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Garbo Watson Hearne 

Director of Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing and Hearne Fine Art 

Hearne has advocated for the advancement of Black culture through art and literature for over 36 years. Since 1988, Hearne has welcomed and promoted artists and authors from across the state, region, and country to her gallery and bookstore, now located in the historic Dunbar neighborhood.

Hearne’s commitment to the promotion of Black art extends beyond Central Arkansas. The El Dorado native has organized and mounted museum exhibitions at the Arts and Science Center of Southeast Arkansas (Pine Bluff) and the Delta Cultural Center (Helena). Hearne is a former chair of the Arkansas Arts Council and she currently serves on the board of directors of Mid-America Arts Alliance , the Arkansas Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Dunbar Historic Neighborhood Association. In 2014, Hearne spearheaded the creation of Arkansas’s statewide arts advocacy organization, Arkansans for The Arts. The nonprofit provides leadership focused on the promotion and advancement of the creative economy, on transforming policy in arts education, and uniting the state into one voice with a call to action by policy makers to increase investment in the arts. Hearne remains a literacy advocate as a member of the talent committee for the Six Bridges Book Festival (formerly the Arkansas Literary Festival).

In addition to her cultural advocacy, Hearne has also been active in community building and social activism. In 2012, Hearne along with her husband and business partner received the Calvin King Economic Development Award from the Arkansas Democratic Black Caucus in recognition of their collective service to the community. In 2014, she led efforts to establish the inaugural Dunbar Neighborhood Community Festival. In 2016, she was recognized by Just Communities of Arkansas with the Father Joseph H. Biltz Award. The award recognizes individuals or groups working for positive social change. In 2018, Hearne represented Arkansas in the Lifetime digital project “Her America” that charted the lives of diverse women across the U.S. to amplify voices that often go unheard. Later that same year, she was photographed for Project #ShowUs, a collaboration between Getty Images, Dove and Girlgaze to produce a ground-breaking library of more than 5,000 photographs devoted to shattering beauty stereotypes. In 2024, she received the Arkansas Governor’s Award for Arts Community Development.

Formally trained as a registered nurse practitioner at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Hearne earned her certificate for Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts from New York University in 2014. She is a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America with a specialization in African American Fine Art. Hearne is married to Dr. Archie Hearne III and they have four children and four grandchildren. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Incorporated, Beta Pi Omega Chapter. Her hobbies include reading, collecting art, juicing and traveling. She attends New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.