She got operatic soprano Leontyne Price to perform here in 1984. She also brought opera to the public square, producing a performance of Georges Bizet's "Carmen" in Brightleaf Square. She worked with folk singer Pete Seeger to put on the first large folk festival here in 1968 -- a festival which marked the first appearances in Durham of guitarists Doc Watson and Elizabeth Cotten.
She also was the force behind the Durham Arts Council's two major outreach programs -- the Emerging Artists Grants and the Creative Arts in Public/Private Schools, which puts artists of various kinds in direct contact with students in the classroom.
Ella Fountain Pratt, whose long career as an arts administrator began in 1956 at Duke University, died Monday at age 94 at her residence in Durham.
A memorial service is planned for Aug. 9 at 2 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 305 E. Main St. A reception will be held after the service in Watts Hill Hall at the church.
Members of Durham's arts community praised her legacy of service to all kinds of artists Tuesday. Mrs. Pratt was "the walking archive historian of what has gone on for all these years in the arts," said Pepper Fluke, a member of the Carolina Theatre's Board of Ambassadors. Fluke, who worked with Mrs. Pratt on various arts projects, said the Emerging Artists Grants program, which Mrs. Pratt helped to create in 1984, "has been an incredible booster for young artists who needed that extra support," Fluke said.
The Rev. Joe Harvard, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, where Mrs. Pratt attended, said the Emerging Artists program "meant more to her than anything else" because she saw young artists develop their talents as a result. "Everything she did she enjoyed and she was a breath of fresh air in this community," Harvard said. "She promoted the arts with enthusiasm and much love."
"She was considered the queen of the arts around here, in the most honorable way, because she lived it," said E'Vonne Coleman-Cook, a past executive director of the Durham Arts Council, now associate director of continuing studies and summer sessions at Duke University.
"When I heard of her passing, there was a short moment of sadness, but then there have been hours of joy because she gave so much to everybody, and she inspired everybody. She not only valued artists, but she valued creativity," Coleman-Cook said.
Mrs. Pratt grew up in Mississippi. She first came to Durham in 1940 with her husband Lanier, a graduate student at Duke University. When her husband died in 1956, Duke University asked her develop arts programs for the student union. Eventually, she became the director of Duke's Office of Cultural Affairs. During her years with Duke, she brought artists like Leontyne Price, violinist Itzhak Perlman and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal to Durham, and organized the folk festival with the legendary Pete Seeger.
She retired from Duke in 1984, but that retirement was in name only. Coleman-Cook remembers being told that someone helped move Mrs. Pratt's office supplies straight to the Durham Arts Council, where she got to work helping to create the Emerging Artists Program, which gives grants to artists. Fluke recalls that Mrs. Pratt rarely if ever missed any of the January awards ceremonies for the grants.
But she was already active in the Arts Council even before her Duke retirement. She helped launch the Arts Council's Creative Arts in Public/Private Schools program. That program came about in the early 1970s when a group of parishioners at First Presbyterian Church became concerned about the lack of arts education in schools. "What better way to do the Lord's work?" she told a Herald-Sun reporter in 1984. Mrs. Pratt was tapped to run the program, and decided to team up with the Durham Arts Council.
"It became a national model too," Harvard said. "Other communities saw it and saw how valuable it was to involve all children in the arts."
Coleman-Cook credits her with reviving interest in opera locally. In 1985, she produced "Carmen," which was performed in Brightleaf Square, with various Durham music groups participating. She also produced other operas. "Her involvement with opera cannot be overlooked," she said.
She received numerous awards for her work, including the Fannie Taylor Award for service to the arts. In 2000, the Durham Arts Council honored her for her years of service with a series of events. In keeping with a custom of her native Mississippi, the Arts Council printed up dance cards for Mrs. Pratt, recalled Coleman-Cook. "I always remember her dancing ... which is probably what she's doing now," she said.