Imagine a room, 15-by-15 feet. No windows to allow in natural light. Four desks situated in the middle of the room, taking up the bulk of the space.
One would be forgiven for thinking this is the description of a startup business or even a broom closet. However, this was the former facilities for the Starkville Area Arts Council.
“Nobody knew where we were,” said Mary Switzer, executive director for the organization. “We were not able to have any kind of programming there. But here on Main Street, we’ve got a presence.”
In this new downtown space, located at 122 East Main Street, there’s colorful art of diverse media adorning the walls and shelves. Natural light abounds in the 3,000-square-foot building.
The move has been in the works for years, Switzer said, and she is happy to be on the frontlines in making it happen.
“I’ve been on the building committee for a couple of years now, and we had looked at several different options,” Switzer said. “We’ve spent 25 years basically building up capital to be able to do this.”
A result of the COVID-19 pandemic, needed money began to trickle in and that was the catalyst for making the move happen though.
“We had applied for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that offered COVID relief money,” Switzer said. “We received an award from them that allowed us to be able to sustain rent in a location for two years. It also allows us to make some renovations and other things, and it pays for some of our salary.”
The move not only offers more space, but it gives the organization a central location, something it did not previously have.
“We had to be very transient in our outreach. There was not a space for people to come to us, (so) we had to go to them,” said Emily Corban-Camp, a member of the board of directors for the organization. “(It offers) great programming opportunities in a way that we’ve never really had the capacity for. We are very excited about that.”
The organization offers a variety of programs already, many of which are geared toward children.
Some of their programs include Art in the Park, a free hands-on art festival for children and their families, Art Partners, which are after school art education classes, as well as community events like PumpkinPalooza and Starkville Community Day.
With the new space, it is planning to expand even more though, offering arts classes for kids and adults alike.
“It’s great, we’ve got more gallery space, but we also have workshop space, so pretty soon, we are going to start having some workshops for youth and for adults and we’ll also have a space that’s available to rent out for smaller events,” Switzer said.
The new building is not the only advancement it is making either.
SAAC now has two paid employees, Switzer as executive director and Juliette Reid as program coordinator.
Since SAAC largely depends on volunteers, having consistent paid employees leading the charge is a huge help.
“What it does allow, with us being here, is it creates less burnout for the volunteers and it allows us to do more,” Switzer said.
Switzer, an artist herself, has been executive director since December 2021, taking over following the departure of former director John Bateman that August.
She has been involved with the organization for six years, and she even served on the board, including two years as board president.
When the time came though, she decided to step in and take reins.
“I am very passionate about this organization and what it does for this community and it just made sense for me,” Switzer said. “I saw the potential for me to help grow the organization further and to take what John and the board members and the volunteers were already doing and figuring out ways that we can continue upwards and onwards.”
She was the obvious choice for the position according to Corban-Camp.
“It made sense for somebody who built these programs to then see them out because they’ve got that institutional knowledge that you can’t replicate with a new hire,” she said.
Cotton District Arts Festival
The Starkville Area Arts Council was formed in 1996 when citizens got together and hosted a small arts festival, according to the organization’s website. That festival evolved into the Cotton District Arts Festival.
Perhaps the organization’s biggest annual undertaking, the festival is held each year in the namesake Cotton District, and it gathers together artisans and food vendors and even local restaurants.
This year, the festival is slated for Oct. 29.
“It’s going to be better than last year,” Switzer said. “We already have almost twice as many art vendors.”
Application deadlines for the festival were recently extended. The deadline for the Artisan Village has passed, however, the Juried Arts & Exhibition deadline is Aug. 21 and A Taste of Starkville is Sep. 9.
Applications are available on the Cotton District Arts Festival website.
In addition to promoting the arts, the festival also promotes Starkville, more especially the Cotton District.
“It’s one time out of the year where we ask the community to come and explore its intricate corridors and explore all of the areas in the district and see art and get out and enjoy your neighbors and your city,” Corban-Camp said. “The Cotton District in and of itself is art and it is unique, so it just goes hand in hand.”
Last year’s festival was estimated to have around 20,000 attendees. This year the organization is hoping for an even bigger crowd.
SAAC also carries out multiple projects outside of the festival throughout the year.
One such project is the newly-produced “Arts and Eats” cookbook.
“It’s been out for about five or six months,” Reid said. “It took us a year to develop it. There’s hundreds of volunteers that went into this. It’s recipes from the community, it’s stories from people in the community, it’s art from people in the community.”
Reid is also spearheading the new artists’ store.
“We have six different artisans, and they bring their work and we help them sell it and they get a commission.”
There is a designated area at the front of the new building that will serve as the store. There will be six artists at a time and space is based on a first come, first served basis. Applications can be submitted via the Arts Council’s website, and the full list of rules and regulations is also available there.
The store will operate during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. and it is expected to open on Sept. 1.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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