To anyone who has followed the work of photographer and multimedia artist John Rankine, art show curator for multiple artists at Brews, it comes as no big surprise that he recently won a $25,000 Creative Impact Award from Artists 360, a group promoting the arts in Northwest Arkansas. But Rankine is still in a bit of a shock.
“It’s a big deal,” Rankine said. “I can hardly believe it. I feel really honored they chose me this round because there are a lot of people who are deserving of this, and I know a lot of them personally. Of course, the money is a super bonus. There are no requirements for what you do with it. I hope this award will open some doors for me, including maybe a retrospective of my work. I am turning 70 in May. I have had a large art installation that has been in my head for over a year-and-a-half, and I would love to have the ideal space that would let that happen.”
Rankine is well-regarded for his work encouraging other artists, including inviting them to do shows at Brews. He loves artists coming together although he admits that “pulling together sixty different artists is like herding cats. But community has always been a large part of what I do.”
He said he wasn’t sure about applying for the award but was encouraged by people who wrote letters of recommendation.
“I am humbled by it all,” he said. “I would like to share this award with the art community and Eureka Springs because Eureka Springs is really my inspiration for a lot of the work I’ve done.”
Lucilla Garrett wrote in her letter of recommendation that his 2018 series of 70 photographs entitled Men with Earrings was sensational.
“Carpenters or bartenders, bearded men and bald ones, cisgender or gay or others, the array celebrated masculinity with bejeweled clip-ons,” Garrett said. “The show bent convention with a smile.”
Garrett said the shows Rankine has curated at Brews, averaging eight shows per year for ten years now, have had a staggering impact.
“Among the several women-only shows, including female and those identifying as female, was Post-Barbie held last month,” Garrett said. “Sixty-two artists produced works, including a stunning antique garter belt overlaid with hand-embroidered diagrams of female anatomy. The Gone but Not Forgotten show exhibited revered deceased artists, educating many and generating massive and continuing interest. There were one-person shows like 80-year-old Julie Kahn Valentine’s show, reflecting 50 years of Eureka art. Others have included the ceramic show, Mudslingers, the climate show Fragile, and the bleeding heart-Rise and Shrine exhibit.”
Garrett said it is significant that people come and buy. More significant is that the artists participating range from burgeoning talents, first-time exhibitors, established artists to senior-in-name-only contributors.
“Years ago, a friend said it was a shame that all artists didn’t have an advocate, agent, salesperson and cheerleader,” Garrett said. “Eureka artists and citizens do, and his name is John Rankine.”
Jeff Danos said that as a progressive oasis in a largely conservative Southern state, Eureka Springs is consistently moving forward with inclusive community initiatives.
“If you examine the events and circumstances that push us to take these very important steps, you will often find John Rankine at the forefront, challenging us to break free from our comfort zones, and scrutinize our assumptions,” Danos said. “As a visual artist, John excels at assemblage projects that bring excitement, unexpected insight and holistic balance into view. As a community leader, he applies this same assemblage approach, bringing together a veritable potpourri of local creatives, influencers and business leaders to incite change.”
Danos said that unlike many gallery owners who use their space to highlight only their own work, Rankine instead chooses to elevate those around him. To attend the opening of one of these art shows is to experience the full art scene of Eureka Springs, featuring creatives from all disciplines and backgrounds.
“From the local college-bound illustrator to the 80-year-old master acrylics veteran, from the scrappy ceramic-firing barista to the widowed housewife who has only recently discovered watercolors, John offers them each some wall space and, in doing so, a voice and place within our artistic community,” Danos said. “Through his Men with Earrings portrait series and his unwavering support of LGBTQIA2S+ artist exhibitions, John frequently challenges gender norms and prejudices, providing crucial support and context for a community often at odds with our more conservative neighbors. And for many a local artist, myself included, John has also provided the opportunity to have our very first solo show.”
Cynthia Kresse lauded Rankine’s work to preserve the identity of Eureka Springs as an arts town.
“John works to keep art front and center by continually generating art events and involving the town,” Kresse said. “The countless exhibits at Brews have included Elevating Art, a fundraiser in 2023 for the local Carnegie Library to replace its aged elevator, where artists repainted thrift store art.”
In 2004, he photographed 70 local artists in the highly regarded Artists Series. Limited prints of each photograph were available, and the intact entire collection was sold and then donated to the Museum of Eureka Springs Art.
“John pulled the entire town together for A Community at Peace, a multi-media event unveiled in 2008,” Kresse said. “He photographed 550 people visualizing peace. At a packed opening, slide show projectors in and outside the gallery clicked the parade of portraits. A compilation of all participants was made into a poster that is still found in many Eureka homes.”
Kresse said Rankine is the constant pushback to artists getting lost amongst the business of tourism in this historic town. She said he is willing to be an agitator and advocate. And he has a broad objective. He wants everyone involved with the arts to do well.
Rankine’s partner of 32 years, Bill King, said no one has done more to promote and encourage artists, involve the community and build an art scene in Eureka Springs.
“Community is often at the center of John’s work, but what he does to motivate, inspire and lift up local artists, and aspiring artists, is monumental,” King said. “His roster of participating artists in art shows at Brews has grown to more than 300 and includes established artists and those showing for the first time. John sets a theme for each exhibition and challenges artists to create new work within the theme, often pushing them to work outside their comfort zones and explore new themes and mediums.”
Rankine’s work often reflects and expresses his passion for social justice, LGBTQ equality, nature, and his fascination with symbols, symbolism and inanimate objects.
Rankine was also awarded the Arkansas Arts Council’s Individual Fellowship for outstanding achievement in the arts in 2011 for his Community at Peace installation, and the Artist 360 individual artist award in 2018 for Men with Earrings.
Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, amplifies and supports Northwest Arkansas artists through grant funding and professional development. Since its inception in 2018, Artists 360 has awarded $1 million to 138 artists living and working in Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Sebastian, and Washington counties through the generous philanthropic support of Tom and Steuart Walton through the Walton Family Foundation.