Anita Walker spent time as a television journalist, first as a weather girl in Sioux City, and then as a reporter and anchor in several cities, her final stop being WHO-TV in Des Moines. But she left in search of a more family-friendly work schedule and landed jobs at the Iowa Department of Economic Development, the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines and the Des Moines Playhouse before being appointed five years ago as director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, the Iowa Arts Council and the State Historical Society of Iowa, which she calls “the best job of them all.” She’s seen the department through tough times – in her first year, she had to lay off 30 percent of her staff due to a budget shortfall – but has also used those tough times to produce innovative ideas and programs, such as the Iowa Great Places Initiative. She has promoted arts and culture as a facet of economic development, and pushed for legislation that made Iowa only the second state in the nation to certify cultural districts and established a $10 million commitment to a cultural trust. Her passion comes not only from her own love for history, arts and culture, but from her belief that they can make Iowa a better place to live.

As a college student, how were you affected by the Watergate scandal?

I had always wanted to get into journalism. But that was a remarkable time to be paying attention, not only with Watergate but the Vietnam War and all the cataclysmic things that were happening in the country at the time. Of course, my first job in journalism had to do with the weather.

What did it take to be a “weather girl”?

Obviously not much. Nowadays everyone’s a meteorologist and they actually have training. Those days, you just had to stand there. I had a map of the United States and I would call the National Weather Service and they would say, “The front goes here…Go through the middle of Kansas…” I had no understanding about meteorology.

What was it like working alongside your husband, a producer, at WHO-TV?

You know what? We never had a problem. We really got along fine, and it’s just probably because we have such a strong, common interest in the news and in journalism.

Why did you leave television journalism?

News is very demanding on your time. You don’t get holidays and you work a lot of nights and a lot of weekends. There were years when we never saw each other on Thanksgiving because one had to work one shift or another. By then, we had little babies and we wanted to have more of a normal family life.

What about this job with the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Iowa Arts Council and the State Historical Society has captured your interest?

This is the best job of them all. It builds on everything I’ve done up until now. And it combines my favorite interests, which are the arts and history and historic preservation. What has been truly exciting for me over the last five years is that I have been a part of and seen a tangible sea change in the way Iowans view the arts and history. Five years ago, we were the frill, a luxury item. Part of my goal when I cam here was to change that viewpoint.

What are some of Iowa’s “great places” that stick out in your mind?

Iowa is just full of them. You can go in just about any direction in Iowa and have a different kind of experience. You can go to Decorah in the northeast and feel like you’re in a completely different place than when you go to Southwest Iowa on the southern edge of the Loess Hills area. Then you go up into the northwest part of the state, to Spencer and Cherokee, where they are really focusing on their historic fabric and arts and attracting galleries and artists to live there. Along the Mississippi River, it’s completely different. Each of those river towns has its own story, its own personality. You have that wonderful diversity of history and then the natural beauty of the land.

What are your passions away from the working world?

My family is number one. I have two boys, they are 14 and 17, and they are fantastic. We have a very tight family and do lots of things together. We eat meals together more than once a week and we basically play together on the weekends. I’ve had to do a lot of traveling lately, so I really cherish those days that I’m not on the road or out of the state, and those are really devoted to family time. Beyond that, I love to garden and read and cook.

You’ve been immersed in the arts for so many years. Why is that such a focus of your life?

Isn’t it of everyone’s? When we work on Great Places, I make it sound like a joke but I really mean it. We all know that arts and culture is the most important thing, because there wouldn’t be anything to go to if there weren’t arts and culture. That is what really goes to the soul. It’s important for economic development and education. But it is who we are. I can’t even imagine a world without the arts. And when you think of the alternative, you think of a monochromatic world.

Are you an art collector yourself?

I try to support Iowa artists, so at least once a year I try to purchase a piece. My problem is I can’t figure out where to hang everything.

If you were to spend a weekend as an arts consumer, how would you spend it?

I’d have a jam-packed weekend because I would visit galleries and I would find a place that had authentic music, blues or jazz or whatever is indigenous to the area. I would want it to be small and I would want it to be where all the local people go. Then I would also want to take in something participatory, because it isn’t just about listening to what other artists do, it’s about getting to play with it yourself. It could be anything from a cooking class to a dance class.