Garbo Hearne
Garbo Watson Hearne is the owner of Hearne Fine Art and Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing in the Museum Center in the Little Rock River Market District.
Hearne left her job as a pediatric intensive care nurse at Arkansas Children's Hospital to open the Pyramid Gallery in June 1988 at the corner of Twelfth and Fair Park. "At that time," she remembered, "I had no competition in the area of African-American art. I went to other cities -- Dallas, St. Louis, Memphis -- to see what they were doing with African-American art." The gallery at first specialized in art prints.
In 1990 she took over her husband's Main Street Book Store, which specialized in African-American subject matter, renaming the business Pyramid Gallery and Books. She moved the gallery into the Museum Center in 1997. Since that time the gallery has focused on original paintings and sculpture.
Said Hearne in 2005, "I strive to educate the public about collectible fine art, especially art by African American artists through our business." Black artists exhibited by Hearne at her gallery include Paul Goodnight, John Biggers, and Alice Ayers.
Hearne is on the board of directors of the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the [{Arkansas Arts Council]]. She has also served on the board of the Arkansas Humanities Council (1993-1997).
Garbo Hearne is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Garbo's stepson is the rapper Ra Hearne also known as Rockstar.
References
- Werner Trieschmann, "Love It or Leave It," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, August 10, 2008.
