Debora Soulé, the director of the Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs, doesn’t like being the center of attention, but she does love bringing recognition to the importance of the arts and the strong arts community in Sweetwater County. So when it was announced she will be one of the recipients of the 2021 Governor’s Arts Awards, she just saw it as another opportunity to highlight the local arts.
“I feel like what I do is my job, and I shy away from being in the limelight,” Soulé said. “I’m the one that does things behind the scenes, right?”
While she would rather have the artists themselves be recognized, Soulé also understands that the Governor’s Art Awards are divided into categories that include arts administrators, which is what she was nominated for.
Established in 1982, the Governor’s Arts Awards recognize excellence in the arts and outstanding service to the arts in Wyoming. The awards are given to artists, art patrons, arts administrators and art organizations across the state every year.
“Reading the nomination and the support letters was very humbling,” Soulé said.
Although Soulé will be the one receiving the award at the banquet in Cheyenne in February, she credited others who help make the work she does as an arts administrator possible.
“I have to work with the artists and others in our community that help support the events and programs that we put on,” she explained. “So it really is a team effort.”
Soulé’s work as an arts administrator includes duties like scheduling exhibits and performances, caring for collections of art, working on budgets, organizing and switching out displays, coordinating shows and artist visits, working with the Sweetwater County Library System on displays at all the library locations, and generally doing the “behind the scenes” work people may not consider when they enjoy a display or performance.
Soulé also sees the award as a win not just for her and the artists she works with, but for the whole community.
“The biggest benefit, to me, of receiving that award, is the attention that Sweetwater County and specifically the Community Fine Arts Center is going to receive,” she said. “State-wide I think we’re kind of forgotten, and we’re not really looked at as a big arts community, but we really do have quite a bit going on here.”
The last time a Sweetwater County resident received a Governor’s Art Award was in 2009, when Louise Wesswick was recognized.
Being nominated and selected for this award was encouraging for Soulé.
“It reaffirmed what I’ve been doing is good, it’s necessary, it’s being recognized by others,” she said.
The importance of Soulé’s work directly connects to the importance of the arts in general — a message she is passionate about sharing.
“There are so many things that the arts give to us,” Soulé said. “The arts are really important because that’s what makes our lives better, is being either able to create or appreciate creations by other people.”
Art surrounds us, Soulé pointed out, from music we hear to buildings we see to the designs on our cereal boxes. She also said the arts are important in multiple areas, from our individual emotional wellbeing to financial and economic benefits for our community.
“Arts hit every aspect of our lives,” Soulé said.
In the future, Soulé hopes this award and her ongoing work will bring “a continued growing of awareness that art is important in everyone’s life,” as well as bringing even more recognition to local arts. Soulé hopes more people will be aware of the Community Fine Arts Center and there will be more opportunities for a variety of performances, exhibits and classes to showcase art and help more people discover the joy of creating art themselves. Soulé often shares a quote from Kurt Vonnegut which says art “is a way to make your soul grow.”
“That’s why the arts matter,” Soulé said. “It makes us bigger and better human beings.”
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