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Charles City Arts Center welcomes new director

Director Davidson holds background in design, portraiture, administration

By Kate Hayden | khayden@gmail.com

Charles City Arts Center director Jackie Davidson
Charles City Arts Center director Jacquline Davidson. Press photo by Kate Hayden

Jacqueline Davidson has enjoyed some varied backgrounds. Now, she’s settling in as the new director of the Charles City Arts Center.

Davidson directed medical centers in Arizona before her family moved to Charles City nine years ago. She’d been a preschool and kindergarten teacher during her schooling, has a degree in design and worked as the resident artist at the Floyd County Historical Museum for seven years. Davidson has also been a portraiture artist for years.

Starting with the Arts Center’s 55th anniversary, she’d like to re-introduce the center and its resources to the wider community.

“We need to get the community back involved in the Arts Center, and make it feel like a part of the community again,” Davidson said. “I want to start doing some public relations and bringing some people in, particularly the millennials and youth.”

Davidson wants to bring outreach to all corners of Charles City: she’s working with the North Iowa Area Community College to bring in college students, and she wants to work with local employers and the Charles City High School as well to talk about the services the Arts Center has to offer.

“It’s amazing how many technical people started out with art and then went into tech work because they thought it would support them, the way my generation got into the medical field,” Davidson said. “The tech people have done that. They have gone into the tech field thinking ‘This is a stable income right now in hard times, and I’ll do my art on the side’, and then of course you don’t get to do your art on the side. You’re just kind of lost.”

“We are here…when you need to let off some steam or you need to get centered in your mind besides numbers, come into the Arts Center and tell us what you need, and let’s see if we can work it into something for you,” she added.

Plans for the rest of the year following October’s 55th anniversary open house are still in discussion, said Davidson, who started her first day at the center on Wednesday. The anniversary open house on Oct. 7 will showcase permanent collection pieces and honor original Charles City Arts members from 1961. The open house will run from 5-7 p.m., and the permanent collection will be on display until Oct. 28.

In the future, she’d like to collaborate shows with other community, historical or creative groups in Floyd County to expand the center’s outreach. She’d also really like to expand high school students’ involvement in the Arts Center, and work with students to provide the services they want.

“I’d really like to have them come in and spend some time, get some ideas about what they would like to see at the Art Center, and be utilized by them and their friends,” Davidson said.

Davidson herself is a mixed-media portrait artist, and recently complete a piece of Dr. Joe Salsbury that will hang in the Floyd County Museum’s second-floor Salsbury display. Inspired by piece displayed by her English teacher in high school, Davidson strives to connect the portrait to the essence of the subject.

“I don’t know if I’ve achieved that, but it’s been a good journey trying to get there,” she said.

By varying her media, it allows her to get “the exact of what you need,” Davidson said.

“If you limit yourself to just oil, or acrylic or watercolor, that’s it, it’s limited,”
she said. “But if you mix it up, then you can get the sparkle in the eyes.”

For now, her focus will be on the artists within Charles City.

“The most important thing is the artists in this community (are) able to have their place,” Davidson said. “The people that feel like they can’t do their art anymore, they know that they can come here.”

Davidson encourages anyone with interest or ideas for the Charles City Arts Center to contact her during the center’s regular hours, at 641-228-6284.

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