Address to the HC Arts Council January 23, 2007

By Mary Potter, Chair

Tonight, our president will give his “State of the Union” address. While I have absolutely nothing in common with Mr. President, it seems a fitting time to share with you my thoughts on the State of our Organization.

A week from today, January 30^th, we will be one year old. Sixteen of us met here in the Young Center. We crowded around a table in the Sanctuary Room right across the hall and talked about what we wanted to do, what this organization had done in the past and how we saw going about reaching our goals.

Those of you who were here during the last life of the Arts Council reminisced about Scarecrow Contests, Chautauquas, historic drama and famous people who passed through Hickman County.

We shared ideas for calendars, pamphlets, concerts, workshops and photography competitions. We brainstormed how to go about getting started and what we wanted to see happen in our community. I, who expected at most two or three friends to show up out of pity for the enthusiastic newcomers, came away from that meeting energized and cheered that Hickman Countians remain committed to the arts.

At that January meeting, we decided our purpose is to “coordinate, support, encourage and plan cultural events for Hickman County.”  I believe we have served that purpose well over the past year.

Reviewing my notes for this meeting, I see reports of workshops sponsored by the Historical & Genealogical Society that brought people into that building who had never been there before. The Hickman County Museum presented a costume performance of the Confederate Exiles. Dorothy Nell brought out her third book of poetry.

With the cooperation of the Hickman County Library and the Women’s Club in April, this organization recognized fifteen local writers and honored the work of West Kentucky Pulitzer Prize winner and US Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren. 

In early October, Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller brought his book “the compassionate community” to Clinton and sold over twenty copies at the library. Since Jonathan is now a candidate for governor, we can only hope that should he win he will remember Hickman County as a place that loves learning and supports writers.

In the latter portion of that month, our own Virginia saw the organ concert she had pushed, pulled and piled on her back come to life. Over 100 people came out on the last Sunday of October, a day that was generally reserved for Halloween activities. They enjoyed Donnie Hendrix, and two other musicians bring familiar hymns to life.

In November, we nominated our own Dorothy Nell Harper for Kentucky Poet Laureate. The outpouring of support for her from fans far and near must have come as a shock to the straight arrows in the Kentucky Arts Council.  As of this date, despite being assured that an answer would be available by January 1^st, no decision has been made. We can only continue to hope that a person who embodies the spirit of rural Kentucky in her work will receive the recognition she so richly deserved.

In November, members of this council got up very early to go to Paducah to meet with the Kentucky Arts Council.  We have demonstrated to that organization over and over our commitment to our community whether we received funding from them or not.

In early December, fifteen authors brought over twenty five different books to Clinton. Henry has the numbers; I only have my impressions. The members of this Council prepared a luncheon on very short notice, put up tables, took down tables, packed books into and out of this building and washed a whole bunch of dishes. In between times, they charmed the authors with their hospitality.

Our young people impressed the guest authors with their manners, their hard work and their intelligence. What greater compliment than for our children to be recognized by strangers as the outstanding individuals they are. And because of your hard work, an event that we hoped would at best break even actually made a profit. 

While we have done much with volunteers, we recognized early that in order to put on programs, we would need more than willing hearts and high spirits. We would need money.

This fall, I finally had the courage to create a website for arts council events. Hickman Co. Arts.com continues to grow. Photos from Jill and Hunter Whitesell and Gaye Bencini brighten the pages. John Ross stepped up and helped me by taking over a column on the website.

If you haven’t read John’s latest account of the Battle of Belmont translated from a nineteenth century Japanese textbook, you haven’t lived.  Your support has given me the courage to try a new medium and I have to force myself not to work on it every day. (I am keeping my day job!)

Financial support has come from our members, the first of whom to write a check to the Council was Virginia Jewell. A big boost came in October when Judge Pruitt and the Hickman County Economic Development Authority granted us $1000 – half of which came in the fall of 2006 and the balance to come in the spring of 2007. We raised money from donated pimento cheese sandwiches, soup and cookies. We passed the hat at the organ concert.

As we begin our second year, we have much that we dreamed of doing in 2006 still to do.

From our list of events for the coming year, many ideas remain - creating a community garden, sponsoring folk musicians, fostering a community events calendar, essay contests of various types, a  compilation of local writings and the photography display and events in the visual arts are still on the “To DO” list.

We do not have our tax exempt number – what I naively thought the easiest thing we would do in 2006 has turned out to be finding a needle in the world’s biggest haystack – the Internal Revenue Service. If we do not locate the number that we know exists, we will have to start the process over.

We have things to do that are not fun - like writing bylaws and building our committee structures to be creative as well as efficient.

We need to get a membership list together. We have a core of faithful to build on. There are more out there. It is our job to find them.  

We have work to do with the schools. Everyone here recognizes what an awful year this has been for Hickman County High School. Many of you here are in the school every day and know that there are teachers, staff and students looking for creative outlets. We can provide that outlet.

Yesterday I listened with pride as a former Clinton resident said to a friend from Alabama. “Did you know”, he said, “how many writers this county has?” The friend allowed he did not know.

“Well,” the man said. “There are more of them than in the whole state of Alabama!”

I consider this organization to be a marathon, not a sprint. No one of us can or should do it all. My hope for last year was to do a few things very well to build support for this organization. I believe we made a very good start in our first year. I cannot tell you how much I look forward to our second year.

What I ask of each of you is to stick with us. Continue sharing your ideas, your ideas, your talents. Each one of you is a valued part of this organization.

Together, we can continue our mission  -

Coordinating, supporting encouraging and planning cultural events for Hickman County.