The Hope Lions Club welcomed Jennifer Gentry on Monday (10-26). Gentry is the new Executive Director of the Southwest Arkansas Arts Council. In addition to her work at the arts council, she has also written 4 children’s books.
Gentry noted her first act at the arts council was to put out a community survey to find out what local residents want in arts council programming. She joked her new mantra is “SWAAC is BACK”. Gentry said she has been hearing from long-time members about the various programs the arts council has presented over the past 40 years.
The mission of the arts council is “to enrich the communities of southwest Arkansas by experience, expression, and education in all the arts”. Gentry said they don’t want to be a “stuffy gallery museum that you come in and you look at something you can’t touch and then you walk out…and you don’t think of it two days later.”
The arts council is holding an art supply drive and noted the community can order via their amazon wish list. That will continue through November 20th.
Gentry told the club she has been at the arts council 43 days. So far, they’ve done 4 homeschool art clubs, 2 afterschool art clubs, 2 sessions of “Mommy & Me”, an adult class, and have brought in 96 people into the arts station. Gentry said they participated in the “Taste of Hope” and the District Fair.
Upcoming events at the arts council include “Create and Unwind” November 10th, “Meet the Director” November 12th from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, and “Christmas Splendor” in cooperation with the Hope Downtown Network on November 19th from 5pm to 8pm. During “Christmas Splendor”, the arts council will host the “North Pole Post” so kids can send letters to Santa free of charge. Also, Mrs. Claus will read stories for children in the downtown stores that evening. Other upcoming activities will include another edition of “Mommy and Me” November 17th at 9am, Homeschool Art Clubs November 17th at 11am, and a K-4 Afterschool Art Club November 17th. Gentry also showed some examples of artwork from the last edition of “Create and Unwind”. She noted the “Create and Unwind” program on October 26th will have participants making a “paver” for their walk or garden. The arts council also hopes to have a gallery show and a sketchbook class after the first of the year. Other plans include updating the “art walk” in the lot behind Tailgaters and “arts in education” to bring a resident artist into the schools.
Gentry distributed some printed material about the arts council. This included a membership form. Memberships start at $5 for students and $53 for individuals.
After talking about the arts council, one of the Lions asked her about the children’s books she has authored. They are available at the Little Children’s Boutique (next to the newspaper office downtown) and online at jennifergentrybooks.com.
