There was something attractive about that smaller community for us. We wanted to be in a town where people know your name – where we can form relationships with people that you’ll see as you go about your day.

That’s not the only reason we picked Fort Scott. 

Even though Fort Scott is a town of less than 10,000, they operate like a city three times its size. It's a very impressive town because the people of this town care enough to be involved. Everyone takes part in making this city run. 

That involvement leads to a strong sense of hometown pride and a deep love for each other. You can just tell the love for each other when you step foot into this community. The priority that Fort Scott places on community is another big part of why we love it here.

When we hit the county line, we feel like we’re home.

Fort Scott operates at an entirely different speed than the city. Anyone could tell you that. It’s almost like you can take a deep breath when you’re here and start to find some piece that you’ve lost when you live in the city.

Small towns like Fort Scott have a way of bringing life back into focus both personally and artistically. When you can slow down a bit, you can find your focus again. You start to dream again when you’re out here.

It’s a place like this that really gives us that breath of fresh air we need as artists. We get our creative vision back. The sunsets, the landscapes, the horizons. They call it God’s country for a reason.

First, we just want serve our community. We want to bring a piece of us into our community that would not necessarily be here otherwise.

We want to bring in other artists from around the country that will bring even more artistic diversity to our county.  This cross-pollination gives our entire community the chance to learn something new and fresh from an artist they would never run into otherwise. You don’t typically have opportunities like this in a small rural community, and that’s one of the things we want to bring to our community.

Second, we want The Artificers to be a comfortable, hospitable place for everyone to just visit. We want you to feel comfortable coming in and looking at art. It’s not your traditional, stuffy art gallery. We want this to be a place that is warm and inviting.

Third, from our community standpoint, we ultimately want to start influencing the entire region. What does it look like to bring cities and communities within a two hour radius into our town for a weekend? 

Fourth, we also feel, in a sense, connected to the land. We like taking things from the land in our community and using those in our sculpture. Right now, we're harvesting wood and clay from Southeast Kansas that will be used directly in art we are creating. 

It's not just coming and having an experience at The Artificers that we care about, but it's also having people who visit have a holistic experience of Fort Scott.