The Landlord Every Artist Hopes For
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By Coulter Fussell
I was saddened to learn of the passing of Oxford businessman, Dick Marchbanks, this past Saturday. I contacted his real estate office just that morning for run-of-the-mill business and was told the sad news directly. Even though I knew Marchbanks (as I always called him) had been sick for a long time, the news still surprised me.
Marchbanks was an iconic, old school Oxford character. His office is one of the last places left on the Oxford square that harkens back to what the square was like decades ago back when it functioned as a business center outside of fashion and entertainment.
I often ran into Marchbanks on Mondays at the cash register of The Beacon whenever my husband, Wil, and I stopped in for our weekly plate lunch. I most enjoyed seeing Marchbanks whenever I went to the office to pay rent directly. He’d sit me down in the front office to gossip about what was going on in Water Valley. I always got the feeling that he already knew what was going on in Water Valley – he just enjoyed hearing my version of it.
Marchbanks owned several major properties in Water Valley, including the Pocket Park, which he let the town use as a public gathering place for what must have been a decade or so before selling it to the Main Street Association in 2025. And for nearly 20 years, Marchbanks was my landlord for my art studios down on Main Street.
Back around 2009, he rented the old Wade’s Barbershop to me and my friend, Megan Kingery Patton. We opened a weird and very lively little art gallery and studio. Megan and I went on to have the time of our lives running that little gallery for the next five years. We were free to experiment with art in that little space, and it set the tone for what would later become a full-time art career for me and an accoladed art teaching career for Megan.
Eleven years ago, I opened a larger studio a few doors down in yet another Marchbanks building, a move that expanded my work into super large textile sculptures that I couldn’t otherwise make in a smaller space.
I’ve always said that an artist just needs time to work and the space to do it in. You can’t have a true “arts community” without art studios. If there are no working artists’ studios in your town, then your arts community isn’t real. Further, all the arts nonprofits in the world can’t do half of what a local businessperson can do in terms of making access to studio space attainable for artists. At more than one arts award ceremony, I’ve publicly thanked “my landlord Marchbanks” for being that person, whether it was his intention to be that person or not.
So, if you are a property owner then be like Marchbanks – rent to an artist! You never know, they just may pay their rent close to on time for the next two decades! I join many other people in sending condolences to Marchbanks’ family, office staff and friends.
Lastly, I hope that everyone enjoys the Watermelon Carnival this weekend. Stay cool in the heat and I’ll see ya on Friday at the Watermelon Drop!
