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Mission
For more than 35 years, the Brookings Arts Council (BAC) has pursued its mission of "encouraging community connections through the arts by providing a supportive environment for awareness, appreciation and participation."
The BAC strives not only to entertain and educate the public, but also to increase opportunities for artists to gain recognition. Annual Juried Art and Photography exhibitions bring together the work of many regional artists, from the experienced and respected to the new and promising.
The BAC also provides a platform for the community’s youngest artists by partnering with area schools to sponsor exhibitions of work by students from kindergarten through high school.
History
Built in 1914, the building served as a Carnegie Library until 1976 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. While retaining its historic charm, the building has also been updated to better serve the public, perhaps most importantly through the 1996 addition of an elevator to provide greater accessibility.
The inaugural meeting of the Brookings Area Arts Council (BAAC) took place on January 30, 1969, and the organization was incorporated in 1975.
Not long after, the former Carnegie Library building became available, and the BAAC took responsibility for administering the building as the Community Cultural Center (CCC). The CCC, incorporated in 1979, originally had its own board of directors, but for greater efficiency it merged with the BAAC in 1990 under the name Brookings Community Cultural Center. Two years later, the name was changed to the Brookings Arts Council, as it is known today.
The old Carnegie Library continues to provide a unique historic backdrop for the BAC’s modern mission.