Business Community Ignores Arts Council

Terri Trotter, vice president of external affairs for the Walton Arts Center, has said nonprofit art in Benton and Washington counties generated more than $1.5 million in taxes and fees for state and local governments, created more than 500 jobs, and stimulated more than $16 million in economic activity. “It’s a different way to look at the arts and culture industry,” she said. “It shows really conclusively that the arts are more than an amenity. They are an industry that creates jobs and generates tax revenue. This is an industry, and investing money in it reaps economic rewards. Investing in arts and culture is an investment in developing the economy of your region, whether that’s the city of Fayetteville or Northwest Arkansas”

The Fayetteville City Council understands the close relationship between the arts and the economic life of the community. During the formation of the new Fayetteville Arts Council discussions indicated a desire to include representatives of the business community on the group, but no developers, realtors, businessmen, industrial managers, or Chamber officers even applied. Members of the new Council are Michael Landman, Kathy Thompson, Hank Kaminsky, Dede Peters, Julie Gabel, Bryan Gott, John O’Connell, Mark Landon Smith, and LaDawna Whiteside. All represent the arts community, and everyone who applied to be on the council was appointed to it. Vice Chair Kathy Thompson said, “As a board, I think we would have liked to see it be more diverse, but you can’t make people apply if they don’t.”

Even though the business community showed no interest in participating or supporting public art, an editorial in the business booster Northwest Arkansas Times extended its best wishes. “We should like to applaud the efforts of the Fayetteville Arts Council, which has taken note of all this recent talk of enhancing the College Avenue experience. … Who knows what the Fayetteville Arts Council might dream up. The point is that the group deserves the opportunity to inject the vital importance of artistic expression into the community’s daily consciousness. It may seem like a lot, but you’ve got to dream big to accomplish anything. For Fayetteville’s character and charm to remain for the future, the Arts Council must play a crucial role. It sounds like they realize it.” It’s too bad that the rest of the business community doesn’t.

The Chamber crowd should read the recently published national report, Arts & Economic Prosperity III, that explains how cultural tourism generates far greater local spending in our community than, say, aspirants to the UA Walton College Business Hall of Fame. But, as Ward Three Alderman Bobby Ferrell so fondly proclaims, “Most local business people I know don’t have time to meditate and espouse a mantra; they are too busy worrying about profit and loss and making payroll.” Alderman Ferrell and his business buddies should be reminded that community development depends not only on people who are consumed with making more money but also those in the mold of John Lewis who are dedicated to making life better for all who call Fayetteville home.