About 200 arts supporters, patrons and artists gathered Friday, March 7, for the 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards at Robinson Center, 426 W. Markham St., Little Rock.
The event was broadcast by Arkansas PBS at https://www.youtube.com/live/QrdvQ96-tzU. Photos of the event, courtesy of Arkansas Tourism, are available HERE and on our social media accounts. Short films about the award recipients were unveiled during the ceremony and are available on our YouTube channel.
2025 awardees were:
- Mayor Robert "Butch" Berry of Eureka Springs - Arts Community Development Award
- TheatreSquared of Fayetteville - Arts in Education Award
- Procter & Gamble in Fayetteville- Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts Award
- Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild in Springdale - Folklife Award
- Suzanne Underwood Rhodes of Fayetteville - Individual Artist Award
- The Dulcimer Shoppe in Mountain View - Judges Recognition Award
- Brigita Gardner of Roland - Patron Award
- Becky Witsell of Little Rock - Lifetime Achievement Award
Since 1991, the annual awards program has recognized individuals, organizations and businesses for their outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. Recipients are nominated by the public, then selected by an independent panel of arts professionals.
“The Governor’s Arts Awards recognizes and honors the supporters, patrons and artists who have helped build and strengthen Arkansas’ thriving arts community,” said Shea Lewis, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “This annual program gives us the opportunity to showcase their contributions to Arkansas’ arts and creative economy, improving the quality of life for all Arkansans.”
Awardees received an original piece of artwork by Ed Pennebaker and spoke about their work during the event.
Awardees were:
Mayor Robert "Butch" Berry of Eureka Springs, Arts Community Development Award
Mayor Robert “Butch” Berry has served three consecutive four-year terms as the mayor of Eureka Springs. He is a third-generation native of Carroll County and understands the importance of advocating and nurturing the arts in Arkansas’s first authentic arts village.
The Eureka Springs arts scene has benefited greatly because of his consistency in office. Under Mayor Berry’s leadership, the town has received national and international recognition as a premiere arts destination by multiple publications, including Southern Living and Travel + Leisure.
With Mayor Berry’s active participation on the Eureka Springs Arts Council, over 34 new public art installations have been added throughout the city, as well as the Harmon Park Art Trail. A minimum of two new public art installations created by local artists will be added each year after securing dedicated funding from the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission.
In his role on the advisory board of Opera in the Ozarks, the mayor was instrumental in securing a $34 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation to build a new theater and expand Opera in the Ozarks into a year-round performance venue and education center for all performance arts.
Eureka Springs is one of Arkansas’s top tourism destinations, known for its quirky and diverse arts scene. Mayor Berry’s initiatives and support have been instrumental in attracting 1.5 million visitors a year and the financial benefits that comes with cultural tourism.
TheatreSquared of Fayetteville, Arts in Education Award
TheatreSquared (T2) in Fayetteville is the largest professional, nonprofit theatre in Arkansas. Founded in 2005, the theatre company is one of mid-America’s leading laboratories for new work, having launched more than 70 new plays. T2 was recognized with a prestigious Obie Award for their innovative work in 2022. T2 now reaches 75,000 patrons a year with their productions, education programs and community events.
TheatreSquared’s audience includes tens of thousands of students and their teachers. T2 partners with schools from Northwest Arkansas to the Delta Region, to give students in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri access to free and low-cost live performances and arts-based learning opportunities. One program, the T2 Schools Tour, brings the performance directly to junior high and high school students. This program allows students to experience an original, live production tied to Arkansas core curriculum standards. The performance is followed by workshops for students and professional development for staff. T2 also offers long term in-school teaching artist residencies and several apprenticeship programs for aspiring young professionals.
Proctor & Gamble in Fayetteville, Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts Award
Procter & Gamble is a branded consumer products company that began 185 years ago. For over three decades, the regional office of Procter & Gamble in Fayetteville has demonstrated sustained commitment to the arts and culture in their community. The local P&G office has provided arts funding to the Walton Arts Center that will total $6 million dollars by 2028. Additionally, they provided over $1 million dollars to the 2020 expansion of the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion (AMP.) Their visionary support helped the AMP become the thriving, world-class entertainment site it has become today.
Proctor & Gamble's ongoing support of the P&G Broadway Series at the Walton Arts Center has helped Northwest Arkansas become a key stop for nationally touring Broadway productions. These world-class performing arts experiences attract over 100,000 patrons annually. P&G is a leading sponsor of WAC’s annual Masquerade Ball, helping to raise more than $1.6 million for arts education since its inception. This support impacts more than 25,000 students each year. P&G further supports involvement in the arts and community engagement by purchasing tickets (of significant value) for their employees to attend arts events.
Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild in Springdale, Folklife Award.
The Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild is one of the oldest weaving guilds in the United States. It has served Northwest Arkansas and the surrounding region for 75 years. The guild was established on April 5, 1949, when fourteen weavers, traveling from Greenland, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Fort Smith, Rogers and Eureka Springs, gathered in West Fork at the studio of Jane and Jan Jensen.
The guild’s mission is “to promote interest and greater skill in fiber arts, primarily weaving.” Since its inception, the Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild fulfills this mission by conducting public weaving demonstrations and exhibits at local institutions, including the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Scott Family Amazeum, Historic Cane Hill’s annual festival and the Fayetteville Public Library. One of the earliest guild exhibits, originally held in 1954 at guild president Blanche Elliot’s farm on War Eagle Creek, grew into an annual event and what is now the War Eagle Fair.
The Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild is dedicated to preserving the art of weaving by supporting traditional skills while also taking weaving in new directions. It sponsors beginner weaving classes as well as advanced workshops for weavers interesting in learning new techniques. Its monthly meetings at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale are open to the public and include educational programs and a chance for weavers to share their work.
Suzanne Underwood Rhodes of Fayetteville, Individual Artist Award
Suzanne Underwood Rhodes is a poet, educator and published author. Rhodes was named Poet Laureate of Arkansas by Governor Asa Hutchinson in January 2022. She has used her position to advance poetry through mentoring, readings and workshops throughout the state.
Rhodes has published six books of poetry, with the most recent a chapbook titled The Perfume of Pain, released this summer by Kelsay Books. She also has two published books of creative prose, and her work has appeared in Southern Voices and several other anthologies. Before moving to Arkansas in 2018, she taught writing, literature and poetry at King University in Bristol, Tennessee and wrote, taught and published her work while in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
She founded the Ozark Mountain Poets group in 2020 and is a board member of the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas. Her lyrical poems often explore personal history, the natural world, historical figures, and spirituality.
Some of Rhodes's outreach work includes conducting poetry workshops at the Magdalene Serenity House for formerly incarcerated women. The program provides a creative outlet, gives the women a voice, and has produced a book of poetry and creative prose created by the residents called Today There Have Been Lovely Things. She also hosts a “Poetry on Purpose” meeting twice a month for residents in a memory care center at Butterfield Trail Village in Fayetteville. The Fayetteville Public Library is a regular host of Suzanne's poetry workshops and readings.
The Dulcimer Shoppe of Mountain View, Judges Recognition Award
The Dulcimer Shoppe in Mountain View, Arkansas is the world’s largest builder of mountain dulcimers. Visitors to the shop can watch dulcimers being made through the large windows in the back. Every hand-crafted dulcimer is signed and numbered. Nearly 66,000 have been built and purchased by customers from around the world.
Original owner, Lynn McSpadden created his first dulcimer in 1962. Lynn and his brother Larry opened the first shop in Forrest City but moved to Mountain View with the opening of the Ozark Folk Center in 1972. The tools, jigs and methods developed by the McSpaddens are still being used today. The instruments are hand-crafted onsite by a team of local artisans.
The Dulcimer Shoppe and current owner, Tim Grothen, host an annual dulcimer festival that includes workshops for various skill levels and performances by instructors. Employees in the shop are always eager to show visitors how to play the mountain dulcimer and staff have also developed how-to books for playing the instrument. For the past 50 years, winners of the national mountain dulcimer competition at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas receive a dulcimer from Arkansas’s The Dulcimer Shoppe as their prize.
Brigita Gardner of Roland, Patron Award
Brigita Gardner joined the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO) Guild in 1988 serving as its president in 1997. She became a member of ASO’s board of directors in 1997. Gardener has played a significant role in the organization’s success over the past 36 years. Most recently, she led the fundraising committee for ASO’s Stella Boyle Smith Music Center. Her dedicated fundraising efforts helped ASO reach its $11.75 million-dollar capital campaign goal and open the doors to the new music center this past September.
In 2002, Gardner co-chaired ASO’s signature event, the Designer House, raising over $110,000 and again in 2008, raising a similar amount. In 2003, she chaired the ASO’s 35th Anniversary Recording Project producing a CD of the organization’s history in music and interviews with life members of the board. In 2009 when the organization was experiencing financial hardship, she led the ASO board’s peer-to-peer fundraiser, helping to grow their annual fund to over $1 million dollars. With assistance from the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, she developed the Guild’s “Orchestra & You” program for students in grades 1-3. She also served on the search committee for ASO’s current music director, Geoff Robson. For nearly four decades, Gardner’s volunteer work has benefited Central Arkansas through the music education programs and live symphony orchestra performances presented by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Becky Witsell of Little Rock, Lifetime Achievement Award
Becky Witsell is a visual artist specializing in the preservation and restoration of decorative arts elements in historic structures, buildings and homes. Her work involves researching the original artisans and the techniques used for decorative stenciling, graining, marbling, and interior murals. Witsell is known for her historically accurate and precise restoration processes. Her list of projects includes many historic homes in Little Rock, as well as the restoration of the “Over-the Jumps” carousel at the Little Rock Zoo. Her work can be seen at the historic bathhouses in Hot Springs, the Villa Marre, The Old State House, the Arkansas State Capitol.
Witsell earned her BFA in Painting and Printmaking at Washington University in St Louis. She has been honored by Historic Preservation Alliance and the National Association of Women Business Owners (Central Arkansas Chapter.) The legacy of Becky and her husband Charles Witsell has been so significant that Preserve Arkansas has established a scholarship in their names to fund training to other Arkansans in the technical aspects of historic interior preservation.
For more information about the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Awards and a list of past recipients, visit https://www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-art-council/aac-programs/governor's-arts-awards.