Art as a means of cultural exchange !`` As the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's head of communities programs, Kate Loague's days will be spent making a difference outside the museum walls.
Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008
Daily Record photograph by Charles Fowler Kate Loague recently was hired by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as head of communities programs. A Michigan native, Loague has spent the past 30 years working in the arts in New York and Chicago.
BENTONVILLE - As difficult as it may be to believe, there may be a word that's uttered just as much as "art"by those working behind the scenes to bring the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art into being.
That word is "community."
During a reception earlier this month to welcome Kate Loague to the Crystal Bridges family, associate director Sandy Edwards explained that every conversation with museum founder Alice Walton includes the question," What are we doing for the community ? "It was obvious she wasn't exaggerating, as Ben Edwards, a member of Crystal Bridges'curatorial staff, was nodding his head in agreement before Edwards even completed the sentence.
And by "community," Edwards made it clear that encompasses more than just Bentonville. Community refers to Rogers, Siloam Springs, Lowell and Gravette. It crosses the Benton County border into Springdale, Fayetteville and Eureka Springs - even the smallest communities, like Mountainburg, West Fork, Rudy and beyond.
Loague, a Michigan native who spent the past 30 years working in the arts in New York and Chicago, will spend her days developing community-based projects through off-site and online learning experiences for children, youth and adults. She and her team will collaborate and build partnerships with regional, national and international cultural and social agencies to bring art into surrounding communities as a vehicle to promote expression, opinion, understanding and acceptance.
In doing so, Loague will likely spend very little time inside the physical walls of Crystal Bridges. Instead, she'll be out forging relationships and having the kind of impact she's always dreamed about.
"Crystal Bridges has such a commitment to sharing its resources with everybody," Loague said. "The vision is for Crystal Bridges to be a bridge between communities. I'm not here to develop some packaged program to deliver to every community. I'm seeking, developing and nurturing sustainable relationships."
Loague will become a familiar face in northwest Arkansans, spending much of her time within the different communities educating participants on the significance of the works of art featured in the collection and temporary exhibitions that will be on view at Crystal Bridges. She will work closely with community partners to develop and present creative and engaging arts-appreciation activities that promise to reach beyond the borders of the region. Loague plans to develop programs that also reach beyond the borders of the ordinary.
"I'm interested in using art as a means of cultural exchange," Loague said. "It's about opening up multiple perspectives. For kids, it's about owning a perspective and being able to hear and respect someone else's perspectives. Art is such a great way to facilitate that experience. " Relationships with communities is key
In some way, shape or form, Loague has been attempting to use art to facilitate cultural exchange, perspective and opinion since leaving Michigan in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in theater and acting from the University of Detroit. She headed to New York City, where she immediately put her talents to work as part of several on-stage productions. She acted, designed costumes and drew energy and inspiration from the theater community that surrounded her.
Twenty years later, and after the deaths of both her parents, Loague moved to Chicago to find new surroundings and, as it turned out, begin expanding her artistic horizons beyond the stage. After earning a degree in arts administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Loague coordinated all aspects of the VAP lecture series and coordinated SAIC's annual Juried Fellowships. Prior to that, she served as an exhibition preparatory gallery assistant and developed educational outreach for Chicago Public Schools at SAIC.
Shortly after her move to Chicago, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, took place. Like most Americans, Loague remembers exactly where she was and what she was doing when the attacks occurred. But having spent two decades in New York, having strolled passed the twin towers of the World Trade Center with regularity, and having formed relationships with several firefighters, police officers and some of those who worked in the towers, the horror of the day was very real to her.
In the hours following the attacks, she couldn't help but notice something in the coverage of the events.
"There were people talking about cultures they knew nothing about," Loague said. "There were some very inflammatory things being said. And there were kids hearing all of it. It was just wrong."
One of Loague's most rewarding experiences was teaching a class in understanding cultural differences through contemporary art practices to students in the Upward Bound Program at Malcolm X College, as well as hands-on workshops at the Lakeshore Arts Festival in Evanston, Ill., and the Fine Arts for Kids of Logan Square in Chicago. Her research was accepted for three international conferences in 2007, including the Worldwide Intercultural Education Conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; the InSEA General Congress in Seoul, South Korea; and the Nek Chand Diamond Jubilee Conference and Celebration in Chandigarh, India.
"It's about how we interconnect with each other," Loague said. "In a way, I guess I've come full circle. I started out acting - truly understanding each character's perspective. What I'm doing here is real life, and I'm using all forms of art to inspire and teach."
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