The story below is from our September/October 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Roanoke City’s Arts and Culture Coordinator Douglas Jackson is on a mission to unify and strengthen our community through the arts.
Courtney Mailey
Douglas Jackson has always been passionate about literature, so it’s only fitting that the spark that set off a lifetime career in arts-based community development was an English seminar.
“It was my senior year at Duke and that interdisciplinary exploration of place through social records, architecture, literature, art and film tuned me into the built environment and the shaping of community,” he reminisces. “It set me on a path, and it fostered the love of learning.”
Almost four years of Navy service and a move to California later, Jackson made the decision to enroll in UC Irvine’s Urban and Regional Planning graduate program. In preparation for this new educational venture, Jackson worked as an assistant to Irini Vallera-Rickerson, a former art history professor at Orange Coast College who used artwork to teach her students to grapple with what’s transpiring in the world around them.
“It’s hard to unsee all the ways that the arts can engage, inform, incite, heal, catalyze, convene and inspire, and it became natural to weave the arts into all aspects of life,” Jackson says. “What’s unnatural is how we like to separate the arts out as extracurricular or superfluous. They are actually at the heart of things.” Jackson continues to share this perspective with others as he encourages them to see the important role artistic expression plays in building more resilient communities.
After a meaningful five years as a programs manager for a nonprofit, Jackson wanted to take some time to further explore his interest in literature. It was this change in direction that brought him into the heart of the Roanoke Valley in 2004 to study creative writing at Hollins University. But what was expected to be a short two-year stint in the area quickly turned into something more.
His fondness for the arts and knack for community building came in handy when Jackson became a member of the Roanoke Arts Commission soon after graduation. A highlight from his 11 years of volunteer service was becoming a key contributor in the development of Roanoke City’s first Arts and Cultural Plan, a blueprint for boosting the city’s economy, creating more livable communities and finding ways to promote civic engagement and lifelong learning through the arts.
Courtesy of Doug Jackson
The Big Wheel: The Roanoke Arts Commission and close partner the Roanoke Cultural Endowment have been out and about with the Big Wheel of Arts and Culture trivia. Jackson is pictured here at Verses’ Back to Black Art Show with Shaleen Powell, Donna Davis and Cheryl Mosley.
After his term concluded, he sought new ways to stay involved. Just like his mother, Jackson can’t resist getting lost in a good book. “So I thought, ‘What if I work to aggregate our book resources? What would an experiment in community building around books look like?’” In 2017, his brainstorming culminated in the founding of Book City Roanoke, beginning with the launch of a website housing the region’s literary assets.
The Star City’s independent bookstore, Book No Further, opened that same year and became a steadfast supporter of Jackson’s work in the literary scene. “Doug was in the process of planning an area-wide read focusing on Dar Williams’ “What I Found in a Thousand Towns,’” says Doloris Vest, the indie’s owner. The bookshop is also the sponsor of the Book City Roanoke podcast which explores “equity and engagement at the intersection of books and place.”
Following Susan Jennings’ retirement in 2019, Jackson formally rejoined the Arts Commission as the City of Roanoke’s new Arts and Culture Coordinator. But just a few months into his work facilitating new collaborations between city departments, community leaders and artists, Governor Northam issued a stay-at-home order in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Not to be deterred, Jackson and the Arts Commission did everything they could to keep the momentum they worked hard to generate going. A “play-at-home” edition of the Commission’s newsletter included a plethora of activities families could still partake in, such as break out the sidewalk chalk and take virtual art exhibit tours. Many arts and cultural organizations even took it upon themselves to provide educational experiences for children to keep them learning while schools were in limbo.
Courtesy of Doug Jackson
Jackson with Taubman Museum of Art Executive Director Cindy Petersen and Roanoke Cultural Endowment Executive Director Shaleen Powell at the 2022 Arts Pop!, a celebration of Roanoke’s arts and cultural offerings.
“We worked as a community for the community,” says Jackson. “I think it felt good. It certainly felt better than closing up shop would have.”
Cari Gates, former chair of the Roanoke Arts Commission, commends Jackson for the exceptional effort he’s put into unifying our community for the greater good, especially during the hard times. “[He’s been] really engaging and bringing together our artists across Roanoke … not just for art’s sake, but for change’s sake.”
Jackson rallied the community once more in 2020 for an undertaking he calls “one of the most profound experiences [he’s] had as a public servant.” In response to the civil unrest catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd, the Arts Commission joined forces with Roanoke’s Urban Arts Project leaders to create the End Racism Now street mural, a masterpiece that left residents pondering what the future of their city could be.
“I pedaled my bike down every evening during the street closure and, as the sun set and the day’s heat subsided, the hushed space was one of connection and reflection,” recalls Jackson. “The space became one of memorial and tribute, but also of celebration and hope.”
It’s the community’s enthusiasm for making Roanoke a more inclusive, equitable and compassionate place that’s driven many of the Star City’s arts initiatives, including the highly acclaimed “Year of the Artist.”
Made possible through funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Roanoke, the Year of the Artist is an effort to support individual creatives as they make their home a more vibrant, welcoming place to be – something the Arts Commission hasn’t had the resources to do in the past.
Being able to support artists as well as larger arts and cultural organizations is an exciting prospect, shares Gates, as it opens the door for even more Roanokers to become active participants in making positive change within their city. “Doug is really the visionary in that and I think [he] has really promoted this sense of oneness, sense of community and sense of belonging [while] allowing these individual artists to shine as well.”
Courtesy of Doug Jackson
Jackson at Mill Mountain Theatre’s spring 2022 In the Heights production with local poet and author Cathryn Hankla.
After months of preparation, completed YOTA projects began emerging this July, starting with We Are Art: The Roanoke Self-Portrait Project, Jon Murrill’s mural under the 9th Street Bridge and the latest round of inlet murals. Roanoke’s Artists in Residence are spending the year creating artwork designed to prompt critical reflection and address civic challenges, all while beautifying our neighborhoods. The Arts Commission has also distributed Art Matters grants to help fund over 30 projects proposed directly by Roanoke’s own artists with many of which featuring interactive opportunities for the general public to participate in.
When the Year of the Artist comes to an end in June 2023, the intention is to keep the spirit of the year alive indefinitely. “We’re making it the Year of the Artist, but we hope it’s going to be a longstanding change in which we, as a community, engage with artists, welcoming the ideas, energy and can-do spirit into civic problem solving,” says Jackson.
Before living out his dreams of being “an 80-year-old wunderkind” and completing his novel-in-stories, Jackson has lots more arts-centered community building ideas on the backburner he hopes to see through, including a neighborhood-based process for the arts led by the creatives participating in this year’s YOTA programming.
Jackson’s energy, optimism and passion for our city is contagious, so it’s not hard to believe him when he asserts that we have the power to create a community we’re immensely proud to be a part of. “We’ve got the resources, the talent and the ability,” he says. “Let’s get to work.”
The story above is from our September/October 2022 issue. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!