RUSSELLVILLE — The River Valley Arts Center will honor artists and patrons of the arts Friday at the 13th annual Beaux Arts Academy Awards Ceremony, set for 6-9 p.m. at All Saints Episcopal Church, 501 S. Phoenix Ave.
This year’s inductees are Dr. Stanley and Maysel Teeter of Russellville, Lifetime Achievement; Bill and Sharon Eaton of Russellville, Patron of the Arts; Judy Olson of Dardanelle, Performing Arts; and Boyd Osborne of Russellville, Visual Arts.
“Russellville is a close-knit group of down-home folks,” said Libby Caston of Russellville, a local artist and president of the River Valley Arts Center Board of Directors. “This year’s inductees into the Beaux Arts Academy are diverse in life — a doctor, a retired educator, a veteran, a community volunteer, a Realtor and a musician. Some act in plays; some paint. Some always attend the River Valley Arts Center’s events and collect works of art. Each one supports the River Valley Arts Center in his or her unique way of giving back.”
Tanya Hendrix, director of the River Valley Arts Center, said tickets to Friday’s event are $50 each and available at the River Valley Arts Center, 1001 E. B St. For more information, call (479)-968-2452.
Hendrix said inductees will receive a unique blackware pottery piece featuring a Spirit Bear emblem designed and created especially for this honor by River Valley Arts Center Artist-in-Residence Winston Taylor.
“I’m so proud of all the Beaux Arts inductees, the talents they bring to our community and their love for the arts,” Hendrix said.
Following is a look at this year’s honorees:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Stanley Teeter and his wife, Maysel Teeter, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Stanley Teeter is a 1960 honor graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. He joined Millard-Henry Clinic in 1965 and practiced family medicine until his retirement in 2001.
Teeter has served the community and Arkansas Tech University in many ways, including holding membership on the Russellville School Board, the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees, the Arkansas Tech Alumni Board, the United Way Board and the Tech Booster Club.
For more than 30 years, Teeter served as the team physician for Arkansas Tech athletic teams and as an unpaid consultant to the university infirmary.
He continues to work at Millard-Henry Clinic one day a week and volunteers at the River Valley Christian Clinic.
The Teeters are active in ministries at First United Methodist Church in Russellville, including a food bank, Manna House.
Maysel Teeter taught school for many years at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville and at Pine Forest Elementary School in Maumelle. She married Stanley and moved to Russellville in 1988. Maysel served on the River Valley Arts Center board for several years. She is a life member of the Junior Auxiliary of Russellville and now serves the Arkansas State Chapter of P.E.O. Sisterhood.
Maysel is also a painter and paints with Sarah Keathley at Lemley House Art Guild in downtown Russellville.
“The Russellville area has always been amazing in that it has an inordinate amount of artists in its midst,” Maysel said. “We have been collecting local art for many years in hopes of supporting these gifted people.
“We are stunned by this honor from the Arts Center. There are so many deserving people who share our passion for supporting the arts. We feel very honored to receive this recognition.”
Patron of the Arts
Bill and Sharon Eaton of Russellville will receive the Patron of the Arts Award.
Born in Russellville, Bill Eaton lived in several other places before returning to his hometown in the early 1960s to attend Arkansas Tech University. Following graduation in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, he planned to pursue a degree in criminology at Tulane University but was drafted by the Army before he could begin graduate studies. He spent 29 years in the military, including time in Vietnam and 27 years in the Arkansas National Guard. He left the Army as a first lieutenant and returned to civilian life and a job in telecommunications. He retired from Century Tel and the National Guard in 2006.
Eaton then entered public service. He served as mayor of Russellville from 2011-2014. He is also a former member of the Russellville City Council.
Sharon Eaton was born in Camden and moved to Russellville when she was 5. She graduated from Russellville High School in 1965 and attended Arkansas Tech, where she met Bill. They were married in December 1966, and following his graduation, she followed her husband throughout his careers in the Army and with various telecommunications companies until retirement.
After the Eatons’ children were grown, Sharon returned to ATU and majored in art, pursuing a longtime interest. She later joined the J.C. Penney Co. and worked in Russellville and Tulsa, Oklahoma, for 17 years, including service as a floor supervisor and assistant manager of the home store in Tulsa.
Sharon serves on the board of The Russellville Symphony Orchestra Guild and the Ambassador Council of Arkansas Hospice River Valley Home; she also supports the River Valley Arts Center. She is an officer of the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 20, and a supporter of the River Valley Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America. She is an avid swimmer and has been involved in water aerobics for many years. She was directly involved in campaigning to get an aquatic center built by engaging others to pass a sales-tax extension that included funding for the facility.
The Eatons have been active in a community drive to build a veterans memorial park near the Bona Dea Trails and Sanctuary.
“We need to raise just a little more money to finish it,” Bill said, adding, “Sharon and I both work to support our veterans.”
Sharon said she “answered the phone when they called to tell us that we would receive this award. All I could say was, ‘Wow. Are you kidding?’
“We were totally surprised,” she said.
Bill laughed and said, “We are not musicians, performing artists or visual artists,” he said. “To be honored for just supporting these artists and what they do for Russellville and the River Valley is amazing. To be told we were being honored for our support just blew us away.”
Performing Arts Award
Judy Olson of Dardanelle will receive the award for Performing Arts.
“This honor means much more to me than other accomplishments, perhaps because it has involved so many of the people here who have helped me, encouraged me and enabled me to have a place to share and perform my music for at least 35 years,” Olson said. “I call the River Valley ‘My little Nashville.’ For me, it’s not about the money or fame; it’s just about hanging out with the people here, playing with other great musicians and contributing my talents to my community.”
Olson grew up in Minnesota, singing and playing instruments in the church where her father was pastor. She wrote her first song, “Just Us Two,” when she was in ninth grade. Olson attended St. Paul Bible College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she majored in music and met her husband, Jim.
“In 1967 we, along with our little boys, moved to Dardanelle,” Olson said. “I wondered what I would do with my music, but I didn’t have to wonder long. There were plenty of churches, and on the weekends, there was The Valley Jamboree in Chickalah, a mile or two from our house. It was started by the very popular Holman family of Dardanelle and was held in the “little red schoolhouse” in Chickalah.
“Two years later, I was on Ralph Emory’s radio show on WSM in Nashville, proudly telling him and the listening audience about it,” she said. “At that same time, I was offered a big opportunity in the Nashville music scene but decided to turn it down because it involved us having to move there. Our boys were young and happy in their environment.
“I came home and wrote a song about an elderly man in Dardanelle who was still so much in love with his very disabled wife,” she said. “I simply titled it ‘Mr. Jones.’ I sang it at the Dardanelle Chamber Banquet that year when Gov. Dale Bumpers spoke, and he invited me to perform at his next speaking event, which I did.
“Bonnie Ring Brown, of the very famous ‘The Browns,’ took an interest in me and my song and offered to produce it, should I decide to record it,” Olson said. “I recorded the song. It was played by small radio stations in Arkansas, but was short-lived when I failed to listen to her wise counsel and professional advice.”
Olson said years later, in 1989, “I was able to make the country charts when I recorded ‘We Need a Saturday Night,’ written by another artist.”
“It was on an independent label in Nashville. Following that, I decided to embrace the good feeling of not chasing anymore ‘Neon Rainbows’ and found my little niche back in my community, the River Valley,” Olson said.
“Main Street Russellville has been ‘Nashville’ to me. They, along with the River Valley Arts Center, have invited me to perform in our Downtown Art Walks, Taste of the Valley, Fall Fest, Reunion ’Round the Rails and many other events. This has been a big part of my life,” she said.
“I’m so proud to be a part of this community, which has promoted and developed our historic downtown in such a significant way,” Olson said. “They have even transformed an old worn-out train depot into an awesome event center with a beautiful stage and park for our community to enjoy.
“Throughout all of this, I have been able to stay home and raise our three sons, who have given us three beautiful daughters-in-law and the sweetest grandchildren. God had a better plan for my life.”
Visual Arts Award
Boyd Osborne of Russellville will receive the Visual Arts Award.
“When Tanya Hendrix phoned me and informed me of the award as ‘Visual Artist’ of the year, I was stunned,” Osborne said.
“I am a Realtor, and I was working on a contract sitting at my desk. My mind was not on art. When I answered the phone, I expected to hear another problem that needed a solution,” he said.
“The number of real estate transactions I regularly am involved with occupy most of my waking thoughts, except when I turn to painting. Painting has always been my retreat. It is a world all its own with complete freedom … freedom of expression to be what I was created to be,” Osborne said.
“Growing up in the small farming community of Catcher, a few miles southeast of Van Buren, I spent endless hours creating new houses out of cardboard boxes that I cut up and glued back together as a child. I received extra credit in sixth-grade science class for catching insects and sketching them in detail. My introduction to art was in seventh grade at Van Buren Junior High School. Pete Howard, my teacher, opened a world from which I have never left,” Osborne said.
“My degree, a Bachelor of Arts in art from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, was a goal I set in Van Buren Junior High School. Upon graduating from UCA, I regret laying my brushes aside for 30 years. I was over 50 years old when I began again. It has taken me 15 years to get back to the same level of creativity I had,” he said.
“The essence of my journey in art has been a spiritual one. My paintings are executed in a continual dialogue with God with a lot of arguing. As I yield to his design for me, I find less struggle in freedom to express my God-given creativity. For most of my life, I argued that ‘talent’ was nonexistent, that anyone could do anything they set their mind to, but I understand now that everyone is talented in different ways,” Osborne said.
“I thank God for giving me the talent and passion to paint, and I thank the River Valley Arts Center for recognizing me in this way,” he said. “I am very grateful. The art colony of Russellville is alive and well, and there are many deserving artists.
“Five artists who have been tremendous encouragers in the past 15 years are Arden Boyce, Barry Thomas, Bill Garrison, Guido Frick and, most of all, Jason Sacran. Thanks to all those who continue to purchase my work so that I can continue my passion.”