The attached document photo is the founding paper for the Salina Society of Arts. The group was formed by a small group of artists and art lovers who felt Salina needed stronger connections between art, artists, and the public.

The founding was about three years before Salina Arts & Humanities was invented. Salina had an orchestra, a community theatre, a municipal band, and other cultural offerings, but it lacked an artist-led space for exhibition and display of their work. A previous group, the Salina Art Association, hadn’t met for ten years.

A two-year scrapbook of news articles, promotional fliers, club news and events, and other arts related information was donated to Salina Arts & Humanities earlier this week from the archives of the Salina Public Library. It is enlightening to see that despite more than 60 years of community development, hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear someone say “where can I show my work?”, or “how do I connect with other like minds?”.

My answer for the last four decades as a member of the arts community is the same—If you see a void, then be a part of the solution and help fix it. You don’t have to do it alone, but for meaningful things to happen, it takes a champion. One such champion for many years has been Harley Elliott. A newspaper article in the scrapbook was an interview with Kansas Wesleyan University senior Harley Elliott. At the time he was a visual arts major, a writer, and enjoyed singing folk songs around the community.

He described the benefits of being engaged the following way: “It’s one of the best methods of therapy I know of after a nerve-wracking day”, he said, “It’s a case of putting yourself into something.” His advice throughout the article is to be authentic and to stay connected with other creative people.

Please consider being a champion for something you are passionate about and wish to share with others. Anything is possible if you do.