Reaching out
DeSoto arts chief mindful of task: Ask what public thinks
For the new executive director of the DeSoto Arts Council, the grand Banks House mansion in Hernando is not only the nonprofit’s home base for “bringing art to the people and people to the arts,” it’s symbolic of a cozy, long-sought satisfaction.
“It’s that little potting shed in the back of my mind,” said Margaret Yates, who took the arts council reins this month. And she’d like to know what’s on the public’s mind.
The 30-year resident of Hernando was reared in Minter City in the Mississippi Delta and studied biology at Ole Miss, “but that was my mother’s idea, not mine. I’ve always loved art, and so every elective course was art. I thought then that by now I’d have opened a potter’s shed.”
Instead, on her journey to the Banks House and the arts council, she worked in Memphis as an interior designer after studying the subject at the University of Memphis, managed a tile and kitchen company and did some freelance work.
Arts imbued her family life. Her spouse is Marvin Yates, a former creative services manager for The Commercial Appeal and a noted watercolorist; their daughter, Christen, earned an art history degree at Ole Miss.
In July 2013, in a move that garnered valuable nonprofit experience, Yates became the first director of 4 Rivers Fresh Foods, launched by the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi. The state’s first “food hub” north of Hattiesburg, 4 Rivers seeks to collect, distribute and market locally grown food to more people as part of the foundation’s ongoing anti-obesity effort.
“I’ve been hauling vegetables this morning” to a student group at Hernando High School, said Yates.
Ready for a fresh challenge, Yates is departing 4 Rivers for the top spot at the arts council, which she joined two years ago “not long after my mother died. I was kind of at loose ends.”
At the helm of the arts group, it all ties together: Her experience, her energies and her passion.
“I’m excited about it,” said Yates. “It’s going to be fun — and a lot of hard work” raising funds and awareness for art.
The arts council exists “to serve artists and serve the community by reaching out,” said Yates. A mission statement includes calls “to stimulate increased participation in the arts, integrate art into people’s everyday lives.”
The group, with membership at about 225, provides arts education such as classes and youth day camps for area residents, services and venues for local artists and arts advocacy.
Next year the council plans a “Brushes and Blossoms” program with the Hernando Civic Garden Club, the annual “Bloomin’ Art” reception for members, “and I’d like to do a juried show, with prizes,” said Yates.
She wants more partnerships between the visual and performing arts, and at the council’s Nov. 9 holiday open house, ballet students from the Stars in Motion school in Southaven performed excerpts from “The Nutcracker.”
Going on now are the council’s art show at Resorts Casino in Tunica and the annual Winter Show at the Banks House gallery with the works of 41 area artists. These range from the jewelry designs of Lisa Ales of Hernando and paintings of Jean Bennett of Senatobia to the calligraphy of Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche of Memphis, mixedmedia work of Matt Thone of Olive Branch and “primitive” images of rural life from the brush of Joe Wrenn of the Charleston, Mississippi, area.
Yates takes over from Lisa Beene of Olive Branch, who remains on the arts council board as treasurer. Beene and husband Steve own the growing Fillin’ Station restaurant chain. “We’ve got three Fillin’ Stations now and he needed my help,” said Beene.
“It’s a dream job — I’ve enjoyed it,” said Beene of being arts council chief. “My original plan was to be director for one year, but I ended up doing it for two.” Of her successor, she said: “Margaret’s going to be fabulous.”
Yates sent out a communitywide e-mail urging arts supporters “to come by and share a cup of coffee and your ideas” at her stately “potting shed.”
“The key is to keep an open mind, and I want to hear from everyone,” said Yates.