Carol Deaner: Champion for the arts

SANDPOINT — In a town that prides itself as a hotbed of artistic talent, Carol Deaner keeps raising the bar on what the definition of “arts community” really means.

Whether coordinating gallery showings or helping to spearhead the creation of sometimes controversial public art installations, she walks the walk when it comes to her full-time support of the arts in all its varied incarnations — from visual to performance-based and everything in between.

Deaner didn’t start out with any special affinity for this way of life — her first big encounter happened post-retirement, when she volunteered as a docent for the Nashville-based Cheekwood museum. Another stint as docent for the Minnesota Museum of Art set the hook and she was off and running in support of all things artistic.

Deaner points to her husband, Gary, as the main cheerleader for her myriad community projects, which have included heading up visual arts exhibits for the Pend Oreille Arts Council, championing the importance of arts in schools through the Panhandle Alliance for Education, working to make public art a permanent fixture in downtown Sandpoint or taking a hands-on approach and teaching art in the classroom through a program known as Kaleidoscope.

In Deaner’s world, if you’re going to call yourself an arts community, you’d better be ready to get out there and earn the distinction.

Did the arts have anything to do with your decision to move to Sandpoint?

When Gary and I retired, he wanted to go someplace to ski. He gave me A or B — Whitefish, Mont., or Sandpoint, Idaho. So, we went to Whitefish and I went into a gallery — Gary has always said I believe everything artists say, especially gallery owners – and I asked, ‘How cold does it get here?’ The answer was, ‘Only below zero for three or four weeks at a time.’

I walked out the door and told him, ‘We’re living in Sandpoint.’ (laughs) At that time, there were four or five galleries in this town with impressive artwork, but I thought, ‘Where’s the local art?’ I felt like there was real potential for me to do something and that’s what really made up my mind.

How did you come to be so involved in supporting the arts as a volunteer?

Well, I worked all my life and retired at 55. Then I thought, ‘What are you going to do with yourself, Carol?’ I tried volunteering at a local zoo and that didn’t do it for me. Cheekwood — the original home of the Folgers family – had a small, local gallery and that’s how I got started.

They didn’t have a docent program, so I went in and helped write the docent commentary for all of the paintings and artwork we had. It was a lot of fun being a docent — I loved it.

Were you involved in art as a kid?

No, I was never involved in art. I liked going to museums, but there aren’t a lot of museums in Bakersfield, Calif., where I was raised. When I married Gary, I had more opportunities to experiment in art and, everyplace we’ve lived, we became very interested in buying regional artwork.

You mentioned seeing the potential here for an arts community. Are we there yet?

Well, I think that we have made a real big jump, but we’re not quite there yet. We don’t have the financial support from some organizations that we should, like the City of Sandpoint and Bonner County.

But so many people are coming to town now who have been involved in arts organizations in other places and we’re just beginning to get together and talk about how to make Sandpoint an arts community. What can we do with the finances and the support we have? How do we diversify that support and come together to say, ‘These are the things we can accomplish in a year.’

Local artist Mary Maio is leading that conversation and I think that’s what it needs — all of us coming together instead of heading off in all sorts of different directions.

How has the gallery scene changed in Sandpoint?

We don’t have a lot of galleries left, which is sad, but we do have diverse galleries now. One of the things I think is wonderful is the support we have gotten from Panhandle State Bank in that enormous, big building downtown. I’ve been putting art in there for almost five years now and Columbia Bank is still allowing us to put art in there and they’re paying for the receptions.

That has become the big gallery in town, this three-story building that’s filled with local and regional artists.

How about public support? Are you seeing new faces at art show openings and similar events?

That’s one of the really delightful things that’s happening at our galleries and the receptions. People who come here say, ‘I had no idea you had this kind of art.’ I have had people stop me in the halls at the bank to say, ‘We come to Sandpoint to see your shows.’ So it’s happening. It really is.

The citizens of Sandpoint are really coming out and coming to galleries and art openings. They’re going out to the venues that have live music and they’re supporting live theatre. That says a lot about us as a community.

Do think art could be a tourism draw?

I hope so. Like I said, the way it’s going to take place is that we all work as a team. One thing that’s helping a lot is that we have some funding from the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency to put public art in town. We have some interesting pieces. We don’t have millions of dollars to pay for public art, but for the money we do have, I think the Sandpoint Arts Commission has done a good job.

Was public art a tough sell at all?

Oh, yes. The first big piece we put in was the (Sand Creek) Arch. It was done by Nelson Boren, who is a very well known cowboy artist. He is a phenomenal individual who worked very hard on this — and didn’t make much money.

We went out and asked the Idaho Transportation Department for signs that he could cut fish out of. We put that first piece up and there was a lot of controversy about it. One First Avenue businessperson was hysterical about it. He said it was the ugliest thing he had ever seen and that it was bad for Sandpoint.

But I learned my lesson, because, when you’re in public art, that happens to you all the time. It’s just part of the job.

Second Avenue certainly turned into a nice, open-air gallery with the sculptures there.

Are there plans to do more as downtown Sandpoint streets are ‘beautified?’

We do have a plan to put smaller pieces like art benches in some areas. We plan on putting things on corners and our next big art project is an entrance into Sandpoint. We’re going to put some art on the big cement wall as you come off the byway. We’d also like to do something underneath the nice archway as you come into City Beach to really make a statement about Sandpoint art.

We also have ideas for the North side of town on the way the Schweitzer. Basically, we just hope to fill the town with art using as much money as we can raise.

Do you believe art is an important component in education?

Of course it is. Art works. It works in education. It’s one of the things I’ve worked on — with a lot of other people — in POAC and with PAFE. School District #84 has done a great job of hiring art teachers for the classroom and Kaleidoscope is still going strong.

Right now, we have a student art show — a human rights art show — at the POAC Office Gallery with students from Sandpoint High School, Sandpoint Middle School at the (Forrest Bird) Charter School.

So, yes — art is important in education. And it’s one of my real missions.

Can you envision a time when the arts won’t need such strong advocacy?

I think it will always be that way in this country. It’s always going to need to have people supporting it. It’s a struggle for all kinds of art, not just the visual arts. There’s always going to be a financial issue, as far as supporting those programs.

Turf consciousness has sometimes been a challenge when arts organizations tried to work together in the past.

Are these groups more aligned today?

I think so. It’s not only includes the arts organizations, but also the cities and the Chamber of Commerce. We’ve got to get the whole group in there to hear the message: ‘If you want Sandpoint, Idaho, to be a destination arts community, all of these people have to work as a team.’

Can you paint us a picture of what that destination arts community looks like in the future?

Well, there are two art districts with the Panida as the hub. First Avenue is one arts district. The other is going to happen over by where Evans Brothers Coffee is. And that’s a different kind of district. We think it would be a good place to have artist’s studios. You live upstairs, you paint downstairs and you sell downstairs.

Sandpoint’s BoHo District?

Yes, absolutely. It’s the way almost all cities (are renovating) things like warehouse districts. I’m hoping we can do something on a smaller scale, but I think that’s where we need to go in this town. And there are a lot of artists coming to town who would want to live here, but they can’t have their studio in their home.

I think it’s already happening over there. Evans Brothers has its gallery, there’s theatre in the old granary building and the Heartwood Center is right next door.

How has your personal involvement in teaching art affected the way you look at art?

If I had my life to live over, I think I might have been an art teacher — rather than going into a field where I could make money. (laughs)

No, but had my life been different, that is what I would have liked to become. I’m doing more and more art education these days, not only in schools, but I have probably three artists a week who come and ask me to talk to them about their work. That makes me feel good.