Interview with Arkansas Arts Council Director Patrick Ralston
Patrick Ralston is an Arkansas native who for many years taught film photography and printing at the Museum School of the then Arkansas Arts Center. Patrick’s experience as a museum curator and at the Arkansas Legislative Council led him to his current position as Arkansas Arts Council Director. (profile photo by Lewis Ralston)
AAS: Talk about your background, Patrick. Did you grow up in Arkansas?
PR: I was born in Little Rock. My dad was in the Air Force, so I spent my early childhood in Arizona, Mississippi, and Texas, finally winding up back in North Little Rock. My mom was an emergency room nurse and she constantly encouraged me to draw, paint, write and take pictures. Wherever we traveled, she made sure we hit all the museums and galleries, and I always had a sketch pad and pencils. I graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in history and spent about six years on the curatorial staff at museums in Little Rock and Anniston, Alabama. After getting my master’s degree in public administration at UA Little Rock, I was lured out of the museum field to join the staff of the Arkansas Legislative Council in 1995. In the years since, I’ve spent a cumulative 14 years on the legislative staff, and several years as deputy director of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. I have three sons, ages 17, 19 and 24, and I reside in North Little Rock with a patient hound.
AAS: You are an artist yourself and taught photography at the now Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. What is it about the process of photography that interests you the most?
Untitled Portrait, cyanotype printed from digital negative, toned with coffee
PR: I taught myself film photography and darkroom printing while working at the North Little Rock Times, newspaper in college. I was fascinated by visual storytelling and portraiture and the relative unpredictability of the darkroom processes. Later this interest led me to the Museum School at the Arkansas Arts Center (now the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts), where I was a student, assistant and ultimately an instructor for several years. It was during those years that analog photo processes began to yield to digital, making darkroom chemistry and film scarce and more expensive. Although I did grudgingly transition to digital photography and printing for my freelance work, most of my fine art printing is now analog, using a cyanotype (ferro-prussiate blueprint) process. Blending chemistry and light to tell a story means that the story evolves in the telling, and no two prints are ever the same. I like a little noise and uncertainty in my art.
AAS: Talk about your work at the Arkansas Legislative Council and how that led to your position at the AAC.
PR: I went to graduate school with the plan that I would return to the museum field after graduation. The Smithsonian wasn’t exactly beating down my door, but I was recruited by the Bureau of Legislative Research for what I expected to be a temporary gig working with the Joint (House and Senate) Budget Committee. I wound up staying for five years. This was a world with which I was totally unfamiliar, though I had grown up hearing many of the legislators’ names on the evening news. I mastered the legislative process, staffed budget subcommittees, and learned the mechanisms of state and local government that nobody tells you about in a college civics course.
In 2000 I jumped ship to become deputy director of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program at the Department (now Division) of Arkansas Heritage. The seven years I spent there—running a grant program, visiting every county and working closely with 75 county judges—probably inform more of what I do now at the Arts Council than all my years before and after in the Capitol. At AHPP I learned how a small, dedicated staff can drive preservation and economic development statewide through technical services and targeted grants. Then in 2006 I got an unexpected invitation to go back to the legislative staff, where I staffed the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees for both House and Senate for most of the next decade. With a cumulative 14 years on the legislative staff, I can tell you it was not easy and was occasionally scary, but I have to admit that couldn’t have asked for a better pack of wolves to raise me.
In January 2017 I had an opportunity to return to Heritage as director of the Arkansas Arts Council. I was excited to return to a department I had loved working for previously, and I knew the Arts Council’s work well. I’ve been very satisfied with that decision.
AAS: How is the AAC structured and supported?
PR: In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, which created the National Endowment for the Arts as a new federal agency. To channel assistance from the NEA, states and territories created their own state arts agencies. The Arkansas Arts Council was created by executive order in 1967. It eventually became part of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, now a division of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. The Arts Council is in fact two entities: a professional staff of eight who run the statewide programs, and an Arts Advisory Council comprised of 17 gubernatorially-appointed members. The Advisory Council meets quarterly, and I serve as its secretary.
Patrick with Art Advisory Council member Ricky Lattimore (left) and Will Hogg (right)
The Arkansas Arts Council receives around 35% of its budget through an annual federal/state partnership grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The remaining operating budget is made up of state general revenues, an allocation of the state’s 1/8 Cent Conservation Tax, and various cash funds derived from fees and grants (including a generous $150,000 from the Windgate Foundation to fund artist residencies in schools and arts organizations in FY22). More than 70% of our money is distributed as grants to fund general operations, collaborative projects, arts in education (AIE) initiatives, short-term artist residencies, and an annual cohort of nine individual artist fellowships. This year’s grant budget topped out at about $1.5 million.
AAS: Let’s talk about some its programs and services, which support artists in the state. One is the Artist Registry, which I have said is so important and where I go to be introduced to new artists.
PR: The Arts Council’s three central programs are individual artist services, services for arts organizations, and arts in education. As you might expect, these three circles in our Venn diagram overlap quite a bit, and our grant program circle overlaps all others.
I came to this job as an artist with many artist friends, so serving the individual artist is a priority for me. The creative economy hinges on the ability of creators—visual artists, literary artists, performing artists, etc.—to derive income from what they create. Their creativity powers creative businesses, galleries, and local arts organizations. It fills venues and fuels ticket sales. What the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis broadly calls “cultural production” accounted for $3.3 billion of our statewide output in Arkansas in 2019, providing over 33,000 jobs.
So, our aim in artist services is to help artists to succeed by sharing and monetizing their creativity. One way we do this is through the Arkansas Artist Registry, an online database of visual artists which provides the artist a profile page, digital images of their work, and connection to their website. We have over 900 artists listed on the Registry, and we encourage them to keep update their profiles and images. The Registry serves as one-stop shopping for art collectors, architects and designers who are in the market for visual art, and it’s often a springboard to the artist’s personal web page where a potential client can find more examples of the artist’s works. Robin McClea, our Artist Services Program manager at the Arts Council, manages the Registry, as well as other services like the Individual Artist Fellowships and our partnership with Artist INC. As an artist and former curator, Robin has long been a strong advocate for Council services that build resiliency and business skills of individual artists.
The Arts Council maintains two other artist rosters. The Arts On Tour Roster, managed by our Grants Program manager, Jess Anthony, is a curated list of performing and visual artists who are available to create, perform or exhibit across the state. A nonprofit organization that pays an AOT Roster artist to perform can apply to the Arts Council for a grant to cover 40% of the artist fees. This encourages organizations to always contract with artists on the Roster. Similarly, the Arts in Education Roster provides a database of highly qualified teaching artists whom schools and arts organizations may hire for Arts Council-funded residencies. Artists interested in joining the roster can contact Drekkia Morning, who runs our Arts in Education programs.
Listing on the Arkansas Artist Registry entitles artists to participate in the Arts Council’s annual juried art exhibition, Small Works on Paper. For over 30 years Small Works has provided an annual snapshot of the Arkansas art portfolio, and it’s always a great mix of established and emerging artists from all corners of the state. The deadline for submission this year is July 23. For more information, go to the Small Works page on our website, or talk to our Special Projects/Events Manager, Cheri Leffew.
In the last four years, the Arts Council has drastically expanded its workshop offerings under the guidance of our Community Development Program manager, Janet Perkins. Our workshops cover a wide range of topics, including grant writing, fundraising, nonprofit board recruitment, business planning for artists, and intellectual property protection. The pandemic and social distancing drove us to move all in-person workshops to a Zoom webinar format, but this also allowed us to expand participation while eliminating the usual $5 in-person fee (which, in full disclosure, just paid for a box lunch and beverages). Janet has continued to grow our monthly workshop offerings with sessions led by Little Rock poet and biographer Janis Kearney.
AAS: The AAC offers several grants supported by federal and state funds. Would you talk about the Grants Program?
PR: The Arts Council annually awards nine Individual Artist Fellowships in three disciplines. The 2021 categories are traditional craft, poetry, and film direction. Applications are undergoing review by outside panelists this summer, and recipients will be honored in October. We also offer grants from the Sally A. Williams Artist Fund of up to $500 in professional development and career advancement costs for artists. The fund was created by the family of Sally A. Williams, who served as the Arkansas Arts Council’s Artist Services manager for 25 years before she died April 20, 2010.
The bulk of Arts Council grants fund arts organizations and school residencies. We provide General Operating Support (GOS) grants to nonprofit arts organizations in a three-year rotation. By funding a portion of an art organization’s core expenses, more resources are freed to support community arts programming. Our Collaborative Project Support (CPS) grants provide up to $10,000 in support for innovative project partnerships between non-arts community organizations and arts nonprofits. And the Arts in Education grant family, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and augmented with an annual grant from the Windgate Foundation, supports in-school artist residencies, after-school/summer art programs, and arts curriculum development.
AAS: The Governor’s Arts Awards recognize not only artists but individuals and organizations for their contribution to the arts. Would you talk about that program?
Governor’s Arts Awards 2019 (photo by Nelson Chenault)
PR: Since 1991 the annual Governor's Arts Awards program has honored Arkansas artists, arts patrons, arts educators, arts organizations, and businesses for their outstanding contributions to the arts community. Recipients are nominated by the public, then selected by an independent panel of arts professionals from around the state. Each recipient receives an original work of art created by an Arkansas artist.
Governor’s Arts Awards recipients are traditionally recognized at a March luncheon in the Great Hall of the Governor’s Mansion, hosted by the Governor himself. It is truly the “high holy day” for the arts in Arkansas, and usually draws 200 or more attendees. The pandemic forced us to cancel the luncheon in 2020 and move the awards to a virtual presentation ceremony in 2020 and 2021.
AAS: And there is the Arkansas Living Treasure Award, which is so prestigious and important. I have been fortunate to interview several recipients of that award and it was especially important to them because it is a nominated award.
PR: Some would argue that the highest honor the Arts Council bestows is its annual Arkansas Living Treasure Award, which recognizes a single Arkansas artist who excels in the creation of a traditional craft and who actively preserves and advances that craft through community outreach and educating others. The program was modeled upon the National Living Treasure Award presented by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Museum of World Cultures. Eligible artists must work in a traditional craft form, such as basket weaving, bladesmithing, glassblowing, broom making, doll making, leatherwork, metalsmithing, musical instrument making, pottery, quilt making, toy making, weaving, woodcarving or other functional crafts. I sat in on the panel discussions for this award the first week I was at the Arts Council, in January 2017. The nominations and the artists’ creations—examples of which are always available for the panelists to examine—are products of whole lifetimes of dedication to preserving and teaching craft techniques. I make it a point to sit in on this panel (I do not have a review role) and listen to the discussions.
AAS: What can the public do to get more involved in and make an impact on the arts?
PR: Two words: BUY ART. Art is a product made in our own communities by our friends and neighbors. Our state has many world-class artists whose works are performed, installed, read and exhibited here and abroad. Buying a ticket to your local theatre production lends value to their work, which in turn adds value to your community. Artists, whether they create for passion or occupation, are skilled laborers. Communities that recognize the value of artists as a labor force and economic engine are more livable and attractive to industry and investment. That’s why public-private partnerships, in places like the Fayetteville’s Cultural Arts Corridor or the El Dorado’s Murphy Arts District, were established. They create environments and economies that support performance and creation, which in turn invites engagement (and dollars) locally and regionally. But there are dozens of smaller communities that are making modest but dramatic efforts to build a local creative economy. Another example is Newport’s Delta Arts Festival, an initiative generated through the Newport Economic Development Commission to create a regional market encompassing a film festival, art sale, book sale and music showcase.
Arts Advisory Council meeting in Del Dorado, Arkansas
AAS: Does the AAC have any programs more targeted to supporting and fostering young artists?
PR: In building services for individual artists, we must also expand into communities that have not historically been served by our programs. School art programs have been cut drastically, and these cuts inevitably impact under-resourced and traditionally underserved minority communities. Future success for the Arts Council demands incorporating a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility as the core of every program we offer, not just as a tagline appended at the end of a press release. By expanding our professional development training and grants to early and mid-career artists, we are building relationships with younger artists of color who have never been adequately represented in our Artist Registry, our workshops, our grants, or in the organizations with whom we partner.
We are also collaborating with outside partners to develop more resources and stronger communities for young artists who don’t want to leave Arkansas to practice their craft. The Arts Council has for several years been an annual sponsor of Mid America Arts Alliance’s (MAAA) Artist INC program in both Northwest and Central Arkansas. Artist INC Live (eight-week seminar) and Artist INC Express (three-day workshop) are intensive professional development programs that teach business planning, goal setting, and networking to cohorts of artists across a variety of disciplines. These programs have been wildly successful in building cohesive multidisciplinary artist communities regionally, and that success has been reflected in MAAA’s subsequent collaboration with the Walton Family Foundation’s Artists360 initiative in Northwest Arkansas. Both Artist INC and Artist360 target a young, diverse range of artists in the early years of their careers, when resources and opportunities are scarce.
AAS: What is ahead in the next five years for the Council?
PR: The work with Artist INC will certainly be a dramatic expansion of our services to individual artists, and I’m hoping it continues to build a strong network of younger creatives who can continue to make Arkansas their home. We will continue to encourage community organizations to incorporate the arts into their service plans, especially in areas of the state where art programs are not as plentiful.
Right now, I’m working toward an Arts Council that looks and sounds like Arkansas, and not necessarily the late-career ideas of a 55-year-old white male like myself. In five years, I hope we are building an Arts Council that increasingly reflects and serves the vibrant culture and creative history of our state. Visually, literarily, and performatively. We will do this by listening to the creators. They are the basis for everything I do.
