Funk leaving top spot at Arts Council

BROOKINGS — The Brookings Arts Council is searching for a new executive director after Rachel Funk announced she was leaving the position after more than four years.
Funk, who began the job as interim director in June of 2022, said she is going to focus more on her own work moving forward.

“I’ve really liked working here. It’s just time,” she said. “I’m glad that I was able to oversee the growth that I was able to. I’m glad it was significant and noticeable because it was obviously very significant for me and my staff. But I’m glad that the community also noticed.”

Under Funk’s direction, the BAC greatly expanded classes, offering the community more chances to experience art as something that all people do rather than as something hanging on a museum wall.

“I just wanted people to feel more comfortable just making stuff, whether it was to be a finished product that is displayed or not,” Funk said. “Like maybe you can just throw it away when you’re done. I just wanted people to be more comfortable physically making stuff, especially with them damn phones — and me included. So my goal for the classes is to make them more intellectually accessible. Get out of your head and just be making stuff. And that has led some people who started as, ‘I’m just going to take this class’ to getting a little bit more serious about it. And then sometimes they end up putting things in our fine art show.”

In a statement sent to their mailing list, the BAC congratulated Funk on a successful tenure:

“Since 2022, Rachel has poured so much time, creativity and care into the BAC and into the Brookings community. From teaching classes and curating galleries to planning events and finding new ways to keep the arts accessible and welcoming, she has helped make the BAC the fun, creative, inclusive place that it is today.”

The Brookings Arts Council was first formed in 1969 and officially incorporated in 1973. It serves as a regional hub for arts and culture and maintains the building it occupies at 524 Fourth St. — the city’s original Carnegie Library.

Funk also helped modernize the BAC, overseeing updating both internal and forward-facing software and directed a revamp of the group’s branding across all platforms.

Funk, who has a ceramics degree, also broadened the BAC’s ceramics program, including adding equipment and offering space to local potters and ceramic artists.

She also helped create some of the murals downtown which have become almost instantly iconic, including the “Love” mural in the alley off Fifth Street in Downtown Brookings.

Funk said she has a lot of work already lined up, including a mural commission at Lake Poinsett, some skilled restoration of some art around town, and plenty of ceramics work both in Brookings and Sioux Falls.

“I’m just excited to be more creative of my own volition for my own reasons and at my own pace for a while,” Funk said. “And it’s kind of exciting that enough people know who I am now that they’re like, ‘Oh, I know you and like you, and I’m gonna buy your stuff.’”

Funk’s last day at the BAC will be the end of September and she said the board was putting together a job description for a new director, though they may choose to have an interim director for a time while they hunt for a permanent replacement.
Funk said leaving the BAC would be bittersweet, but that she needed to focus on her own work for the time being.

“I just had more of those types of things that I want to focus on. And taking this job was — I care about the mission a lot. But I haven’t been able to make my own work to the level that I really need to for a while now.”

The BAC’s juried fine art show is currently up at the Fourth St. location. Check their website at brookingsartscouncil.org for times.

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor and welcomes story tips and comments at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com