Background on Maryo Gard Ewell
Maryo Gard Ewell was raised in Madison, Wisconsin. Both of her parents were involved with the arts and community projects.
Her father was hired to travel to rural parts of the state and get people involved with writing. Ewell accompanied her
father on many of these trips and learned about the lives of rural communities. Her mother was also involved in arts
projects with her local Woman’s Club.
A pioneer in arts programs and community development, Ewell is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College with master’s degrees in
Organization Behavior from Yale (1972) and Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado Denver (1992).
She was inspired by her parents’ work in the arts and art programs and by a community health class professor who emphasized
valuing not only the physical and mental health of the public, but their creative and spiritual health as well. Ewell decided to focus her career on creating a holistic and healthy community.
Beginning her career with arts councils in Connecticut, Ewell went on to leadership positions with the Illinois Arts Council
and the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA) (1982-2003). It was the CCA that brought her to Colorado where she continued
her work with arts programs and community development. Ewell retired from the CCA in 2003 but has stayed involved as a
contractor. At this time, she also served as a board member and consultant for arts agencies across the country and
taught courses at Goucher College, Western State Colorado University and the University of Massachusetts. In 2010,
she took the lead in designing and building the creative district program legislated by the state of Colorado. Ewell
retired in 2023 but remains involved in her local community programs. Among other awards, she has been recognized with
the "Arts Are the Heart Award" in Colorado; an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Goucher College; and the Selina
Roberts Ottum Award from Americans for the Arts (1995).
Scope of collection
The collection includes a variety of resources about arts and public programs. This includes the organization, funding,
and managing of arts programs with emphasis on rural communities. Much of the materials relate to public policy regarding
the arts. It contains materials relating to two significant developments in the history of community arts in the United
States: records relating to how selected states decentralized arts funding in 1970s, and to early efforts of the National
Endowment for the Arts to create a program to serve local arts agencies from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s. Also
included is the research that Ewell conducted into the history of community arts councils from 1948 through the 1960s when
the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities was formed.
Topics addressed in collection materials: Art in Public Places, Artists
Residencies, Arts and Accessibility, Arts and Activism, Arts and City Planning, Arts
and Civic Dialogue, Arts and Civic Engagement, Arts and Community Development, Arts
and Community Partnerships, Arts and DEI, Arts and Democracy, Arts and Diversity,
Arts and Environment, Arts and Equity, Arts and Health, Arts and Immigrants, Arts
and Neighborhoods, Arts and Prisons, Arts and Recreation, Arts and Safety, Arts and
Seniors, Arts and Settlement House Movement, Arts and Small Community, Arts and
Social Change, Arts and Social Cohesion, Arts and Social Justice, Arts and
Workforce, Arts and Youth, Arts Decentralization, Arts Festivals, Arts Grantmaking,
Arts Pageantry, Arts-Based Community Development, CETA and Arts, Community Arts,
Community Arts Centers, Community Cultural Development, Community-Based Arts,
Community-Based Theater, Creative Economy, Creative Entrepreneurship, Cultural
Animation, Cultural Democracy, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Mapping, Cultural
Organizing, Cultural Planning, Cultural Tourism, Declaration of Cultural Rights,
Expansion Arts, Grassroots Theater, Local Arts Agencies, Local Arts Councils,
NAPNOC, Neighborhood Arts, PACT, Public Art, Rockefeller Foundation and Arts, Rural
Arts, State Arts Agencies, State Arts Agency Community Coordinators, State Arts
Councils, Story Circles, Teaching Artists, WPA Arts.
