“I am facilitating people who are creating arts experiences,” Hillary Crawford states with pride. Crawford is an arts consultant at the Florida Department of State’s Division of Cultural Affairs. In the midst of gearing up for Arts and Culture Week at the Capitol on March 28, Crawford reflects on her career and time advocating for and exploring the arts.  
 
Her fascination began with museums. As a child, Crawford’s sand painting was put on display at Palm Beach’s Four Arts exhibit. That visit planted a seed that was nurtured during her studies at Florida State University. Crawford spoke with her adviser about diving into the humanities and filled her schedule with art history courses. She quickly became a fan of the Pre-Raphaelites, a group of English painters from the 19th century.
 
“It’s one of those things where someone speaks to me,” explains Crawford of her aesthetic tastes. “My dad collects a lot of folk art and vernacular southern art, so I grew up with artists like Minnie Evans in the house. That raw, expressive work speaks to me.” 

Crawford deepened her relationship with the arts as a volunteer at the Museum of Fine Arts. After speaking with the volunteer coordinator, she decided to pursue a degree in arts administration at FSU. The opportunity to travel presented itself within the graduate program and Crawford was off to London.
 
While abroad, she worked at the Tate Britain. Crawford loved seeing artists at the helm of the education programs. She gave tours and watched as children filled the museum to the brim with sketches, sensory crafts and energy. 
 
“Not only do they go through the gallery but there are all these classrooms in the back where they can make something related to what they saw,” says Crawford. “We also worked with students of varying abilities. Say we were looking at [a work by sculptor Barbara] Hepworth, we might have a stone they could touch so they didn’t touch the work, but could see what it feels like.” 
 
Stateside once more, Crawford moved to North Carolina and was curator and gallery director for The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design. She explains how as a curator, she was mainly in charge of telling a story with the artists’ work, which included organizing pieces as well as writing for museum publications and didactics. 

It wasn’t long before Tallahassee called her back. Crawford returned to the Division of Cultural Affairs where she had worked part-time as a graduate student. Now as arts consultant, she is charged with coordinating approximately 26 arts agencies across the state.

Given recent funding cuts, her main focus is on advocacy and developing a network for arts leaders. She spearheaded a biannual professional development intensive devoted to giving leaders the tools they need to speak with local and state representatives. 
 
“The hardest part sometimes is communicating that we are not the ones funding them, we are facilitating the process,” says Crawford. “We do rely on our constituents to talk to their representatives and convey the importance of arts in their community. We’ve started encouraging local agencies to gather and work with people in their communities to make connections with local representatives at home.” 

Crawford enjoys participating in events throughout the state when she can; especially with community development initiatives like the federal Main Street grant programs. The program seeks to preserve historic downtowns in rural communities and boost not only the local economy, but creative arts economies in those areas as well. 
 
Crawford remarks on how artists play key roles in these projects given the high visibility of main thoroughfares and ability for the arts to contribute to communities.

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