ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES for the arts in South Dakota

By Michael Orlove, Director of State, Regional & Local Partnerships, National Endowment for the Arts

As I sat on my flight back to Washington, DC, from South Dakota, I couldn’t help but marvel at the vast and beautiful landscape that I had the privilege to travel this past week. Thanks to my colleague Patrick Baker, executive director of the South Dakota Arts Council, we covered a good deal of ground—832 miles to be exact— visiting a total of nine cities, towns and tribal communities in just three days. With meetings in Sioux Falls, Brookings, Faulkton, Eagle Butte, Pierre, Porcupine, Pine Ridge and Rapid City, it was an incredible introduction to the state for a first-timer.

It would be nearly impossible to recount all of the conversations, meetings and encounters that took place but I return home with a strong impression that the arts are well integrated into the everyday life of South Dakotans.

You appreciate it driving through on the interstate—the bales of hay dotting the landscape reminding me of the extraordinary work of Harvey Dunn that I experienced at the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings. You see it as you pass through small towns like Faulkton and observe murals on towering grain elevators from several miles away.

You understand it when you talk to arts champions like Julie, Rita, Stacy and Jane who hail from Yankton, De Smet, Aberdeen and Sisseton and speak proudly about serving their communities as the leaders—sometimes as volunteers—of their local arts councils.

front row from left, Stacy Braun, Janet Brown, Michael Orlove, Julie Amsberry, Rita Anderson and Jane Rasmussen. Back row, Patrick Baker, Jim Speirs and Andrew Reinartz. The group met with Orlove in Sioux Falls.

You experience it touring through exhibitions like the Red Cloud Indian Art Show at the Heritage Center in the Pine Ridge Reservation or taking in the art lining the walls of the Capitol Building in Pierre. You are overwhelmed by its presence, importance and mission when visiting Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte. You are inspired by it when visiting with the team at Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation in Porcupine and learning about the innovative projects that First Peoples Fund has initiated like the Rolling Rez Arts mobile arts space. The arts are omnipresent in South Dakota and these arts leaders are helping shape, define, inspire and guide arts and culture throughout the state.

Michael Orlove, Julie Garreau and Jerica Widow-Rivers of CRYP, and Patrick Baker in the Keya Café at Cheyenne River Youth Project, Eagle Butte.

I am grateful to all those I had the chance to meet along the way. Special thanks to Jim Speirs and Andrew Reinartz of Arts South Dakota and to Janet Brown for encouraging my visit and helping arrange my first day in Sioux Falls. I was truly amazed at how—in a state that is predominately rural—the arts play a central role in everyday life. I couldn’t be more proud of the National Endowment for the Arts’ work with the South Dakota Arts Council and all the individual grants we make each year throughout the state.

I leave South Dakota with many visual memories of the natural beauty of the state and also of my very first glimpse of South Dakota Artist Laureate Dale Lamphere’s sculpture Arc of Dreams as a reminder that there are endless possibilities for the arts in South Dakota.

Editor’s note:

In his current role, Michael Orlove directs National Endowment for the Arts funding and other assistance to 56 state and jurisdictional arts agencies, six regional arts agencies and local arts agencies across the country. For seven years, he was the Endowment’s director of Artist Communities and Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works. Orlove recently spent time touring South Dakota and meeting arts leaders across the state.