Shelli Kerr was recently appointed to the Bella Vista Arts Council Board by the Bella Vista City Council.
She has lived in Bella Vista for almost 10 years and has lived in the Northwest Arkansas area for more than 20 years. She became of interest to the arts council board because of the work she does for the city of Bentonville with public art.
Kerr has been working for the city of Bentonville for 18 years and serves as comprehensive planning manager. Her job involves pulling together the other departments and making sure they are all heading down the same path, she said. She manages census data, research, ordinance drafting, community programs, the Great Neighborhoods program, street cleanups, tree plantings and tree giveaways.
Her work with public art is in a staff support role to the Bentonville Public Art Advisory Committee, which was established in 2013. She said the city sometimes received requests for donations for art on public property, and the committee was established to review and approve those. One such piece is called Triumph and is installed on a roundabout that provides entrance to a multifamily development on Southwest F and Southwest Ranch, she said.
The committee started seeking out artwork and getting proposals and working with artists on installations, she said. They did not receive many more requests on public land. The committee wanted to be more proactive about public art, and every piece so far is outdoors. A lot of the pieces are in parks and along trails, she said.
"I have really enjoyed it, because my background is not in the arts. It has been definitely a learning process. It's been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot. There's so many opportunities for art within that public realm, and I think it adds to the value of the community," she said.
"I'm hoping my experience with supporting the city of Bentonville's committee and watching it grow ... will help contribute to my serving on the arts council," she said.
Kerr has a bachelor of science in community and regional planning from Missouri State (formerly Southwest Missouri State) and a master's degree in the same program from Kansas State University. She was born in Springfield and went to high school in St. Louis.
She has three children -- a son who is a junior at the University of Arkansas, a son who is a junior at Bentonville High School and a daughter who is a third grader at Cooper Elementary School.
"I'm most looking forward to seeing the perspective of a different community, because every community addresses public art differently," she said.