For the love of Branson: Civic art

Art is a diverse and deeply expressive medium, and artists contribute to the discipline in uniquely personal ways. My grandfather Mel Tillis was a singer/songwriter who conveyed his philosophy to the world through music, whereas my grandmother Doris Tillis was an artist in the traditional sense of the word. Whether it was through painting, sculpting or storytelling in her own right, she was an eclectic and lovable contributor to many artforms. So, I think it’s fair to say that being an artist is in my blood.

While I’ve spent many years writing stories and songs myself, in adulthood I have found the medium that best expresses my artistic persona. I call it civic art. Now civic art has a traditional meaning and there is even a National Civic Art Society that advocates and promotes public art. However, that often delves into the field of architecture and public sculptures, but I am referring to something slightly different. The kind of civic art I am interested in deals with monuments, plaques, statues and local public holidays that tell the story of a community. I’ve often said that every place has a story, but only the most fortunate of places get their story told.

About ten years ago when I first became involved in local politics, I created an organization called Branson’s Song of Hope to advocate on behalf of Branson’s live music shows and honor the history of the industry. And one of the first things we embarked upon was creating civic art that would make the public aware of the Song of Hope organization. What’s wonderful about those endeavors is often to get to place your organization’s name on something, it has to be for a good cause. So first we participated in the “Adopt-A-Street” program to help clean up Town & Country Road on a biannual basis which surrounds our chamber of commerce giving us a beautiful Song of Hope sign and then we donated $500 to the Historic Owen Theatre so that we could forever “reserve a seat” under the name Song of Hope and place a plaque on the back of that chair in the auditorium.

Next, we turned to the proclamation route! The mayor and I both have a deep love of Branson’s live music shows and therefore we wanted to honor the stars that put our community on the map. Starting with Shoji Tabuchi Day, the mayor and I would ultimately proclaim 20 “Entertainer Holidays” with celebrations accompanying each proclamation as well as pull the historical records of any local holidays that had been named in honor of our entertainment legends in the past. Therefore, a plaque now hangs outside the Branson Council Chambers that lists the mayor’s 30 Musical Holidays for everyone to remember far into the future.

Quite frankly, at this point in my career of civic service, the list of our civic art projects goes on and on. On the small sliver of road that still bears the name Boxcar Willie Dr. in downtown Branson, we placed a plaque on the outside of the city’s campground office commemorating his wonderful career. At the Veterans Memorial Garden on Highway 76 we commissioned a plaque in honor of my grandpa’s military service and planted Irises that came from our family farm in Tennessee. We even ventured outside of the field of music to paint the Branson Pirates logo on the water tower above the RecPlex to let our school children know that we honor and respect their academic and athletic contributions to this community.

All in all, the pride I get from these civic art projects is immense. While I have played the primary role in seeing all of these through, my name doesn’t appear on any of these plaques or signs. For me, that’s not what it’s about. I’m an artist after all, and I let my artwork speak for itself!