Dickkuts Honored for Service to BECAH

BROWNVILLE – The Brownville Education Center for Arts and Humanities (BECAH) celebrated its fifth anniversary Sept. 6 and marked the event by recognizing one of its founding couples.

Dale and Diana Dickkut of Rockport, Missouri, were honored with the Dale and Diana Dickkut Legacy Plaque, which will hang in the entrance to The Antiquarium at 309 Water Street. It reads: “In grateful recognition of the couple’s unwavering dedication to the Brownville Education Center for Arts and Humanities. May all who enter these doors be inspired by their passion and carry its spark forward.”

Dale Dickkut is one of the founding members of BECAH and has served in a leadership role on its board of directors since its beginning. The nonprofit acquired the building housing the Antiquarium Bookstore and its contents in 2021, which included a sizeable collection of the late Bill Farmer’s paintings, sketches and other works, and more than 25,000 books, manuscripts and images.

The late Tom Rudloff and his late sister, Judy, founded the iconic used bookstore in downtown Omaha, Neb., in 1969. Rudloff moved The Antiquarium to an empty schoolhouse in Brownville in 2006. He passed away in 2016 at age 76.

Today, BECAH is working to provide arts and humanities experiences to the people of southeast Nebraska, southwest Iowa and northwest Missouri through educational programs and workshops. The organization, which is run 100% by volunteers, is also raising funds to renovate the former Brownville school it calls home for greater community use. For more information or to donate, visit https://becah.org.

Dale and Diana Dickkut