Aline McCracken

Aline McCracken has been at the heart of Batesville’s arts community for decades. So many of the creative types around town have benefited from her wisdom and passion, in classrooms from grade school to college. So many rooms are adorned with her watercolors, acrylics, or sculptures, and uncounted contests and shows have been graced with her works.

Now, as the founder of Gallery 246, our downtown art collective and showroom, she is still lending vitality to the local arts community and Main Street revival.

The Arkansas native has shared her love of art with students from kindergarten up since the early 1960s, here in Batesville since the ‘80s.

Educated at Memphis College of Art, the University of Mississippi (in politically charged times when James Meredith integrated the law school there), the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut), and Queens University in Canada, McCracken has founded arts collectives and shops near university communities before founding Gallery 246 in 2015 .