Check Out Teri Moore’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Teri Moore.

Hi Teri, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My partners, Mary Kaiser (Business Director) and Kimberly Alsop (Creative Director), and I (Executive Director) live in and around the Augusta, MO, area. Kim and I are artists; Mary is an art and community supporter. Our friends are artists, and the town has a reputation for being a slow and easy place to create where creative people have gathered. We began thinking that we would like to help the community by providing a place for and by the artists to convene, exhibit, teach and learn from each other. We hoped this space would also provide a creative opportunity for all the people living in the area, not just the artists. To this end, we began working with the University of Missouri Extension Service’s Lisa Overholser and GK Callahan, who came to us and helped us organize our thoughts.

Jump forward: Kim, who has lived here the longest, suggested that the Meeting Facility Building in Klondike Park would make the perfect Art Center. Being a County Park, none of us thought it was possible. But because we were following every lead, I arranged a meeting with the Parks Administrative team. They recognized that this wonderful building was lowly used, and putting something in there full-time (an art center) would populate that space for them and help them by providing more traffic for the Park itself. The Parks Department wrote an RFP, answered it with a complete proposal, and worked out the kinks and VIOLA. Sometime later, we have an art center getting ready to open in partnership with St. Charles County Parks Department that we call “The Creative at Klondike.” While we are hosting several pre-opening events, the first of which is January 27 and 28, called “Winter Lights” and designed by our creative Director Kimberly Alsop. This event will be a magical inside/outside winter-themed light installation. On February 21st, we are planning a chocolate, olive oil, and wine-tasting event planned by new board member Robin White. Also, in February, I will begin teaching a six-week class designed to speak to art literacy by talking about and understanding art-making historically while providing guided practice to make work inspired by this new knowledge.

We will hold multiple fibers and non-film analog photography, metalsmithing, and ceramics workshops as the year progresses. All are still in the planning stages. We have three gallery exhibitions planned, with two resident artists and a visiting artist program. We are also working on programs in teacher professional development and corporate, creative team building. As we hope this space will strengthen the creative livability of our community, we also hope it draws more people to us for collaborative learning and sharing in the arts.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The largest struggle we faced was finding a direction. We knew the community would fully support us, and they have! But it took us a while, and the building itself, to see the vision. Because I come from a ground floor level of the building the city of Paducah into the artist community it is, including being a Unesco Creative City in part based on a Visiting artist program of which I was a founding member, I knew that building a space where creating collaboratively was a goal was not only possible but hugely beneficial to all involved. Another area for improvement was timing. Because we were very excited to begin once our proposal was accepted, we were anxious and learned much about patience when dealing with a government agency. It took almost two years from thought to reality. And, of course, start-up capital money coming in to make our dreams a reality will take four the community is and will be a focus in the future.

Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My art is drawing. During the winter months, I work in my studio exclusively on commissions and pieces of my exploration. I have a strong background in the arts in personal exhibitions and the fields of education, administration, and community building. My experience ranges from exhibiting solo and in a group in large and small towns across the United States. These towns include Boston, Chicago, Nashville, and St. Louis but also smaller venues in small towns. Much of my exhibition experience is in Paducah, KY, where I lived for 8 years and was on the ground floor of developing an art community there. Among my proudest art accomplishments, while living in Paducah, Kentucky, I was one of four artists who formed and ran an artist residency program called Paducah Arts Alliance. PAA is, to this day, an active program in that city. PAA was an integral component in the city’s being named one of UNESCO’s creative cities and for bringing international artists to Paducah and Paducah artists to an international stage. Because of my connections with our European artists, I went to Innsbruck to exhibit and teach. Two years later had a dual exhibition with an Italian Painter at Galerie Nothburga in Innsbruck.

How would we have described you growing up if we knew you were growing up?
I grew up on a grain farm in Central Illinois. Being the middle child of a large family, I felt a strong sense of self early on and had enough freedom within certain parameters to explore that sense of self. There were many of us, and the farm life was physically demanding, so I learned early to depend on myself in every way I could. I carry that personality trait today (not always to my benefit). I started making art in High School, and it was the first time I stood out in any significant way. So while I was not the most talented kid in the class, I gained enough positive feedback for the things I made and the way it made me feel to make them that I pursued art making as an adult. Stubborn, determined, empathetic.

Contact Info:

• Website: teri.pb.online and fourriversartscouncil.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terimooreart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teri.moore.100/
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/ACOWMO