School of Art Assistant Professor and Colleagues Examines ‘Fayetteville Roots’

Adrienne Callander, assistant professor of art.

School of Art assistant professor Adrienne Callander and colleagues Kristie Moergen, Rachel Sullivant and Stacie Burley co-wrote Fayetteville Roots in the recently published Cases on Arts Entrepreneurship examining the establishment, growth and evolution of the local nonprofit organization Fayetteville Roots.

Fayetteville Roots was founded by local musicians (with their partner and local chef, Jerrmy Gawthrop) with a mission to connect the community through music and food.

The case study is based on an in-depth interview with the co-founders, musicians Bryan and Bernice Hembree. Bryan Hembree is also the director of arts and culture for the U of A Center for Multicultural and Diversity Education. Bernice Hembree is currently directing the non-profit’s newest project, Folk School of Fayetteville.

Callander and team examines the entrepreneurial logic the founders exercised and how it contributed to their resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, the case presents the role of a corporate arts grantor and its influence on local arts entrepreneurship.

“Fayetteville Roots is a story about how organizing around music and culinary arts as a means of gathering people together turned out to be a blueprint for navigating both the challenges of the pandemic and the potential of the profound regional funding focus on Northwest Arkansas’s arts ecosystem,” said Callander.

“I love the idea that research coming out of the university can simultaneously coincide with a national audience and a deeply local one,” Callander added.

The case study captures how this local arts organization did not need to pivot its mission to adapt to major disruption. The essential work of supporting and growing human connection, work that became vital to the community’s well-being during the pandemic, was already central to its focus.

This case also provides lessons in business model pivoting, effectual logic, resource leveraging, opportunity alertness and recognition. Readers will be challenged to recognize the influence of multiple stakeholders while maintaining an organization’s mission, identifying advantages and disadvantages for entrepreneurs working with potential investors and how the arts entrepreneurship field continues to grow and redefine how business and arts intersect.

“Adrienne and her team were so thoughtful with their questions and took time to really understand the 13-year history of our organization,” said Bryan Hembree. “The care they took with what we consider a big portion of our life’s work, really shows in the article. There is so much more to creating a music-based non-profit organization than just hosting a yearly festival or booking a headliner. Adrienne and her team understood that immediately and were able to synthesize the complexities of our work into a wonderful document and teaching tool.”

Fayetteville Roots continues its mission to connect community through music via the launch of Folk School of Fayetteville. The Folk School of Fayetteville, located in the historic Walker Stone House near Fayetteville Square, opened May 2023 with as a center for the entire music community and community at large, with spaces for lessons, classes, workshops, jams, concerts, and more. 

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.