The City Wire Person of the Month: Jane Owen

Editor’s note: The City Wire will highlight each month a person in the Fort Smith region. Special recognitions, accomplishments, philanthropic support and many other factors will be considered when selecting a person to profile. Input from The City Wire readers also will be considered.

story and photos by Roy Hill

Jane Owen sees being the executive director for the Center for Art and Education in Van Buren as her calling. And it’s a calling that’s called her bluff a couple of times.

More than 20 years ago, Owen was a volunteer in the Van Buren Women’s League, and her husband John was a county judge. The Crawford County Art Association, as it was known then, approached Crawford County asking for funds.



“The art center was turned down by the county when they asked for money,” Owen explained. “And I told John that the arts were just as important as the baseball fields in the county. And John said to me, ‘Why don’t you do something about it?’”



So John bought Jane a membership to the Art Center at the county fair that year.

 Jane put her business degree, from the Draughon School of Business in Tulsa, to work in the Art Center gift shop to help raise money.



“I started working in the gift shop with one of my Women’s League friends Meghan Delanardo,” Owen said. “Meghan moved away and I stayed. Eventually, I became president of the Art Center in 1992 when the Arkansas Arts Council was changing its grant guidelines, and required stricter organizational requirements such as board run organization, and discouraging membership run organizations.”
 
ART COMMITMENT
Owen recounted how the Art Center volunteers, many of them elderly women in the community, put on Bean and Bingo parties and fashion shows to raise money to help pay for the old St. Michael’s Church building on 104 N. 13th St., that the Art Center purchased back in the 1970s.



“The people in Van Buren are very committed to the center,” Owen said.
 
In 1992 Jane became president of the Crawford County Art Association. She had a home-based business that was suffering because of her involvement with the art center.

“I thought that I would be able to walk away if I told them it was cutting into my time with my business obligations. They asked me what it would take for me to write more grants and organize for them,” Owen said. “I figured out how much of my own money I was spending to help them, and asked for $300 a month. I thought it would get me off the hook.”



But once again, Owen found the Art Center calling her bluff.

 In the meeting, one of the elderly women stood up and said she could give $25 a month out her social security check. Several others did the same thing.

"I was amazed. They put me on the spot,” Owen said.



In 1994, Owen helped the Art Center get a Rockefeller Foundation matching grant to pay for the final $1,700 on the note for the church. She thought she was through with the center when she helped them get a director to take over.



“I was trying to get away from it,” Owen said. “I went into business, and bought the Whistle Stop Café in Van Buren with a partner.” In the meantime, the Art Center went through a couple of directors.



BACK FOR GOOD
In 1996 the second director left. Owen’s partner at the Whistle Stop bought her out, and she found herself drawn back to the center once again. This time, she came back for good. 

In 2003 the name of the Art Center was officially changed to the Center for Art and Education, and today, the center serves the River Valley area as an exhibition gallery and educational asset.



“It’s a place where people can come enjoy the art in the gallery, or engage in art,” Owen said. “It’s a place where they can slow down their lives and see what God has for them to view and enjoy, and to make connections in their lives on several levels.”


The center is presently hosting an art exhibit by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith art department faculty.

“We have a long-standing connection with the university,” Owen said. “Back when Joel [Stubblefield] was at the university, he encouraged us to apply for Reynolds funding. … We’re really excited about what’s happening at UA Fort Smith now.” 


Owen also works with area art centers to encourage artistic endeavors. She said the center has good relationships with the Fort Smith Art Center, the Alma Performing Arts Center and the Fine Arts Center at the Van Buren High School.



CREATIVE ECONOMY
Under Owen’s direction, the center’s educational programs reach eight area communities: Van Buren, Winslow, Alma, Mulberry, Cedarville, Ozark, Lavaca and Greenwood.



“We do a one-week program in each community,” Owen said. “It’s tied in through the library system in each community.”



The Center also operates “Art and the Three R’s” in the Van Buren school district. At the Center itself are the “Wee Draw” program for preschool children, and After School Art for first through 8th grade students.



“Some kids are good at sports, or math, or writing,” Owen said. While others are good at being creative, and in an art program, they can feel good about their accomplishments.”

Owen has seen many examples of students advancing in other academic areas after participating in art.

The Center also offers several adult education opportunities, with open studio hours and the Wednesday Lunch Bunch, along with current classes in book making and abstract art and color theory. A still life painting course taught by George Kountoupis is on tap for fall.


Owen’s experience as a business owner along with her business degree and education in fashion merchandising helped her see the economic impact of developing an art scene and art culture in the River Valley.



“Major corporations thinking about moving into an area look at what cultural amenities are available,” Owen said. “We have to work together to promote the arts. Art events bring people into the area, and they spend money at local shops and restaurants. It’s also been proven that students engaged in the arts are more likely to pursue a college education."

Donna Young, owner of Delta Investment Management and member of the Arkansas Arts Council cites Jane Owen’s leadership in promoting Arkansas’ “Creative Economy.”
 
“Jane is a tremendous asset,” Young said. “She works diligently, and her efforts are certainly recognized in the recent study commissioned by the state government to explore the impact of the arts on our state’s economy.
 
According to an August broadcast by Karen Tricot-Steward on UALR Public Radio FM 89, the Creative Economy study showed that creative jobs, producing things of “aesthetic or intellectual value,” are third behind only transportation and food preparation inside Arkansas.
 
The study, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and overseen by the non-profit group Regional Technology Strategies, showed that there are more than 35,000 jobs in the creative economy inside Arkansas, and they bring in an average of $1 billion a year to the state.


Owen hopes the Center for Art and Education continues to develop and provide educational opportunities for the River Valley.



“Art helps people become better educated,” Owen said. “Through doing art, through understanding how to organize color and shape and line, they can also understand how to organize their lives, and understand the process of how their life works.”