About the Center for Art & Education

Alex Golden - President
Scott Weston, Vice President
Sharon Weir - Treasurer
Linda Myers - Secretary
David Cross
Marsha Crowder
Martha Efurd
Sonya Howard
Clifford Lyon
Jan Nelson
Frances Willis

Our Advisory Board

Charles Baker
Roger Brown
Steve Dean
Joe Lloyd, Jr.
Rusty Myers
Gene Graham
Chloe A. Kirksey
Carol Newton
Steve Park
Donna Young

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Our Programs

Art in the three R’s: Integrates art into school curricula and is ongoing throughout the
school year at six Van Buren Public Schools. The program also provides various art
experiences in rural schools.

Art Spaces in Work places: Allows artist to display his/her art in the workplace,
fostering understanding and appreciation of various cultures, and art forms, for the
business professionals, in corporate, business and government settings.

Have Talents Will Travel: Allows the artists, through teaching and demonstrating, to
share his/her talent with schools, libraries, churches and civic organizations. This
service is a fee and non-fee offering from local artists.

Center for Art & Education Library: A comprehensive 1,555-piece art library of art
history and instructional art books and videos are available for use by the general
public. The Library also features a permanent collection of artwork from locally and
nationally known artist.

Studio Art Program provides dance, theater and visual art classes here at CAE for
all ages. We offer two continuing studio art camps for children. Art-a-Rama for
boys and girls ages 6-14 is held in our studio during the summer. Wee Draw is a
preschool drawing class for children ages 3-5 held in our studio from September
through June each year. (See Children's Art page for details on these classes.)
We also bring in major art teachers who conduct workshops and local professional
artists who teach classes for adults. Wednesdays, except for the month of July, is
reserved for the Lunch Bunch. This is open studio time for local adult artists.

Wonderful World of Art: Seven weeks of summer art camps are offered to children
in Alma, Cedarville, Greenwood, Mountainburg, Mulberry, Van Buren, and
Winslow art educators, teachers, and young adults give of their talent in providing a
variety of art experiences for children K-8th grade. See Children's Art page.

Annual River Valley Student Art Competition: The CAE in collaboration with the Fort Smith Art Center offers a judged art competition for children grades K – 12, involving six counties in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Annual Adult Art Competition: Judged competition for ages 18 and over. The 2007 Adult Art Competition will be held in September. Watch the website for details as the time approaches.

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Our History

Established as the Crawford County Art Center in 1976, the organization began operations from a small room in the city-owned Van Buren Community Center. The first art exhibitions, workshops and “paint-outs” were held in whatever space was available.

In 1979 the art center purchased a Turn-of-the-Century home. This became the first Crawford County Art Center. In 1984 the Crawford County Art Center acquired the historic St. Michael’s Catholic Church, circa 1912.

The first years of operations were met with many challenges. This did not stop the first visionaries, who organized bean and corn bread suppers, bingo parties and events, gave their green stamps to purchase the materials needed to make art a part of their community.

This pioneering spirit continues today. The Center's budget has increased ten-fold. Most importantly, the Center's programs have increased in number and expanded in diversity. We are currently serving over 5,000 individuals of all ages. A lot has changed since the
organization was established thirty-five years ago, including its newly adopted and more inclusive name, Center For Art & Education. Yet, its earlier hope and mission, which is ever being realized, is that every citizen can experience art.

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