New arts council chief followed winding path to Texarkana

TEXARKANA — Jennifer Unger’s lifelong love of the arts and years of professional experience make her the right person for the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council leading role: executive director.

“I’ve been in theater most of my life … and trained as a theater director,” she said with exuberance.

Unger grew up in Florida, swimming and going to the beach. Having an athletic bent, she played tennis, volleyball and soccer.

When she was 12, her father, Dr. James Tyler, took a job at an osteopathic school in Fort Worth to continue his practice and teach. Her mother, Evelyn, stayed at home to raise the family, though she was a dietitian.

In Fort Worth, Unger quickly moved into the arts community, taking theater classes, becoming a steady presence at the area’s local and professional theaters.

She loved the camaraderie and competition of sports and continued in athletics through high school. But the performing arts offered another outlet and level of satisfaction.

“It’s the winning feeling when you all work together on a play for weeks and weeks and it is opening night and you have the jitters and you are firing on all cylinders and the audience is with you,” she said.

“The exchange of energy between the performers, giving a gift to the audience and then getting a gift back in interest, engagement and applause. You are exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. There is just no feeling like it anywhere,” she said.

One of her favorite early roles was playing Hermia in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” “She was so feisty, I loved that role. I guess I was the shorty, feisty girl. That was a role I enjoyed playing.”

FINDING HER NICHE

When it was time for college, she received a Baylor University scholarship in a most “calculating” way by helping her mom.

“My mother went to TCU [Texas Christian University] and she graduated from college the year before I graduated from college. Because of that, I had to teach her algebra when I was in high school. Because of her, I actually increased my SAT score. I have her to thank for my scholarship to Baylor.”

Unger initially attended Baylor, but she transferred and earned her bachelor’s degree in theater from Texas A&M University.

“I had a lot of friends at A&M and loved the tradition. The theater department was in its heyday at that time. I knew attending there I would have opportunities to direct main stage shows … I jumped on the A&M bandwagon and never looked back,” she said.

She spent the year between earning her bachelor’s degree and going to graduate school working at Forth Worth’s Circle Theatre, which produces plays while supporting emerging playwrights.

“I directed and did their marketing … I learned tons. It’s amazing how much I learned in the professional theater world and wearing multiple hats,” she said.

In graduate school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., just outside Chicago, she began to find her way on the path she would follow in the arts.

“I have directed professionally but when I was in graduate school, I had professors who worked in arts and education and that is where my path took a different turn. I loved directing, but I had a passion for arts and education,” she said.

After earning her masters degree in theater, she returned to Texas, working at the Dallas Theater Center, a move that delighted her parents.

She learned about arts education, running a theater school and working with schools.

Afterwards, she worked for Kapers for Kids, teaching drama and doing administrative work and then the Shelton School in Dallas, one of the world’s largest schools for children with learning differences.

“It has informed and influenced a lot of the consulting I have done nationally. It’s interesting because every time I thought I was taking a side road, it influenced my journey in what I am doing now and the national consulting I am doing with schools and arts organizations.”

THE PATH HERE

Unger’s husband, Mike, is a lawyer. His sister, Mary Beth Womack, and her family lived in Texarkana.

“We were out here visiting with them. I made a comment that ‘this a cool place, a small place. I could live here.’ My sister-in-law took it as a personal challenge to get us connected with people she knew and my husband got a job here,” she said.

Womack connected Unger with Ruth Ellen Whitt, who led the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council at the time. The two hit it off and it was serendipitous.

“They were looking for a teaching artist in drama and theater. They had a big grant from the Department of Education. They had found the music person and the visual arts person, but not the theater person,” Unger explained. “It was a fit.”

Unger and her family have lived in Texarkana for 17 years, the same amount of time she has worked for the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council.

She started as a teaching artist working with schools and using arts integration in particular with drama and theater and soon became the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council’s education director in the ArtSmart program.

She has become a national consultant, working with places as far away as Kodiak, Alaska. She has also served on TRAHC’s administrative team.

Heading up the agency as its executive director is a large step.

Her experience in grant writing and fundraising will serve her well in the executive director role, as well as fostering collaborative bonds and community connections.

She said it is a combination of the role finding her and her finding the role.

“That [executive director role] was not my goal going into this … I was always working with teens and people, which is a strength of mine. For years I have had board members and colleagues ask if I wanted to be ED one day. Honestly my answer was never absolutely, ‘Yes it is goal of mine.’ It is such a huge responsibility … taking on not only leading education, the administrative aspects and the fundraising aspects … it was not something I had as an end-all beall goal,” she said.

However, with recent transitions at the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, “it made sense to have someone who had such an intimate, long-standing knowledge to step into the role,” she said.

She envisions a vibrant future for the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, not remaining status quo. The Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council plays a role role in downtown’s resurgence.

“Our mission is growing people and community through the arts,” she said. “That is the essence of what the arts should be doing: growing people and giving them something new to think about, a different way of thinking.”

The Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council has a strong network of 12 employees and numerous “tried and true volunteers who are wonderful” to accomplish that mission.

Unger believes her skills and experience will serve her well in the challenges and path ahead.

“I actually excel at looking at change and I am not afraid to change,” she said. “I am not afraid of looking at a situation and saying, ‘here is where we are and where do we want to be in goal setting.’ I am actually kind of nerdy. I like setting a goal. I’ve been doing that in education for years. It’s really a reimagining thing.”

Her method to doing that is planning for the future with flexibility and having contingency plans.

“That is where creative thinkers excel right now,” she said. “We don’t see things in a linear manner. We pivot. This part works, this part doesn’t.”

She also believes her employment stints in the Dallas/ Fort Worth arts community have honed her skills, giving her exactly what she needs in her executive director role.

“When I talk with people who are going through career changes, I say, ‘You may not realize at the moment, the way the path you are on will influence you later, but it all becomes part of the fabric of who you are and what you know.”

FAMILY

The Ungers have been married 21 years.

“He is one of my biggest cheerleaders and supporters and he has been an incredible help to me,” she said of her husband, a self-employed attorney.

Mike was in a band and appreciates music. The couple met in Dallas “basically because we were both Aggies. There is a large A&M Club in Dallas and that’s how we met. We did not know each other at A&M.”

They have two busy and gifted children. Tyler, 15, is a sophomore at Texas High School and Rebecca, 10, is a fifth-grader at Morriss Elementary.

“The cool thing is I never pushed them, but both of my kids are into theater … Tyler has been performing on the Texas High School stage since he did ‘Music Man’ in second grade. He has done Silvermoon and TexRep as well. He has quite a little theater resume already,” she said.

Rebecca is playing Moana in a school production and “is becoming quite the little singer.”

“They play piano and both do Scouts. Rebecca also plays soccer and tennis, but is enjoying theater and singing.”

They have been doing art classes and seeing performances and they are very comfortable at the Regional Arts Center and experiencing the arts.

“They love seeing the newest exhibit we have … They have learned so much and when we travel, the whole family enjoys participating and seeing the arts. We saw ‘Hamilton’ in Dallas over Thanksgiving,” she said.

LIFE LIVED ARTFULLY

The arts influence and enrich everyone’s lives, shaping who we become as they are so accessible and enjoyable, Jennifer Unger said.

“The arts are inherent in everyone. We have a need to express ourselves. It is a way to communicate. Everybody as a human being has a need to express themselves and communicate … Arts in education is important because first of all the way we think as an artist, it is problem solving. It is parallel to the scientific method. It doesn’t just happen,” she said.

The arts also foster better cognitive skills.

More than talent is needed as arts integration is becoming an essential part of education.

“Kids learn by different methods. The set and get doesn’t get it. They need to look at concepts and new ideas in different ways. Kinesthetic, tactile, visual, oral and the aural in music: being able to access different parts of the brain,” she said.

This learning method enriches the experience, making it enjoyable.

“Anytime you can add joy to learning, I think we should spread that around. I think that is a lot of what we do. We want to make people smarter, we want to make people think, but if people experience joy when they learn, life is just better,” she said.

Her best advice to educators and anyone who has a passion or interest is to engage and fulfill it.

“Whether it is something you want to do your entire life, the arts are something you can enjoy your entire life,” she said. “Whether doing it for fun, there is something for everyone and if you don’t enjoy drawing and painting you might enjoy dancing … You have to jump in and experience it.”