Good People 12 | Good People

5questions Becky Scheinert

With a life tied to creativity, it’s little surprise that she was drawn to MVAC

Story and photo by David Moore

Becky Hallman wasted no time high-tailing it out of town after finishing Guntersville High School, packing her few possessions and all of her youthful creativity with her. When she moved back in 2008 as Becky Scheinert, she unpacked not only a husband and far more possessions than she left town with, but also a broadened scope of creativity begging for release.

She soon joined the Mountain Valley Arts Council, where creativity is a buzzword. A long-time board member, last year she served as president (again) during the group’s 50th anniversary.

Becky was 15 when MVAC was organized, and the fledgling group of volunteers would soon have its first effects on her life and creativity. But more on that shortly.

Her dad, Charlie Hallman, was an administrator with the Army’s correspondence program at Redstone Arsenal and raised herds of cows and a big garden on their farm in Warrenton. Her mom, Edith, taught English and typing at Guntersville High.

“At one time she probably taught half of the town how to conjugate verbs,” Becky says.

Along with her older sisters – Lucy Russell now lives in Aub, Germany, where she’s a retired historical musician; Vicki Robb is a retired real estate agent in La Jolla, California – Becky lived in a household that stressed education.

“It wasn’t, ‘Do you want to go to college?’” Becky says. “It was, ‘When you go to college …’ And woe be onto us if we conjugated verbs incorrectly.”

Later in college, Becky would mail home letters only to have them returned with grammar corrections Edith made with a red pencil. “She took a hard line.”

As a kid, Becky loved to read … especially when it came time to do chores on the farm.

“I got into a lot of trouble for reading,” she laughs. “I read under the bed covers and in the barn and mimosa trees.”

But Edith also encouraged creativity. In fact, she apparently passed on creativity genes to Becky, who produced art before she could spell. She especially enjoyed drawing detailed pictures of people, buildings, whatever – and Edith kept her supplied with drawing paper.

“Mother did not allow her typing students at school to wad up paper with mistakes,” Becky recalls. “Instead, she made them drop paper in the trashcans flat so she could bring it home – instant art supplies! Just turn it over and there’s a clean sheet of paper to use.”

Her sisters were older and her parents worked, so she was a bit of a young loner.

“Growing up in a 50-acre cow pasture with few people to talk to sparked a welldeveloped imagination,” Becky grins. “I’d run away from my babysitter and go to the cow pasture. She would look out with binoculars to see where I was. She could usually spot my fuchsia umbrella.”

For nine years Becky was in 4-H. As a sophomore in 1970 – with no premonitions of her future – she joined the Mountain Valley Singers, the formation of which was the first big project of the newly founded Mountain Valley Arts Council.

As a teen at Guntersville High, she found it all too easy to stay out of trouble.

“I was a straight up kid. No one invited me to fun parties or the get-introuble parties. I was a teacher’s kid.

“When I graduated from high school, I looked around and wondered why people were crying,” Becky adds. “When I left town, I was not looking behind me.”

At Auburn University, Becky struggled with all the options she had for a course of study. Creativity pulled her toward “pure” art, but her practical side looked ahead to landing a job. She ended up with a BFA in visual and commercial arts. After graduating in 1976, she did freelance advertising for various ad agencies and worked for EBSCO Media in Birmingham.

That lasted until the next year when she got a freelance job with an agency that was re-branding a company that bought a half-dozen Jack’s restaurants. Becky had marketing ideas about how to stand out from the competition.

“They didn’t listen,” she says. “They told me not to worry about the marketing and, just paint some colors.”

Ticked off, she returned to Auburn full time and earned an MBA.

“I didn’t want to be a starving artist,” Becky laughs. “My favorite numbers have dollar signs.”

Returning to Auburn is also how she re-met her future husband, Ken Scheinert. They had first met in a marketing class while she was an undergrad, but nothing came of it. As a graduate living in Nashville, he returned to Auburn for a frat party while she was working on her master’s degree, and they met again at a bar. They recognized each other and a year later, after earning her MBA, they married in 1978.

Becky moved to Nashville with Ken where they both worked for South Central Bell. Their son Brett was born there; second son, Daniel was born in Birmingham after the Scheinerts moved in 1985 to nearby Shelby County.

Becky worked in marketing for the former Lucent Technologies, but much of her creativity was funneled into their community … designing lobby decorations, programs and T-shirt logos for various programs, and singing in the Cahaba Chorale and at church.

At home when the kids were small, she’d get a big piece of paper and markers and start drawing something.

“Then I’d stop and pass it to the first

SNAPSHOT: Becky Hallman Scheinert

EARLY LIFE: Third daughter of Charlie and Edith Hallman; grew up in Warrenton, lived in Nashville and Birmingham for 35 years, then moved back to Warrenton in 2008. Her mother had turned 90, and Becky thought she might start needing a bit of help. FAMILY: Married 42 years to Ken L. Scheinert, lawyer in Guntersville. Two grown children: Brett, a game designer in Stockholm, Sweden, and Daniel Scheinert, a film director in Los Angeles. EDUCATION: Graduated from Guntersville High School, 1973, and Auburn University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, 1976, and a Master of Business Administration degree, 1978. CAREER: Started in advertising in Birmingham and then sales and global marketing for various telecom and high-tech companies. Semi-retired but remotely does marketing for Alabama Family Trust and Bradford & Holliman law firm in Birmingham. OTHER ACTIVITIES: Founding member of Art Klatsch; long-time board member and current president of Mountain Valley Arts

Council; choir member at Guntersville First United Methodist Church.

kid,” she says. “It might start with an airplane, then the first kid put a face on it, and then next kid would add big feet. We would just crack each other up.”

Both of their sons went on to have successful, creative careers in video game design and film.

“The creativity gene definitely passed down to both of them,” mom says.

To Becky, creativity has always been more important than the specific medium.

At work, during seemingly endless conference calls in conference rooms, she’d use a white board and draw caricatures of the people they were talking to.

“Everyone was trying not to laugh before I would erase the evidence,” Becky says.

Ken showed his creative side and reinvented himself, taking early retirement to earn a law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford. Not interested in criminal or corporate law, he turned to adult protective services which works mostly through probate courts.

Figuring a small town would be best for his practice, and with Becky’s mom growing older, in 2008 they bought Hallman family land in Warrenton and built a house about a mile from where she grew up. Ever market-minded, Becky urged Ken to install a striped awning for his office in order to standout visually from all of the other attorney offices around the courthouse.

For the last 15 years of Becky’s career, she worked remotely in global marketing; her current part-time work is also remote.

More pertinently, a year after returning to Marshall County, she joined Mountain Valley Arts Council.

“I really did not know what they did, but it said “art,” Becky laughs. “It had the operative word in it.”

Part of the attraction, she adds, is just being around creative people. 1. What were its goals and aspirations when the Mountain Valley Arts Council (MVAC) was formed 51 years ago and how has MVAC achieved those goals?

In 1970, the legislature established Alabama State Council on the Arts and arts councils in all 67 counties. The goal was to nurture the arts – visual, musical, dance and writing – throughout the state. Today, MVAC is one of only about half a dozen of the original councils still operational.

For the past 50 years, MVAC has hosted a wide variety of concerts including Gerhart Chamber Music Festival – now hosted at Snead State Community College in Boaz – and spring and fall concert series by the lake and in the park in Guntersville. In the past, MVAC has brought in the Alabama Ballet and various professional theatre performances in Albertville, Guntersville and Arab.

For years MVAC has held art camps for children which resulted in the spinoff of ARTS – Artists Responding to Students. At artist receptions and concerts, through the Children’s Art Initiative, we collect new and gently used art supplies and distribute them to agencies such as Child Advocates of Juvenile Court, Child Development Centers in Boaz and Guntersville, Crain Court Youth Program and the Child Advocacy Center.

For a dozen years, 200 to 300 K-5 students have participated annually in our Children’s Christmas Card Contest. The MVAC tree in the Guntersville Museum’s Festival of Trees in December 2020 was decorated with matboard ornaments created by some 600 students in that age range.

Over the past 50 years, many Marshall County people have volunteered their time and donated money to make these goals a reality.

2. What aspirations would you like to see realized in its next 50 years?

Looking ahead, even before the pandemic hit, the board was already thinking long term about more digital arts and exhibits. I expect a lot of growth in that area. That will help us expand the reach of Marshall County artists and drive tourism.

We have a strong Facebook presence already and can leverage our website. I can see us interviewing artists and doing virtual exhibits that drive people to say, “Oh, I want to come see that.”

I also can see us offering online classes. We have people who can teach, but we need those who can do videography and post material online. I just haven’t yet found the right warm bodies to work with.

MVAC hopes to grow our role as a clearinghouse for people looking for specific types of artists – everything from watercolor artists, sculptors, to musicians for events.

We also want to collaborate more to cross-promote the arts throughout the county so that more people enjoy what is already available. We have such great options from Snead State Community College and the arts competitions at the county fairs in Boaz, Albertville’s nationally renowned show choirs, Arab’s nationally renowned Arab Musical Theatre, Whole Backstage Theatre, Guntersville’s Art on the Lake show and murals in most schools, including the library at DAR in Grant.

We also post events for The Whole Backstage or when Albertville has its big spring productions. If I see something from Arab Musical Theatre we’ll post it. 3. In February 2020, MVAC moved from the north end of town to 440 Gunter Avenue across from the courthouse. How has the move affected the group’s ability to serve artists and the community?

After 36 or so years renting a historical house in Northtown, MVAC made the move to this much larger facility down the street.

Even at the old location, you would be amazed how many out-of-town people came into our office – as well as the Guntersville Museum and the chamber of commerce. A lot of them are considering the area for retirement. They just show up at our office and say, “We’re from Indiana … We’re from California.”

So MVAC has the opportunity to tell them what else is around the county. And that has increased big time since the move to our new office and gallery. We get lots more walk-ins and street traffic here – and I expect that to only grow in the future.

The move has also allowed us to add a year-round quilt exhibition. We’d been planning it for a couple of years but couldn’t find a viable venue with lots of public traffic. This ongoing exhibit features quilters from throughout the

county. We want to bring quilts out of the bedrooms and closets and showcase the artistry and skills involved.

The exhibit changes monthly. In December we had six big quilts on the walls and three smaller ones plus hooked rugs and a centerpiece table runner appliqué. In May, we are planning an exhibit featuring quilts, smaller quilted items, hooked rugs, hand-woven items and fabric collages.

Our new facility also lets us feature much larger woodcraft – such as Lake Shore Creations’ unique furniture from Guntersville and David Hammock’s sculpture from Arab – as well as much larger visual artwork.

During the pandemic, we’ve hosted outdoor art workshops at the Riverview Campground in Warrenton. But we do now have a dedicated art workshop area at the gallery for MVAC-hosted sessions led by local acrylics and watercolor artists as well as private art workshops.

The Art Klatsch – a group of five lady artists of a certain vintage, including me – often hold our gatherings in this workshop area. We experiment in traditional and unique art media such as painted gourds … and shotgun art.

Shotgun art, of course, is not done at the gallery. Lynda Geddes, one of our members, has a farm in Horton. Ronnie Geddes sets up an old door flat on the ground. We stand cans of spray paint on the door and put paper or a canvas behind the cans. We use a shotgun and shoot the cans – or whatever needs firing at – and the paint explodes onto the canvas.

It’s hilarious fun, and some of the shapes and designs that come out are really cool.

We’d like to do that as a fundraiser, but my husband, the lawyer, keeps saying, “No! No! Liability!”

The Art Klatsch has exhibited some of our shotgun work, though. The medium, they say, is, well ... pick one. It’s the creativity that counts.

Anyway, the extra space at the gallery allows MVAC to host larger and multiple exhibits at the same time. For example, we have hosted two exhibits of artwork by current and former art teachers from throughout the

Mountain Valley Arts Council

The Mountain Valley Arts Council office and gallery is located at 440 Gunter Ave., Guntersville, Ala.

The gallery is open 10 am-5 pm Tuesday- Friday, 10 am-2 pm Saturday and by appointment.

You can join MVAC as an individual for only $50 annually, and other levels of support and sponsorship are available.

Artists and quilters are encouraged to contact MVAC about possibly showing work.

Board members are: Becky Scheinert, president; Kim Klueger, vice president; Cyndy Simmons, secretary; Mason Holcomb, treasurer; Deborah Belcher, Lynda Geddes and Cherri Jones. Betsy Brown is gallery manager.

For more information or to join, visit: mvacarts.org; email: info@mvacarts.org; call: 256-571-7199.

county. We also exhibited MVAC members’ favorite artwork, “A Few of Our Favorite Things.” 4. Besides joining MVAC, how can people participate in the arts?

Funding is critical, of course, and like most non-profits we struggle.

We fund our programs through corporate sponsorships and individual or family memberships. In-kind donations are very helpful, too.

We also need and welcome volunteers and board members to lead various art programs and to be our contacts throughout the county. We also need people willing to help us expand our programs into different areas. We have more artistic ideas than we have warm bodies.

People can participate as artists, too. One way is to find or form a small group – say two to five – who are interested in the same art medium. Then you can meet and compare notes and work together.

In our Art Klatsch, one lady is superb at watercolor and collage, two are great at pastels, three are great at oils, another is great at 3-D wood art and stained glass and metal art, and then there’s me. I enjoy them all. We have completed two sets of collaborative paintings where we set rules or a theme, then each of us painted a section of the canvas. The pieces were exhibited in Grant and at the MVAC Gallery.

Marty Bibee, Jane Waldrop, Donnie Wier, Lynda Geddes and I are in the group. I’m not sure how many years we’ve been meeting, but we had our last meeting by Zoom.

We encourage each other and explore different mediums together. And others can participate in MVAC the same way.

The staff at MVAC is often asked for references for private art teachers, but we only have few options to suggest, so please let MVAC know if you’re interested.

We also offer suggestions to people looking to commission an artist in a particular medium. One lady wanted the old river bridge that was in Guntersville painted on a saw. We found the right artist for the project.

There are many ways to participate in MVAC. 5. What’s something most people don’t know about Becky Scheinert?

Speaking of saws … an unusual hobby I have is playing a musical handsaw. But since I’ve played at schools, nursing homes and church since my high school days, it isn’t exactly a secret. And, yes … I get rusty if I don’t practice.

I do enjoy singing and learned a lot through the inaugural Mountain Valley Singers choir that was set up at the same time as MVAC in 1970. I was shocked to find that the rest of the choir were music teachers and semi-professionals. It was intimidating, but I hung in there and enjoyed a steep and quick learning curve as an alto.

My first attempt at entrepreneurship was selling minnows from my parents’ ponds to the local gas station in Warrenton. It didn’t take me long to get tired of counting 100 minnows for $1, so I started selling them by weight instead. Like I said, my favorite numbers have dollar signs.