Townsend Durant Wolfe III was a native of Hartsville, S.C., and came complete with a sugar-cured accent and an aristocratic manner to match his tobacco-country origins. For more than three decades, his was the drawling voice of the Arkansas Arts Center, presiding over its growth not just in attendance, prestige and monetary value but national recognition. His was a love story--with Arkansas, with his beloved wife Brooks, and with life and art, all of which seemed to blend into one and the same with him.
Like any true aristocrat, Townsend Wolfe was a democrat when it came to recognizing quality regardless of race, creed, color or any other irrelevancies. He could walk alongside kings and commoners with the same grace, for he seemed to the manner not just born but reborn with every work of art he encountered and encouraged others to appreciate. The man was the best kind of magician, not just understanding and creating his own magic but allowing others to cultivate theirs.
Imagine: an artist and collector of the first rank who was also a top-notch administrator. It's rare enough to come across just one of those qualities in a man--or woman--but for a whole state to be blessed by such a presence . . . Well, it's not just a blessing but an enchantment.
To quote his longtime friend Curtis Finch, a former Arts Center trustee, on the inexhaustible subject of Townsend Wolfe: "His passion for art was his greatest character trait. He wanted to make everybody a part of it. The Arts Center was not an elitist organization at all. He catered to people from all walks of life. It was [he] who insisted that there be no admission charge. The Arts Center was there for everybody."
Just as relevant, if not more so, Townsend Wolfe didn't patronize anybody. He seemed to think we were all part of a self-selected elite united by art and the love of it. He had to be conscious of his effect on others, yet there was not a trace of self-consciousness about the man. He seemed to assume that a love of art came as naturally to the rest of us as it did to him. Yes, he was mannered, but his mannerisms came naturally to him, as anyone can testify who ever talked to him through a haze of cigarette smoke and fellowship. Art lovers unite! You have nothing to lose but your self-consciousness.
If you seek Townsend Wolfe's monument, just look around. For there are plenty of nominations to choose from. He never ignored the local level despite his jet-setting around the country to curate other exhibitions. Townsend the Magician opened the Decorative Arts Museum in Little Rock's Pike-Fletcher-Terry House, a Greek Revival mansion that was given to Little Rock's citizens so the Arts Center could make use of it. And indeed, that's just what the locals have done. Or as Curtis Finch put it, his friend Townsend "was the most important person in cultural affairs in Little Rock for nearly 40 years." Without ever being self-important but just his own, imperfect self. The man was perfect in his own way.
"He created the best contemporary drawing collection in the United States," Mr. Finch said of his friend. "He encouraged people in Little Rock to make drawings part of their art collections." What was his passion, he seemed to assume, might be everybody's if only folks were given the chance to amass art collections of their own. As everybody should, and some of us did. And yet Townsend Wolfe never used art as a means; to him, it was an end in itself, its own reason for being. And his.
Editorial on 01/17/2017