Matthew Moore: In 2017, a $120 million gift from the Walmart Family Charitable Support Foundation transformed the University of Arkansas Department of Art into a School of Art. It was the largest gift ever to a university art program.
The Walton gift funded scholarships and expanded programs in art history, art education, and graphic design. It also gave the School of Art a mission to support the arts and art education throughout the state.
In the latest Short Talks from the Hill podcast, Rachel Debuque, the director of the School of Art, joins host Hardin Young to talk about the school's outreach to pre-college students and art educators across Arkansas and the community here in Northwest Arkansas.
Hardin Young: So, Rachel, you came to the University of Arkansas and the School of Art here a year ago. In the year that you've been here, what have you learned about arts across the state?
Rachel Debuque: Since arriving, I have learned lots of things. I think the thing that really struck me was how deeply people here care about education, and there's a genuine commitment to improving opportunities for Arkansans. And I felt this incredible amount of support for the work that I was doing, especially around expanding access to the arts, which is not always typical. So it's been really amazing.
Hardin Young: Dive into that a little bit, because, you know, obviously there's a lot of talk about education in Arkansas across the country, but art sometimes is not always included. So have you seen that arts have been a priority in the state, and how have arts kind of fit into the conversation you've heard about education in the state?
Rachel Debuque: Access to arts in Arkansas is a lot better than people might expect, especially in Northwest Arkansas. Statewide, we're seeing about 65 to 80% participation in arts programs, which has been steadily rising. And there's clearly been an investment. We're seeing that reflected in student engagement. And we also know that there's a lot more work to do to ensure that access is equitable and consistent. But I'm feeling really hopeful about the potential and what I'm seeing here in Arkansas.
Hardin Young: How does arts education play out across the state? And I wonder how similar is the situation as far as the amount of arts education to other states in the South? I mean, are we on par? Where do you think things stand?
Rachel Debuque: I think that Arkansas is making a real concerted effort, and that is not typical. And the amount of resources and positive energy put behind access to the arts is, I think, unprecedented in this state.
Hardin Young: Well, let's talk about specifically some of the programs the School of Art is running. You have two summer programs. The first one you established in 2019. It's the Summer Arts Workshop for high school students across the state. Take me through what the students do with this program.
Rachel Debuque: Yeah, so it's really exciting. The Summer Arts Workshop started as a day camp and then has grown into a weeklong residential program for high school students. It's free to attend, and we offer scholarships to cover travel for students who need it, which is incredible. Each year, we welcome around 80 to 100 students, and they get to take part in all sorts of exciting studio courses like printmaking, painting, drawing, sewing, even curatorial practices.
They get to visit places like Crystal Bridges and The Momentary, and they also attend college readiness sessions. They get to explore our campus. They get to feel what it might feel like to be on this campus in a year or two. And the week ends with a public exhibition where they get to invite their family. So it's really exciting. But the program is about opening doors and connecting students from across the state to our resources, and they might not otherwise have access to these things.
Hardin Young: And so where are these students coming from? Across the state, and are they all Arkansans, or do students come from other states as well?
Rachel Debuque: They're all Arkansans, and they come from all over the state. I think that my task in the next year is to really create a good strategic plan that we're making sure that we're hitting all areas of Arkansas, and especially focusing on our more underserved areas and ways that we can connect with the right people and the right places to make sure that those students know about the opportunity. And then they have access to, let's say, our travel scholarship if they need it.
Hardin Young: So the second program that I wanted to talk about, and it's brand new, it's called Art Lab and just launched this summer. And this is a program for arts educators across the state. So these are teachers from K-12. And so how did this program come about? What was the need that the art school saw and how did this program develop?
Rachel Debuque: Leadership and our recruitment and outreach team have been talking about doing this for a while. And so we started with a kind of exploratory email, seeing if folks would be interested. And then we immediately had our first pilot filled just off of that one email. We didn't even get a press release out. And so it was really clear to us that there's a demand. And so now we're just focusing on how we can actually grow the program and make sure that we're aligning with what teachers really need in providing innovative curriculum and the resources that they need to be successful when they go back to their classrooms.
Hardin Young: And were these high school arts teachers, elementary, who was coming to the program?
Rachel Debuque: It was art teachers from all different areas, high schools, elementary schools from all different regions. It was a pretty exciting group.
Hardin Young: And so tell me about the program. You, I assume, got to interact a lot with these teachers as well as they went through it. So what did you learn from them and what do you think they got out of the program?
Rachel Debuque: The teachers are given tools to develop innovative and inclusive curriculum. They get a network of support from across districts. I think one thing that's important to note is that this professional development workshop is approved by the Arkansas Department of Education. So it really aligns with the goals of the state education. But we gave them resources. They worked with faculty, they developed new techniques. They learned from different lectures. They worked closely with our graduate students. So it was a wide variety of different things. And we hope that through this pilot we learn more about what they're interested in, what will help them advance as teachers and ultimately improve the landscape of arts education across the state.
I think we have a real opportunity here in our education program to be a leader among the nation in what we're doing in arts education and outreach.
Hardin Young: Yeah, and I guess so many art teachers are also artists themselves, so I'm sure they really enjoyed working with fellow artists.
Rachel Debuque: Yeah, we got an overwhelming response from teachers that really just wanted this concentrated time not to just be lectured to, but to do hands-on workshops where they can work on their own craft. And that was something that we really zeroed in on for this Art Lab.
Hardin Young: Obviously, the gift from the Walton family really gave the school a mission to do community work and outreach. But I'm curious, why in general do you think it's important that university art schools look out beyond themselves and look to the community?
Rachel Debuque: Well, I think, one, I'll say that I haven't mentioned just how important it is that we are part of a network. The Walton gift gave us this amazing opportunity. But we're also partners with Crystal Bridges and The Momentary, and their mission to access really informs ours. So we're creating this kind of network where we're allowing multiple entry points for folks to come in and engage with the arts.
But as an artist, why is this important? Why does this matter? I mean, I see creative work as really sacred work. It is what helps us make sense of the world and connect with one another in ways that logic and language just can't. And our culture really doesn't always recognize the value of creative inquiry. I mean, we're always up against trying to prove why our existence matters.
But when you start looking at the evidence, it's pretty overwhelming. Artists, we know this in our bones. But it's also backed by research. And it's our job as educators to make this really clear. So the arts contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and support millions of jobs. Creativity has been named one of the top skills for the future workforce by the World Economic Forum.
In education, arts participation is linked to higher GPAs, lower dropout rates, stronger engagement. And we know that integrating arts into core subjects can actually deepen the learning of those subjects in really meaningful ways. People connect with art, and it helps them to connect deeper with other subjects as well.
I think more importantly though, beyond the data, arts really foster empathy, which is super important right now. Always. Honestly, I feel like the arts can save us in so many ways. We need the kind of deep feelers who are going to reject the casual cruelty we can see in our day to day. We need disruptors who can imagine better systems and better futures. And we need makers who really remind us what makes life worth living. This is the stuff. This is what makes us human.
And more importantly, critical thinkers who are going to reflect the world back to us in ways that are going to challenge us, that are going to heal us and inspire us. So this is, I think, monumental stuff. This is what I think makes us human and what makes life worth living. And that's why the arts matter.
Matthew Moore: Rachel Debuque, the director of the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, speaking with Hardin Young. You can hear their full conversation on the podcast feed for Short Talks from the Hill wherever you listen.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
