Virtual panels show how arts transformed other cities

DOTHAN, Ala. – Bentonville, Arkansas, did it. So did Des Moines, Iowa, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Greenville, South Carolina.

The cities all used the arts to enhance their communities both culturally and economically.

Now, a group hopes to do the same in Dothan.

The initiative Transformation Through the Arts has been evolving over the last two years and is now in its third phase – gathering information from other communities to learn how they used the arts to transform their cities. Spearheaded by the Wiregrass Foundation, the effort involves people from local art groups, the business community, civic organizations, tourism, education and government.

And those leading the effort hope a series of virtual panel discussions with people from Bentonville, Des Moines and other cities will help the public get a better sense of what the initiative hopes to achieve.

“The hope is that through those conversations we will arrive at some community decisions,” said Troy Fountain of the Wiregrass Foundation. “Every voice in the community deserves to be heard.”

The virtual panel presentations have been done via Zoom conference calls. While the initial call is by invite, the recorded calls from Bentonville and Des Moines have been posted online for the public to watch. Simply visit https://transformationthroughthearts.org/ to watch the Zoom calls. Representatives from the cities included elected government officials along with leaders from education, tourism and business. A third Zoom call with officials from Chattanooga, Tennessee, will take place on Monday, Oct. 26, and then posted to website.

Transformation Through the Arts was started to bring different groups in the Dothan area together to determine how to boost the economy by using the arts as an attractor for new business, visitors and residents.

Possible projects include new art facilities like a new museum or performing arts center and even an innovation center that could offer space for entrepreneurs and workshops for learning new skills.

Collaboration is key to the initiative’s success, according to those who have been involved in the process. Much of the initial pieces revolve around downtown Dothan due to the energy that has been created with new restaurants and events like Foster Fest.

“I think part of this, too, is an effort to attract and keep our younger generation here in Dothan to keep things going,” said Angie Casey, the Wiregrass Foundation’s community liaison for the initiative. “You cannot do that without arts and culture and education. That work, play theory … and millennials are so much better at work-life balance than our generation. It’s important to them.”

The initiative also calls for collaborations with Wallace Community College and Troy University. It’s intended that projects would be done over years with money from grants, local governments and private investors.

“It’s just an effort to create what a lot of people in this community think could be a creative, energetic, innovative community,” Casey said.

Wiregrass Museum of Art Director and Curator Dana-Marie Lemmer said the Transformation Through the Arts initiative aligns nicely with efforts to revitalize downtown. Lemmer has been involved since the beginning and traveled with groups to visit Des Moines and Bentonville.

The museum figures prominently in the local plans because of the age of the historic building that houses it and the challenges the museum faces with repeated flooding of its lower level and the moist environment that causes throughout the museum.

“For me, Transformation Through the Arts is really about elevating the role of the arts in our community,” Lemmer said. “For us, it’s also elevating the role of artists because we work so closely with individual artists. But it’s really moving beyond this idea of art for art’s sake.”

Fountain said when the community begins to invest in itself, people elsewhere will take notice.

“When the world sees us investing in ourselves then other people are going to want to come invest in Dothan,” he said. “You’re going to see private money come in.”