Explore.
We know our community doesn’t stop at our front door. The Arts Council encourages engagement with our community as a whole both through art and in many other ways.
experience.
Educating the public about the arts is an important part of creating a strong community. The Arts Council is constantly striving to bring unique programming directly to our community.
share.
Art makes some of the best gifts out there. Come by the gallery for unique, handmade, one-of-a-kind works to share.
Mission
The mission of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri is to provide a forum for residents and artists of the Southeast Missouri region to explore, experience and share in the diversity and excitement of the visual, literary, performing, culinary, and healing arts.
Educating the public about the arts is something that the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri believes is an important part of creating a sustainable artistic community. We strive to do this in many ways:
Hosting free monthly programs at our gallery, including exhibitions, classes, demonstrations, lectures, and Q & A sessions with locals who are involved with the arts in various capacities, across many disciplines.
Partnering with local schools and community organizations who serve underserved and under-resourced youth to provide after-school, arts education programming
Partnering with local organizations like the VA and Blue Sky Community Center to provide meaningful multidisciplinary arts education programming for veterans and persons with disabilities.
Keeping our newspaper and other media outlets informed of upcoming events and projects so that they may disperse the information residents of our region.
Keeping our members, patrons, and community-members informed about workshops and opportunities for continuing their education in the arts.
Developing meaningful partnerships with artists and arts organizations across the SEMO region to develop programming that is responsive to the needs expressed by communities.
We are always striving to bring the artistic community and the public together through new experiences. If there are any ways you feel that we could improve upon the Arts Council’s implementation of the organization’s mission, please contact us! We would love to hear your suggestions.
Important Announcement
A note to our valued members and followers:
Hello, friends. Kelly here.
I don't often speak in the first person online on behalf of the Arts Council, but the news we are sharing necessitates all the heartfelt sentiment one can muster in this medium.
Being a part of this community has helped me realize that everything is possible with collaboration, love, passion, and hard work. The first three come easy, the last is slow and laborious, albeit an essential part of learning. In that process, I have learned that it is the first three that matter most. When I think of the collaborations I have been a part of during my tenure at the Arts Council, I am humbled by how blessed I am to work with my best friends every day. Even in the challenges, I find myself surrounded by talented, compassionate human beings who support one another, inspire one another, and continually re-imagine what is possible.
When looking for a new home for the Arts Council, it was hard to align our needs and wants with our non-profit budget. But everything works according to a clock and plan much greater than our human understanding. At a moment when we felt the weight of indecision, our friends at Rust Media, Jeff Rawson and Gary Rust, informed us that the owners of Peachy Keen would be focusing their attention on their new Roni's adventure, and that a space at Scout Hall would be open to us. The prospect of this was too good for us to pass up.
So our news, friends, is that our new home is the Scout Hall building on Broadway.
This is more than a building. This is a new heartbeat for the arts in our community and region. This is an opportunity for all of us to have a creative home...to dance, to laugh, to learn, to experiment...and to let every day of our lives be filled with wonder and friendship.
This is the dream. You are invited to make it a reality.
Our Team
Kelly Downes - Director
Kelly Downes grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and moved to Cape Girardeau in 2015. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities (Fine Art/History) from Michigan State University, and holds a second Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education from Southeast Missouri State University.
She is currently serving on the boards of the Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies (MACAA) and the Jack Finney Foundation, and was awarded the 2022 “Heart for Art” award by the Missouri Art Educators Association. Kelly is a RYT 500-hour trauma-informed yoga instructor, with additional training through Yoga East Healing Arts and Mindful Schools in Non-Violent Communication, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Meditation, and Centering Prayer.
She is passionate about the cross-section of art and activism, and creativity and consciousness, and is particularly interested in the ways that the Humanities can be utilized to create self-sufficient economies, and sustainable prosperity for all living beings. She is very excited to be a part of the arts in the Cape Girardeau community, and hopes that her enthusiasm for all of the arts translates into community engagement with the visual, literary, performing, culinary, and healing arts.
Her life’s greatest joy is her son, Bob.
Lauren Bishop - Gallery Manager
Lauren Bishop is a Cape Girardeau native and often claims she was raised at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) and the Arts Council. Her father was the art history professor at SEMO for most of her childhood so this art community has always felt like home to her. She served on the Arts Council Board as treasurer from 2020 until she became Gallery Manager in 2023.
She received a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from SEMO with her emphasis areas being art, art history, French, and technical graphics. She spent her last semester of school studying abroad in Angers, France.
Lauren also teaches private violin lessons at the SEMO Music Academy. She serves on the Music Academy Board as well. Aside from teaching, she plays violin in various trio and orchestral gigs. She joined the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra in fall of 2024.
Her favorite part of being an artist is helping others find their inner creativity. She believes too many people assume that being an artist solely means you paint a picture on canvas, so she wants to help everyone see their own artistic achievements. Whether you love to dance in your house while you clean, can cook a five-star meal, or have thousands of followers on social media because you have perfected making Reels- that is all creativity to be celebrated!