2008 Economic Impact Awards Finalist, Innovator of the Year: Springfield Regional Arts Council

“We get calls from across the nation,” says SRAC Executive Director Sandra CH Smith. “Recently, an arts administrator called from Asheville, North Carolina, to see how (the Creamery) works because they are putting in a new performing arts center and want to duplicate ours.”

SRAC was formed in 1978 to foster arts in the community. It moved into the 35,000-square-foot Creamery in 2002 after the building was saved from demolition during the creation of Jordan Valley Park. Now, the Creamery houses all of Springfield’s major arts organizations under one roof – SRAC, Springfield Ballet, Springfield Regional Opera and Springfield Symphony.

“The big word is collaboration,” Smith says. “So many times in the arts world, there is an inherent territorial mentality. Now, little by little, the barriers are coming down.”

The many programs of SRAC – including Mini-Monet Mondays for young children, the Jordan Valley Jazz Band for high school students, Free Art Days for families and workshops on making movies and writing for teens and adults, are held at the Creamery.

Offices, three ballet studios, costume and set facilities and instrument storage areas also are ways arts organizations utilize the Creamery. The organizations that share the Creamery each pay $10 annually for rent to the city and split utility costs based on square footage used.

“We have a lot of workshops and classes here,” Smith says. “We lose money on them, but that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to expose people to the arts.” SRAC covers 27 counties from Blue Eye to Warsaw and is mostly funded by grants – specifically a four-year, $1.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant that lasts until 2010. SRAC also has ArtsFest, its one major annual fundraiser netting about $60,000 for the organization.

“I love what we do for young children,” says Jeanie Morris, SRAC board president. “Some of these kids have not seen the ballet, but we can show it to them through our school programs.”

According to Smith, having all the nonprofit groups in the same location has made it easier to create collaborative grant applications. With the grants, SRAC can include the ballet, opera, symphony and Springfield Little Theatre in arts education programs in the schools and summer workshops with the Springfield Community Center.

“For example, we sent an elementary school teacher to Washington, D.C., to learn how to teach people to create their own opera. She is now going to have summer school kids create their own opera, and it may be performed the first Friday in August,” Smith says.

Smith also notes the Creamery has allowed SRAC to create a “one-stop shop” for community members to contact arts organizations or learn about arts programs.

“It’s been a tremendous tool in encouraging support and patronage of the arts,” she adds.

New programs in the works for SRAC include opening an art gallery downtown, working with Springfield-Branson National Airport officials to display local art in the midfield terminal under construction and planning the Missouri Literary Festival slated for October 2009.

Changes to the Creamery are coming, too, with the possible addition of a hot glass/ceramic studio, a black box theater and the installation of film editing bays. “I just think we will continue on, trying to reach everybody possible — like those who can’t afford it or who don’t think they can draw or paint,” Morris adds.

Springfield Regional Arts Council

Address: 411 N. Sherman Parkway, Springfield, MO 65802

Web: www.springfieldarts.org

Employees: 5 full-time, 1 part-time, 3 interns

2007 Budget: $551,000

Information accurate at the time of the honor.