Arts Council sketches out big ideas for the community

This news story first appeared in Overton County News on May 14, 2024.

Overton County has a colorful history filled with artists and now has an arts council to help the local arts community grow.

Overton County Arts Council is the first nonprofit focused on the visual arts. It was originally formed by Shannon Cantrell as a Chamber-led effort.

“Several people were invited by Shannon to be on the council to sort of decide what it is we want to do, what we want to focus on, and what the needs of the community really are with the visual arts,” Arts Council President Tim Richardson said.

It didn’t take long for the council to realize it would be good to separate from the Chamber and form a stand-alone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

“We felt like, although we want to remain tethered to the Chamber and collaborate with them fully in all things, we felt like our mission was slightly different from the mission of the Chamber and we needed to have a separate organization, and we also knew pretty quickly that we were going to need to start fundraising for the activities we wanted to put on and sponsor,” Richardson said.

The board wanted the members of the community to be able to donate to a 501(c)(3) organization knowing that all the money they donate will be used for the arts in Overton County.

The arts council is officially a non-profit organization with the state of Tennessee and has been working for the last few months to build the infrastructure for the organization.

“We recruited a board of seven individuals here in the community to be on the board. We have a great board of folks who are well known in the community and have a heart for this mission and this effort we’re doing,” he said.

The arts council now has a fully working website where people are encouraged to become members of the council — OvertonCountyArts.org. The council offers family, individual, and student memberships. The membership is a concrete and easy way to help fund the activities and show support for the arts in Overton County.

Membership also has its perks, including discounts on classes, events, future purchases of whatever artwork might be on sale, and chances to preview an event before the general public.

The council has already begun working in the community with the Libby Allen High School Art Contest, named to honor one of Overton County’s two art teachers.

“Right now, we just have two art teachers in Overton County. We have Libby Allen, who does all the elementary and middle schools, and Eddie Street, who teaches at Livingston Academy and REACH Academy. We really want to raise money and develop programs for the students in Overton County to get more art instruction and more exposure to the arts,” Richardson said.

All of the high school students at LA and REACH were eligible to submit artwork for the contest. Submissions were due April 8, and winners were awarded on Sunday, April 21. The council hopes to build on momentum for next year to make it bigger.

The next step in building the art community is the Second Saturday Art Class being taught by local artist Suzanne Smith. The council will also begin hosting an art mixer on the third Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.. The first official art mixer will be on June 20th at the Chamber building. Attendees should RSVP at OvertonCountyArts.org. These will be like a social hour for folks interested in the arts and who want to learn a little bit more about the arts.

“The centerpiece of the event will be a presentation by someone who has either taught art or is a practicing artist, a professor of art, or maybe even a curator at a museum. This will be someone who is knowledgeable about art, who will give a brief and fun presentation, not an art history lecture, on whichever artist they are particularly passionate about and want to talk about,” he said. “The biggest thing we’re going to do for this first year is called Paint Livingston, and it’s a three-day art festival downtown, and it’s what’s called a plein air painting festival and contest.”

Plein air is French for “painting outside”. Famous impressionists like Monet, Renoir, and Sisley, were known for pioneering the technique of painting outside.

“They did it because they were fascinated by it. They wanted to capture light in a certain way, the atmosphere in a certain way, they were fascinated by how, when you’re outside painting, you just notice the variability of nature, and how things change based on your perspective, and the conditions you’re in, and they developed impressionism as a whole art movement, painting outside,” he said.

In the last 20 years, America has seen a resurgence of plein air painting, and in harmony with this movement, the council is looking to possibly set up artists all over the historic district, marinas, parks, maybe even the city lake. The community will be able to walk around and view the artists creating pieces that will be entered into a competition that will be on that Saturday.

“What has happened in other cities that have done this, it causes local citizens to take notice of what’s going on, and realize that their town is beautiful, and their county is beautiful, and these artists are traveling to Overton County to paint our town, and our county, and hopefully it will help people better understand, you know, kind of re-appreciate how beautiful and how special Livingston is, and how all of Overton County is. So there’s a lot of, a lot of reasons to do it, and hopefully it will generate excitement about the visual arts,” he said.

The event will finish with artist demonstrations, an open air artisan and craftsman market, family friendly activities, and free art viewing of the contest pieces from the artists. The guest judge will be Connie Erickson. There will also be an exhibition with all the plein air paintings on sale. A percentage of the sales will support all of the programs sponsored by the Arts Council.

“That’s our mission, yeah. To be able to expose K-12 kids especially to that kind of culture is amazing. It’s an amazing thing, and it can bring out things in them that they never knew,” he said. “We hope that this will be infectious, and that people will, you know, participate in what we’re doing, but also follow whatever passions they have.”

Sign up to be a member, register for classes, and RSVP for art mixers at OvertonCountyArts.org.