Art League hires first director

By Lucinda Breeding
Arts & Entertainment Editor / Denton Record Chronicle

Record-Chronicle/Hiroyuki Komae

For the first time in 35 years, the North Texas Area Art League will have an executive director.

The league, a nonprofit Denton organ­ization that gives area visual artists con­tinuing education and exposure, gave the new position to one of its own, Denton artist and former professor Ingrid Winther Scobie. Ms. Scobie will take over as the executive direc­tor on June 1, the day when the group’s new officers assume lead­ership.

League officials said the need for a director has been there for several years. This year, forming the executive office seemed fated. The money became available through a donation by Texas-Bank, and the right person for the job was ready and willing, officials said.

“I was there when the discus­sion about a director was going on,” said Ms. Scobie, who has been active in the league for sev­eral years. She stepped up her involvement this year when she lobbied local businesses and the community for more prize money for the 35th annual Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, a show that brings regional artists into the largest gallery in the Center for the Visual Arts.

“They [league officers] were talking about having a director, and some of the things a director would do, and I said I’d be inter­ested in being the one to do them,” she said.

When TexasBank donated money for the position, the league offered it to Ms. Scobie.

Even though the new position is part time, officials said the position would take some admin­istrative heat off of volunteers’ shoulders and maybe even give the group added clout in fund raising.

“It was a natural progression for the league,” said league Presi­dent Judy Uebelacker, a painter. She becomes the past president, taking on a consulting position in the league when the new officers take over. “It was getting harder and harder to get someone to take the president and vice presi­dent positions because there was more and more to do7

Many league members are working artists who don’t have a lot of spare time to spend outside of their studios, Ms. Uebelacker said, and just as many have full-time jobs and families, making studio time even scarcer.

Ms. Scobie came to Texas from San Diego in 1982, after her hus­band died. She had spent her prior professional life in various educational positions, both in teaching and in research. She spent years channeling her cre­ative energy into her life as a par­ent, decorating fancy cakes and eventually becoming a costume designer and costumer for the Pied Piper Players. That’s where she first met J₀ Williams, a well-known local watercolorist and former gallery owner. Ms. Scobie said she took a painting class from Ms. Williams, who is the incom­ing league president, in 1996.

“It was really a part of me that I felt I wanted to develop,” she said. She eventually furthered her painting studies and is now pur­suing a bachelor’s degree in art at the University of North Texas. She said it’s a big shift from her tenure as a women’s history professor at Texas Woman’s University

Ms. Scobie said she plans to contact other art leagues to find out what challenges and success­es they’ve encountered. She also plans to look for ways to expand existing programs without drain-

ing volunteers. E~4~ading the league’s membership to include students and artists in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are worthy goals as well, she said. Locally, she hopes the league can become a more formidable presence, with more residents aware of the pro­ductive lives led by the profes­sionally trained artists in Denton.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing howl can expand the exist­ing program of the league, and I also want to be able to do the things that the volunteers just can’t do, because of the time it takes to do them,” Ms. Scobie said.

Her own art has blossomed during her time in the art league

— one of her paintings was selected for the recent juried exhibit. The joy Ms. Scobie takes in painting is matched by her interest in leading the league into the regionally and nationally known entity she is sure it can be, she said.

The new director position “makes leaders more able to do more of the decision making, rather than the mailing and the office keeping,” Ms. Uebelacker said. “And the phone calls. We know those take time. This is a transitional year for us, and Ingrid’s qualifications are actual­ly pretty incredible:’

North Texas Area Art League executive director’s duties

• be principal spokeswoman for the league
• be principal contact for the league
• attend all board meetings and help direct policy as a non-voting member of the board
• investigate and write grants, especially for the annual juried and member­ship exhibits
• be responsible for awards acquisitions for annual juried, membership and student exhibits
• investigate expansion of the league

SOURCE: North Texas Ares Art League 

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877 Her e-mail address cbreeding@dentonrc.com.