 2011 is when the council was incorporated.
To celebrate, the arts council is hosting a special exhibit this month featuring the work of board member Tim Ford, and will hold giveaways to show its appreciation to the community. The council will also introduce its Friends of the Arts Council program for those who wish to support the arts financially or as a volunteer.
Executive Director David Vowell said he’s thankful for the many supporters of the arts over the years in the county.
Creating support
Over the past 10 years, the council has provided access to arts and cultural experiences, while being the representative of the local arts community to the region and state. Through its partnership with the state as an arts council, it has acquired grassroots grants for the Andrews Art Museum, Community Youth Players/ACT II theater organization, the Valley River Arts Guild and schools.
Kathleen Nolte started work on creating the arts council in early fall 2010. Vowell remembers going to early fundraising events in people’s homes.
The arts council was Nolte’s idea, Vowell said. Her husband
worked at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown and learned there was nothing to support artists outside the school.
“She saw the need for the local community,” Vowell said. “There wasn’t an umbrella support organization. There wasn’t an arts council.”
Vowell said Nolte developed the original idea of what an arts council could do for the county and became a partner with the state, allowing her to be the administer of grant funding for grassroots arts programs. As director, she made the arts council the face of the community.
“That was an important thing for her to see,” Vowell said.
Before Nolte started the council, there was Vowell’s gallery downtown and the occasional art show in a variety of locations. Vowell saw that the attitude in the community was that the folk school was the place for the arts, and that is was sort of an elitist place – something that was far from true.
In fact, Nolte worked to bring the arts available at the folk school into the larger community – one instance was how she first got into the local schools. She provided the schools with a color and healthy foods program with Nanette Davidson.
Nolte left the area for Chattanooga, Tenn., in August 2014. She worked with Vowell over the summer to prepare him to take over as executive director.
“She began a couple of interesting initiatives for the council,” Vowell said.
One was the Arts & Garden Festival, which later became the Arts, River & Music Festival. It started in 2011 by where Doyle’s Cedar Hill Restaurant used to be. The event quickly grew in popularity and moved to the RiverWalk in 2013.
The festival’s last year was 2017. The council saw that the event had reached its peak efficiency and discontinued it, choosing to focus on other events.
Around that time, the council acquired gallery space in what is today the Murphy Art Center. The council got a grant to fund the gallery space and continued to receive funding up to this year.
“That became one of our many ways of sharing art experiences with the community,” Vowell said.
The space, called the Cultural Calendar Room because exhibits typically rotate monthly, has shared the work of both professionals and amateurs over the years.
“We also help growing artists, sometimes referred to as emerging artists,” Vowell said.
One group of emerging artists that have been featured include local school students. The council has even offered programs in which artists have visited local schools and taught their specialities. Artists that participated include Mike Lalone, Rob Withrow and Jo Kilmer.
Proud accomplishments
Because of the art council’s continued collaborations with the folk school, it was connected with the National Danish Performance Team to bring their talents to the community twice. Vowell said that was “absolutely” one of his proudest accomplishments.
It just happened that a visit coincided with their world tour in 2017 and 2019, Vowell said. He collaborated with the Morris Dancers at the folk school and Cherokee County Schools on the project. They helped provide financial support for the events, as well as providing event locations, and housing, meals and transportation for performers.
Another proud moment for Vowell was collaborating with Ann Miller Woodford, a local artist, writer and historian. He was serving on the steering committee for the Western Carolina University Mountain Heritage Center when it was developing a traveling exhibit showcasing the history of African-Americans provided in Woodford’s When All God’s Children Get Together book. As a result of his involvement, the Cherokee County Arts Council got to be the first location to host the exhibit.
“That exhibit was one important cultural exhibit our council hosted,” Vowell said. “Cultural experiences help enlighten us about the world around us.”
Impacting the community
Vowell said studies have proven that the arts drive the economy. He’s confident about the arts having an impact on the area as a tourism economic driver.
In the MAC’s gallery, art sales average $80-85, with a $500 piece selling occasionally, Vowell said. However, Vowell said a piece priced at $2,500 sold just in January thanks to area visitors.
“When that sort of thing occurs, it’s from tourists,” Vowell said.
According to the N.C. Arts Council, arts and culture generate $2.12 billion in economic activity in the state. Vowell said 40 percent of tourism revenue in the state is from arts and culture, and guesses it trends higher in the western part of the state as there’s less professional sports tourism here – the other big economic driver for the state.
“We are confident the arts have a great impact here,” Vowell said.
As the arts help the community prosper, he would like to see more support from local government entities in the future. He added that in Clay County, the facility that houses the historical and arts council is provided by the county.
“That’s one way local governments support things,” Vowell said.
The Tim Ford Retrospective exhibit can be visited from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the MAC, 33 Valley River Ave. downtown.