What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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JANUARY 7-13, 2018 WHAT'S UP! 3 JEANNIE HULEN W hen artist Jeannie Hulen arrived at the University of Arkansas art department as an associate professor of ceramics in 2002, she immediately focused on getting the department a new ceramics studio. Within two years, that goal had been accomplished. It was a small sign of what Hulen was capable of. Hulen became chairwoman of the department in 2010, and, this fall, the university made, in quick succession, a series of announcements that boosted the UA's profile among art schools into the stratosphere: First, that the former art department was transitioning into the UA School of Art; next, that the School of Art was receiving $120 million from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation — the largest gift of its kind ever given to an art school — and, last, that the Windgate Charitable Foundation was awarding a $40 million gift. And, by all accounts, Hulen had a lot to do with that. "The chair, who had been chair for most of the time I was there, she was tired," says Hulen. "And she said, 'It's yours,' and the dean at the time, really, all the deans, were really supportive of what I was doing. … Bill Schwab was really supportive of me, and a lot of people said, 'What you've done with ceramics, you need to do with the rest of the department.' And I thought, 'Well, I might as well try.' The worst thing that could happen was that I would go back to teaching and research." Hulen had a clear vision of where she wanted the department to go. "I had an internal checklist of what we had to do, and one was to change our visibility in the community, both on campus and off campus," she says. "Get people who know what we're doing, make sure the gallery was ever present as a resource, hire a new gallery director, start to get engaged in public arts on campus. I just said 'yes' to everything that was coming through our door, even the small things. And then people started to recognize us as valuable and started to talk about what our facilities needs were." Hulen says the Windgate Charitable Foundation gift is earmarked for facilities use, while the Walton Family gift is to be used in three major areas: financial support for School of Art students, community outreach and public service and expanding graduate program and degree offerings. Hulen says the money will increase access to a college education for students across Arkansas. "$5o million of the grant from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation goes to student scholarship, and we have a mandate to make sure that we're reaching out to underrepresented groups, as well as lower socioeconomic people throughout Arkansas, and boosting how many people get to the University of Arkansas," she says. The art department gave out $10,000 in scholarship money this year, while the School of Art will give out $500,000 in undergraduate scholarships next year. Graduate students — who will increase in number from about 20 to about 75 next year — will receive a tuition-free education supplemented by a stipend. Hulen now carries the titles of interim director of the School of Art and associate dean of fine arts and is excited about the new responsibilities those titles hold. There's still a lot of work to be done, she says, and she has high hopes for what the future might bring — and credits the collaboration of the fine arts community at the UA for the success of the past and the potential of the future. "We've hired amazing faculty, we've put through so many amazing students who have gone on to graduate school and come back and are building their own studios in the community," says Hulen. "All I've been doing is saying 'yes' to all of these great people and trying to connect them to people who can help them make great things happen. You can't do these things alone. "I think we're just at the precipice for something even greater. We just started." Paparazzi Picks COVER STORY Movers and shakers worth watching in 2018 Jeannie Hulen See People Page 40