By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Teresa Fankhauser, the longtime executive director of the St. Joseph Allied Arts Council, is retiring.
Fankhauser says she's had a passion for the arts her entire life, and to be able to put that passion into action means everything
"I've always had that access and as an adult I realized not everybody did and thought this is important," Fankhauser tells reporters. "And so, when I had the opportunity to come work for Allied Arts Council whose mission it was to bring arts and people together, it was like ok this is where I need to be, this is where I want to be."
Fankhauser has served nearly 20 years on the council, helping bring many fun art centric activities to St. Joseph. One she's most proud of? The downtown sculpture walk.
Fankhauser says she's extremely proud of the sculpture walk, which was conceived from a visit to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but blossomed into something of its own.
"That first year we tried it, we didn't know for sure what was going to happen, but it was so successful and has just grown every year," Fankhauser explains. "It has really become a community project, so if a sculpture gets moved or goes away, we're getting calls, did you know this sculpture is you know, and so it's total buy in from our community which that's how you know that something is important."
Fankhauser says the sculpture walk was developed as a way to help downtown, with people eating at restaurants and shopping at local businesses.
Fankhauser will retire in the Spring of 2024 to be able to spend time with family, but also continuing to advocate for the arts in St. Joseph.
Out of all the accomplishments Fankhauser achieved during her tenure, one stands out as special, bringing at the time relatively unknown Taylor Swift to Trails West in 2008.
"I wish we could say we had a magic bullet and crystal ball, we don't, but more often than not the talent that we brought into St. Joseph, those country artists, those what we call baby acts, a lot of them really made it onto the big stage if you will," Fankhauser points out.
Fankhauser jokingly says that St. Joseph deserves a thank you after Swift was recently named Time Magazines 2023 Person of the Year.
A search for the next executive director will be underway soon.
