From the Director

Dr. Ellen "Nan" Plummer
Executive Director

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

As I write I am on vacation. Since I have spent so much of my life going to school, August is always the end of the year for me and September the beginning. So this late summer vacation is always my time to reflect on the year just past and plan for the year coming up. I update the family scrapbooks and fill in the calendar.

This is the basic rhythm at the Arkansas Arts Center, too. Our new fiscal year began on July 1. While we have wonderful things going on all summer, the Board of Trustees sums up the year at our Annual Meeting on August 25.  The big start of the season is in September. Looking back at 2007-08, we have a great deal of which to be proud. Over 290,000 people came through our doors in Little Rock, thanks to wonderful exhibitions like Jim Henson’s Fantastic World, Hot Color, cool glass and a terrific Children’s Theatre season. That’s an 18% increase over last year’s attendance and a whopping 32% increase over 2005-2006. That doesn’t count the 350,000 we served in small communities throughout Arkansas. And, our attendance is more than many big city museums enjoy. Although attendance isn’t the only or most important way we measure our success.  It is a rough metric of how well we are serving our audiences and meeting our mission – “To ensure that learning, inspiration, and creative expression in the arts flourish throughout Arkansas, for people of all ages and backgrounds.”

We meet that mission by offering a rich variety of art from our own outstanding permanent collection and national and international collections.  We also offer a variety of programs to enhance the member and visitor experience. On view now is an exhibition of Recent Acquisitions, showing how we have been building your Arkansas Arts Center holdings through gifts and purchases. Visions: Selections from the James T. Dyke Collection of Contemporary Drawings showcases contemporary works assembled by one of the AAC’s great benefactors. Andy Warhol: Fifteen Weeks of Fame, which opens in October, will be the first solo exhibition of the Pop artist’s work held in Arkansas.  Later in the year, the exquisite enamel jewelry of Jamie Bennett and the colossal ceramics of Jun Kaneko will be on view. And the Children’s Theatre promises a year of adventure and fun for families and schools, from Treasure Island to The Wind in the Willows. We take very seriously the phrase “for people of all ages and backgrounds!”

As you fill in your calendar for 2008-2009, we hope you will include some of these wonderful opportunities for yourself and your family.