Arts Council Announces Effie Anderson Smith Exhibition

By Jennifer Block/SWAAC, 09/12/23 10:05 PM

Hope, Ark. – Southwest Arkansas Arts Council (SWAAC) announces the arrival of the Effie Anderson Smith Exhibition to Southwest Arkansas.

Effie was born near Nashville, Arkansas in 1869 and grew up in the newly established city of Hope beginning in 1874. It was in Hope that Effie discovered her love of drawing and painting – passions that would later change her life. At the of 25, she left Arkansas for a new life in the Arizona Territory as a pioneer settler. Effie taught school, married, raised a family, became active in civic and social affairs, and established her own unique style of Impressionist painting of desert landscapes that brought her national renown and newspapers to referred to her as The Dean of Arizona Women Artists later in her life.

In 2020, an exhibition tour was planned by Archive Curator, Steven Carlson in honor of Smith’s 150th birthday anniversary in 2019 to Southwest, Arkansas. However, the tour was postponed due to pandemic conditions. Now, the exhibit dates for the Hope area are set for Friday, Saturday & Sunday, September 29, 30 and October 1. The exhibit will be open to the public at SWAAC’s Art Station Gallery on Friday 1pm-6pm, Saturday 10am-2pm and Sunday 1pm-5pm.

Curator Carlson, a great-grand nephew of Smith’s said… “We are delighted to finally be able to bring Effie’s art back home to the Arkansas towns where she was born, grew up, painted her first canvases, taught school and married – before leaving for the West as a 25-year-old widow.”

The E.A. Smith Archive and exhibit venues in Nashville, Hope, Arkadelphia, and Washington are pleased to bring Effie Anderson Smith’s art to Arkansas – for the very first time ever!

For more information contact Jennifer Block, Executive Director, Southwest Arkansas Arts Council. 870-777-8200 or jblock.swaac@gmail.com.

Website: www.swa-artscouncil.squarespace.com

Location: 200 Division Street Hope, AR 71801