This is part one of a two-part series on the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.
When June Freeman, a 2017 inductee to the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame, founded the Little Firehouse Community Arts Center in Pine Bluff, she probably didn't know it would eventually grow and merge with another organization to become the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, home to a state-of-the-art theater, three galleries, a classroom, a collaborative workspace, a studio and offices.
When in 1968 she insisted that science be fundamental to its programming, she probably did not realize that 50 years later, education in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) would be a buzzword in schools. She had no way of knowing that a pandemic would one day close the art center's doors for three months, providing the center with the opportunity to become a leading provider of original virtual educational programming in southeast Arkansas.
What she probably did know, however, was that the community would have to be the center's sustaining factor. Several decades and directors later, the Arts and Science Center's current executive director, Rachel Miller, understands that its connection to the community is still the facility's primary reason for existing.
In 1968, with Freeman still at the helm, the Little Firehouse Community Arts Center merged with the Civic Center Art Museum, then located in the basement of the Pine Bluff Civic Center. Together they became the Southeast Arkansas Arts and Science Center.
Still active in the arts at age 92, Freeman said from her home in Little Rock that adding educational programming in the field of science would "engage more people if there was art and science as well and might reach out to people who might not be working together otherwise."
During this time, there was little connection between the historically black University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the local white community. Freeman went to the UAPB campus and asked John Miller Howard, an African American artist and arts educator on the UAPB faculty, to assist with establishing art classes for the community.
"He was the head of their art department at UAPB, which at that time was a totally Black school," Freeman said. "One of the things I did when I came to Pine Bluff was to go out to UAPB and find out about their art department. He was head of it, but he declined to help us. I'm not sure. I think he just didn't want to get involved in that way because for so long he had been excluded from the community, you might say. People didn't pay much attention to the arts program at UAPB, but he was an important member of the community."
Over time, however, because of Freeman's efforts, a collaboration between UAPB and the Arts and Science Center did emerge. The relationship has had a prevailing significance on the scope of the art center's permanent collection, which concentrates on African American and Delta artists. The 1,300-piece collection has created a unique identity for the center as a leader in technology and diversity through the arts, and has been critical to the evolution of the organization, Miller said.
Chaney Jewell, the center's curator of collections and exhibitions, has managed the collection since 2019.
"Collections sometimes have big gaps, but not here," she said. "Whenever any big moments happen in the community, it is represented here. The center's connection to the community is strong through exhibitions and galleries that are appropriate representations of the community and programs that connect with the community."
The newest additions to the center's permanent collection are prints by African American artist and former University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty member Delita Martin. The prints are titled "Say Our Names" and "Let Us Breathe" and are part of Martin's Black Box Press Art as Activism Fund. "Say Our Names" is currently on exhibit at the Arts and Science Center.
In 1971, the center was made a civic commission by the city of Pine Bluff, but by the late 1980s, the basement location in the Civic Center had become problematic because of flooding and fires.
In 1987, the name changed to the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. Several attempts at public funding failed, and supporters were disappointed. In an oral history of the organization, businessman and former board member Adam Robinson discussed the sadness that prevailed at a party that was intended to be a victory party but instead followed an election loss for public financing.
Then-Gov. Bill Clinton happened to be speaking in Pine Bluff that evening. He inspired the center's supporters by telling them not to give up, that what they wanted could be achieved. A short time later, Robinson said he and fellow board member George Makris Jr. attended a meeting of the Arts and Science Center's Endowment Fund Board of Directors.
When they excused themselves to go to the restroom, Robinson said they returned to find that they had been selected as co-chairmen of the capital campaign. The donation of the property at 701 S. Main and a large grant from the Catherine Bellamy Foundation kicked off the capital campaign, and two years later, Robinson proudly led President Clinton on a tour of the new 22,000-square-foot campus that opened in 1994.
Today, the Arts and Science Center is one of only nine museums in the state to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). It was accredited in 2001 and reaccredited under Executive Director Lenore Shoults in 2016. According to a statement about the center's history provided by its staff, only 4% of museums in the country hold this distinction.
"The rigorous AAM accreditation standards are meant to take the staff, board and community through a serious assessment of the entire operation: financial, collection care, security and emergency measures, education, community engagement and every detail that you can imagine," Shoults said in an email. "You cannot buffalo these people -- they know museums inside and out -- and that scrutiny is part of why the public places trust in museums."
When Miller took the reins of the organization in 2017, the first task she undertook was to talk to the community. Through email surveys, social media and every means of communication at her disposal, Miller and her staff asked the community what it wanted from the organization.
"We can't tell them what they want. We have to ask them," she said, adding that the center received more than 500 responses. She was not surprised to learn that the community wanted more theater because the center's theater programming is robust and popular.
The responses indicated that the public would like to see more content in the art exhibitions, and more programs, activities and after-hour events to coincide with the exhibitions. Meet the Curator, a new virtual series hosted by Jewell, was inspired by the survey responses.
The responses also indicated that accessibility is an important factor. Miller said her focus is to provide access to everyone and make sure everyone knows they are welcome, adding that this has helped to increase the diversity of the programming.
"It is really nice to have people come up to me at events and say thank you for events like this," she said. "It would be a failure on our part not to provide them."
Most of the community the center serves is under age 18, leading to partnerships with school districts across southeast Arkansas.
David Rainey, former superintendent of Dumas Public Schools, and Arts and Science Center Endowment Fund board member, said: "When we look at budgets and determinations about projects, unless there is a strong advocacy for the arts, it's the first area to lose funding. Rather than expanding opportunities at the local school level, we were not expanding at all, so [the center] became a resource that our students didn't have available to them otherwise. Because I believe in it, I connected with them, the students were excited, and it didn't cost anything.
"[The center] helped me become the kind of educator I wanted to be," Rainey continued.
The center also collaborates with many community organizations that serve youths, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Merrill Community Youth Center and smaller nonprofit youth groups.
It provides after-school programming and Saturday workshops on-site, conducts summer camps, hosts field trips, organizes touring exhibits, and supports teaching artists, although some of this programming has been suspended because of the pandemic, Miller said. The youths often involve their families in the Saturday events.
Public exhibitions and events, receptions and workshops are mostly attended by patrons over age 45. The center serves this demographic with programs such as art therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Family Medical Center-Pine Bluff and at Jenkins Memorial Center. The Arts and Science Center has also partnered with nearby correctional facilities.
"We're all over the map," Miller said, referring to her eight-member staff and their outreach. "We're always looking for new partners. Two of our staff, Shakeelah Rahmaan, public programs coordinator, and Lindsey Collins, theatre Education Coordinator, are great at seeking out new partnership opportunities. Rahmaan works with the center's interns to brainstorm new alliances and contact potential partners."
Miller realizes that the center needs to serve the whole region of southeast Arkansas because nothing else like it exists in the area.
"Serving the region has been hard, really hard," Miller said. "It takes outreach and connection. It's hard to get into communities where they're not aware of you. We keep having to re-establish our connections with other people in these other communities." She cited the example of Lake Village, where progress was being made until [the center] lost its major connection, and the work had to start all over again.
Miller and her staff dig into all corners of the community and the region to find people who never go downtown and do not know about the arts center. She said they try to have a table at all the community events and need to be on the ground talking to people.
"Our concern for people in southeast Arkansas is that this is a region that is arts-resource poor," Miller said. "So many of the students here will never get to Little Rock to the Arkansas Arts Center or to Northwest Arkansas to Crystal Bridges. We've realized they can't even come to us. We have to come to them."
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