A couple of former Guthrie Center school teachers are leading a sort of art renaissance in Guthrie Center. Former band teacher Dale Menning is the current President of the Guthrie County Arts Council, an organization that has been around only since 2011. Nancita Wernett taught art in Guthrie Center from 1984-1994 and has now formed the Western Iowa Folk Alliance. Wernett says many of the seeds were planted for an arts scene when she was teaching decades ago and she’s glad to see them finally come to fruition. “The talk of an arts council, an art gallery, I like to think I had a lot to do with the very beginning of the seed plantings, and the stirrings and the art shows. We did a lot of things during those ten years, like we used to close down whole sides of streets for art shows. We made a student gallery out of an old building. There’s been a lot of cultivation, I think due to Dale’s teaching, my teaching and the input of lots of others.”
We’ll wrap up our conversation with Wernett today on Let’s Talk Guthrie County, talking more about the flourishing and growing arts scene in Guthrie Center. It airs during the 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. hours on K107.9 and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com
(Some of the artwork inside of Nancita Wernett’s home studio)