New Arts Council leader sets focus

Kara Dirksonbecame executive director of the Sioux Falls Arts Council in late 2016. She previously served as director of the Visual Arts Center for the Washington Pavilion.

Question: How did you become interested in your field?

Answer: It feels like a natural progression and culmination of my personal interests, past experiences and professional strengths. The arts and humanities have always been my natural inclination. This was solidified for me intellectually in college when I took part in an interdisciplinary program called the Great Conversation at St. Olaf. A passion for the arts combined with what I think is a propensity for leadership, strategic thinking/planning and relationship-building make arts administration and advocacy a good fit.

Q: What attracted you to the opportunity with the Arts Council?

A: Its tremendous potential. Seeing what it can be and the challenge of getting it there excite me. Previously I focused on ‘smaller picture’ arts in my business endeavors and oversight of the Visual Arts Center at the Washington Pavilion. This opportunity allows me to work on a much bigger scale connecting Sioux Falls’ many arts organizations to one another and connecting the arts community as a whole to economic and community development efforts, not to mention the City of Sioux Falls.

Q: What are some of your first goals in the new position?

A: Begin implementation of the Sioux Falls 2014 Cultural Plan, roll out the results of the 2017 Arts and Economic Prosperity study, and redefine the role of the Sioux Falls Arts Council as an agent of more deliberate and coordinated arts efforts in our community.

Q: If you change one thing about the local arts scene, what would it be?

A: Andy Patterson at the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation recently described affordable housing efforts in Sioux Falls as being ‘program rich and system poor.’ The same is true for our arts community. We have a plethora of arts programming, arts events and arts organizations in our city – so many that existing residents and businesses, newcomers and tourists don’t know quite how to approach the “arts community.” We need to define our arts ecosystem and cultivate it in conjunction with other community development efforts. Sioux Falls can be even more competitive when it comes to workforce development, economic growth and overall quality of life with a more coordinated and deliberate approach to the arts.

Q: What do you think are the best and worst things about living in Sioux Falls?

A: After growing up in Sioux Falls, living out of state for 10+ years and traveling a bit of the world, I found that for me, all roads lead back here. For better or worse, I love Sioux Falls; it’s home.

THE DIRKSON FILE

Name: Kara Dirkson

Title: Executive Director, Sioux Falls Arts Council

Hometown: Born Freeman, S.D.; grew up in Sioux Falls

Age: 41

Background: Bachelor of arts from Augustana University and master of science from Minnesota State Unviersity, Mankota.

Career: former educator, art appraiser, dealer and consultant, past Visual Arts Center Director at the Washington Pavilion.

Family: 10 year-old daughter, bonus son, 17, and bonus daughter, 22; husband, Doug Daniels.

Interests and hobbies: Game nights with my family, being a patron of the arts, TED Radio Hour podcasts, reading (Siri Hustvedt, Ian McEwan), current events (BBC News app, The WEEK, Argus Leader Media app (no, I am not pandering!), “curating” my contemporary home.