Denise Tucker talks being new Executive Director of Greater Augusta Arts Council, building better understanding with community

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Denise Tucker , owner of Humanitree House , located in Downtown Augusta, has taken on a new, monumental role: Executive Director of the Greater Augusta Arts Council .

Tucker sits down with WJBF to talk about her plans and how she wants to expand within the arts field and build a better understanding with the community.

Thank you for being here on Celebrating Black Excellence. Congratulations on your new position as the Executive Director of the Greater Augusta Arts Council. How are you feeling about everything?

Scared and excited – both scared and excited.

Before we get into that, some people may know, some people may not know, you are the owner of the Humanitree House. How long have you guys been in existence?

My husband [Baruti] and I have owned Humanitree House for the last… we’re in the 11th year now.

What was the reasoning for creating Humanitree House?

Well, actually, when my husband moved here from New York, he wanted to open a gallery, and I was already juicing and cooking for people that were cancer patients. We just decided to marry our passions, and although I was working a full-time job – did not want to leave my job, but my husband was very persuasive, and we decided to open a juice bar, and it just kind of evolved from that.

Now, how long have you been a part of the Greater Augusta Arts Council?

I have been officially a part of the council as an employee for three years. I was hired on a small project called AEP6, which is the Arts and Economic Prosperity Survey Study. I got hired to do that, and as I was working, they actually needed a development manager. Brenda Durant hired me as a development manager. Our admin person resigned, and I took on development, membership, and admin. Our public art manager resigned. And then, she says, “Well, you know, you can do this too.” Then, I became the public art manager of the Greater Augusta Arts Council. When Brenda’s position became available, and she said she was going to retire, I just naturally applied. You know, I think she may have had an opportunity at some point to name her successor, but we all thought that it would be better that there was a search committee. There was a search committee; there were tons of applicants. I applied, and I was selected and hired.

Well, once again, congratulations. Some see this as a big deal because you are the first African-American woman to become the Executive Director of the Greater Augusta Arts Council. So if you can, what do you want to see moving forward now that you are the Executive Director?

Well, I’m a visionary leader, so I want to see change. I mean, I don’t believe in trying to fix something that isn’t broken, but I do think that it is time to expand our reach. People don’t know the difference between an arts council and an artist guild, and council is a little bit different. We do advocate for artists, but we are not centrally artist-focused, only for the artists. We are organizations, nonprofit organizations. What I would like to see is us grasp the attention and start to cater to more genres of art. On the outside, people tend to think that we are visual arts focused, which we do a lot for visual arts, but I would like to see more music, more dance, more theater… I would even like to see at some point culinary because it’s an art as well. I would like to just encompass more arts, reach more artists, and give a little bit more transparency so they can understand what we do, and then, we could learn how to advocate for them.

There are a lot of people that think the Arts Council is just for Arts in the Heart of Augusta, but you guys are so much more. Can you please talk to us about all that you do?

Yes, we are busy all the time. One, we are an official re-granting agency. Like right now, the city grants are available, and that is for arts nonprofits. It provides funds for either operations or projects for them. Last year, I was over the individual artist grants from the NEA, which where we gave grants to individual artists through the National Endowment for the Arts.So we re-grant, we have private view art shows all throughout the year, we put the show up at the gallery showing at the City Arts, the City Gallery, and the municipal building, Augusta and Co. Of course, we do our annual paint party. We have annual awards, which I’m hoping that at some point will become a gala, but it’s our annual awards night.What else? Gosh, we have our legislative luncheon. We storm drain murals. We have public art projects that happen all throughout the year. We are busy all the time. So it is not just for Arts in the Heart. We have an artist directory for our members. So if you’re looking for an artist that paints murals, you can go to our directory, you can search our artist members, and you can find them, and it’s open to anybody, not just not just visual artists, but we are busy.

Now, if someone wants to be a part of the Greater Augusta Arts Council, how can they do so?

So our website is augustaarts.com, and there’s a little button on there that says membership. I do think that sometimes people don’t understand. I mean, it does list the benefits on there, but I encourage people, especially with me in this new role, just to get a better understanding. Just call me. Just reach out. Call the Arts Council. I will talk you through it. I will tell you what the benefits are, and I’ll find out from you how we can advocate for you and your genre of art, but it’s very simple. It’s very inexpensive for artists members. Artists members are $35 a year. Then, of course, we have a lending library where if you do theater, we have a camera that you can borrow. We have Mali (art), we have audio visual equipment, and we do that on loan. That’s just one part of our membership. So visit our website.

Is there anything else that you want to add?

I just want people to understand that we are a small nonprofit. I think that because we are a public facing nonprofit… when I look at the Internet, I look at especially Facebook – you know, Facebook has been going off – when I look at it, people tend to look at us like a government agency or like a city organization, and we are not. We are a small nonprofit. We have three employees. Once Brenda [Durant] leaves, there’s three of us. So we have three employees. We’re a small nonprofit. We’re a small nonprofit that works on big projects, and I just want people to understand what we do. We are public facing, but we are a private, nonprofit organization. Also, please reach out to me. I need to know what the artists and the community want to see, and there’s a survey on my page. If you are creative, go fill it out.

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