fayettevillearts.org

BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK Northwest Arkansas Times

Three quotations circle the life of ceramic artist Beverly Norton Walker — one from a Japanese artist, one from an American philosopher and one from a fortune cookie.

A quotation of Shoji Hamada, a potter who was declared a national treasure by the government of Japan, is pinned to a cork board in Norton Walker’s Fayetteville studio where she can see it daily.

“Making pots should not be a struggle. It should be just like walking downhill in a gentle breeze,” Hamada is quoted as saying.

Norton Walker agrees to a point.

“It’s walking downhill in a gentle breeze, but you’ve got to get to the top of the hill first,” she said. “That’s the part I think should be added to that.”

Norton Walker, who creates award-winning clay art in the backyard studio of her home, has been climbing that hill for about 30 years.

From Michigan to Texas, back to Michigan, to Oklahoma and now Arkansas, she followed the trail of art wherever it would lead her, however she was able. She has reached the point on the trail where her art is her livelihood.

As a girl in Michigan, she wanted to be a marine biologist.

“I would sit and do detailed drawings of seaweed,” she said.

Through the course of her life, her goal changed, but her interest in the creative process did not.

“I think it’s the freedom. I was always kind of a rebel,” she said. “I like the freedom to be kind of crazy, if you want to, and do your own thing. The independence really appeals to me.”

Her art trail included an attic studio, several garages and a barn basement in the Michigan cold on the fruit farm of which she was a part owner. In Texas, it was her living room.

“When my daughter would go to take a nap, I’d set up my canvases and start working on them. I had to put away everything and get it out,” she said. “Now I’ve finally got my own studio, and I’m just in heaven.”

The independence of being an artist also leads to being inventive.

She couldn’t afford canvases for her “bigger, bigger, bigger” paintings, she said, so she learned how to stretch and prime them. Then she started going to junkyards to find doorways and other old pieces that she could use as extra-large canvases.

She said she liked painting, but she wanted to do something a little more challenging.

“Then I got into clay. It literally grabbed me,” she said.

Norton Walker said she is not degreed to the hilt.

“We had this great art center in Kalamazoo (Mich.), and I just went down there and started exploring some of the classes,” she said.

It was there she learned “the nuts and bolts” of working clay, she said.

She did the same in Houston, advancing her art, her technique and her knowledge by taking classes that were open to anyone willing to try.

“I’ve had more of my training at art institutes and on my own, learning through workshops and reading and trying things,” Norton Walker said. “In 30 years you can accumulate a lot, but I’m always wanting to learn more.”

The trail to her art success today took a left turn in Oklahoma.

“When I moved to Oklahoma, I went totally leftbrained and got a job as a financial aid specialist,” she said.

For 16 years, she made time for art as much as she could around her work schedule.

“I did like helping people,” she said. “We worked with a lot of displaced homemakers, getting them started on the right plan with kids to support. Nine out of 10 of them weren’t getting financial aid from their husbands. They were starting over with no skills. My heart went out to them.”

Seven of those years she commuted from Fayetteville.

“I retired from there about five years ago and went into total clay, so this is my livelihood right now,” she said. “I haven’t regretted it at all. I’m not retired; I just retired from the left-brained world.”

While in Tulsa, Okla., her art trail took her again to the junkyards, this time during her lunch hours. The skylight, doors and windows of the studio where she turns gray clay slabs into colorful art today came from those noontime quests.

Her fortune cookie advice reminds her of how she reached that point where her art became her life.

“You will be successful through innovation and determination” stares her in the face from her mirror each morning.

“I think that has really kept me going,” Norton Walker said. “Taking chances, that’s the innovation part. And determination that you’re going to do this, that’s the thing.”

Those qualities added to her quest for independence, and a love of learning took what might have been the shadow of a dream and made it real.

For art to work as a living, “you have to be driven,” she said.

Wearing a lot of hats helps, too.

To make a living as a potter, she has to do much more than work the clay she loves. She is a photographer, marketer, chemist, engineer, architect, inventor, problem solver, supplier, hostess for her Christmas show and a time-management consultant.

Her studio shelves hold materials as varied as alumina hydrate, titanium dioxide and ginkgo leaves. A slab roller and a machine that recycles the clay are part of her studio equipment. Hand tools range from an arm-length rubber mallet to brushes and a favorite worn wooden stick about the length of a pencil.

This will be the first year that Norton Walker won’t make her own clay.

For 27 years, she stirred and mixed and beat clays, feldspar, flint and grog into malleable clay. She has decided, as a business person, that there might be better use for her time than hefting 50- and 100-pound bags of clay and components.

She will, however, still be creating her glazes and slips for decoration to maintain control of their properties. Norton Walker is known for her glazes and their unique interaction with the clay work.

“I don’t have any secret ingredients,” she said. “It’s how I use them.”

Process

Norton Walker works in stages. This month, she is building pieces. Several potential wall platters are drying on studio tables. Others, that have been fired, also wait for that time when she has enough built that she can begin decorating them.

When she’s done, each piece will be unique. Many will have been inspired by nature; most will be functional.

Some will have spoken to her.

“It does. It talks to you, but it’s kind of a strange language,” she said. “It’s not something I can verbalize.”

The clay talking to her can be as simple as an accident. Maybe the clay is softer than usual or gets a ding in it during the building or drying.

“Then I work with it,” she said. “I think, ‘Let’s try this on it.’ Then it either likes it or it doesn’t.”

And that is part of the art, the uniqueness of the piece, that the clay’s own characteristics guide what it becomes.

“A lot of times, especially if I’m in the forming process, I have to get something in my mind, but when I start working with it, the clay wants to do its own thing,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just accidental, but actually, that’s what I love to happen.”

Last week, when she flipped a platter to dry, it got hung up.

“I looked at it, and I thought, ‘This might be a new direction for me,’” she said. “I let it be, and it’s going to lead me to where I put the handles.”

Her “clay buddy,” Cheryl Buell of Winslow, said it is that aesthetic, that feel for the clay and for finding the best in it, that makes Norton Walker and her work special.

“She surrounds herself in beauty,” Buell said. “She sees the beauty not only in objects but also in people. She has the ability to look at people and see the best in them.

“She has the ability to see the potential or the shiny spots on a person instead of the rough spots.”

Platters and bowls

“Nature evokes the creativity in her, I think,” said Pete Heinzelmann of Fayetteville, who has Norton Walker art in his home.

Bamboo, willow and ginkgo leaves are among her inspirations.

Norton Walker said her work is influenced by Japanese art, but she doesn’t imitate it.

“What she does is exciting,” Heinzelmann said. “Fayetteville considers itself a cultural community, and she’s a big contributor to that cultural community in my opinion.”

Most, maybe 95 percent, of Norton Walker’s work is hand-built stoneware. On this section of her art trail, many are wall platters. Clay stamps, folds of clay and attached handles add to its distinct uniqueness, along with her special touches with the glazes.

Sizes vary from piece to piece, but generally, like her earlier paintings, they are large.

Norton Walker urges people to take the platters off the wall and use them as serving pieces. Even on her Web site — www.nortonwalkerstudio.com” href=”http://www.nortonwalkerstudio.com/”>www.nortonwalkerstudio.com — she tells viewers that the pieces have a rim on the back so they can be used on the table.

“I want people to see ceramic art in a new light,” she said. “I think they’ve been so tuned in to just functional work.”

She would like to get peo ple to support the local art community and tries to do her part toward that end.

Besides buying supplies locally, when she is asked about classes, she directs people to other local artists: Susan Hutchcroft, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Community Creative Center at the Nadine Baum Studio; and Kelley and Mike Wilks at Flat Rock Studio.

“That’s the places you need to be going to take classes in clay,” she said, recalling her own art center initiation into the world of clay, stoneware and ceramic art.

Norton Walker donated one of her centerpiece bowls for the most recent Empty Bowls silent auction.

One of her pieces, “Shoshun Futaba,” which translates to “early spring sprout,” will be included in the 2009 Arkansas Artists Calendar published by the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion Association.

In 2006, each recipient of the Governor’s Arts Awards received a Norton Walker work of art titled “Black Bamboo.”

Her “Bamboo Leaf Platter” was chosen from among thousands to be included in the “Strictly Functional” pottery exhibit. Her work has also been featured in other national juried events.

Norton Walker’s work was also included in the 2004-05 touring exhibit of Arkansas Women Artists.

She has gallery affiliations in Little Rock and in Douglas, Mich. Locally her work is displayed at the Bank of Fayetteville and has been featured by the University of Arkansas and the Walton Arts Center.

Norton Walker is not one to rest on her accolades and awards. She still works every day in her studio, building pieces for her next show, and she still is taking classes.

“I’m always, always looking to learn,” she said.

The third quotation that Norton Walker sees every day is attached to her refrigerator door.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined,” reads the Henry David Thoreau quotation.

“Some quotes really hit home, and that one certainly has,” Norton Walker said.

BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Clay artist Beverly Norton Walker works on a new platter in her studio at her home in Fayetteville.

COURTESY “Shoshun Futaba,” which translates to “early spring sprout,” will be included in the 2009 Arkansas Artists Calendar published by the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion Association. Beverly Norton Walker of Fayetteville is the artist.

COURTESY This potter’s mark identifies the work of Fayetteville clay artist Beverly Norton Walker.

Planning for First Night Fayetteville is already under way.

The theme for this year’s New Year’s Eve celebration is “Paint the Town Green!” A focus will be placed on using recyclable materials for visual arts projects and installations. Musical and performing groups will be encouraged to “recycle” old materials into fresh and new interpretations.

The Imagination Station will be filled with recyclable materials to use for creation of the traditional “First Night hats,” and recycling bins will be placed around to collect materials and trash throughout the night.

The family-oriented event will also have new leadership this year. Barbara Price Davis will serve as this year’s event coordinator.

Davis served on the board of directors for First Night Fayetteville for the past six years and has served as head of the program committee and board treasurer. She is also the executive director for YouthCAN!

Morgan Hicks, the coordinator for the past three years, chose to take a year off.

Already recruited to participate are the Yvonne Richardson Center summer camp and the Summer Art Explosion students at the Community Imagination Studio. Students have begun creating giant flowers and “critters” out of recyclable materials. Donations of recyclable materials are needed to continue the work, including cardboard tubes, plastic water bottles, empty prescription and pill bottles, plastic foam, bottle caps, coffee cans, cat litter buckets, tissue paper, old matchstick blinds and similar materials. Donations can be dropped off at the Community Imagination Studio in Fayetteville at 818 N. Sang Ave. or call 442-8585 to arrange for pickup.

For more First Night information, call Davis at 443-4797.

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times; Aug 3, 2008;

BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK Northwest Arkansas Times

First, the Fayetteville City Council said no to using cash reserves in budgeting. Then it voted to pull $12,500 from the same reserves for an arts festival.

With a 5-3 vote, the council approved a resolution “to request that the budget to be submitted to the City Council by the administration be balanced.”

    “Basically this is fiscal sustainability. To me, it’s a no-brainer,” said Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Ferrell, who proposed the amendment.

He explained the idea is that when the administration brings a budget to the council for consideration, it should be prepared without use of the city’s cash reserves. Despite that request, the city administration may propose a budget that relies on cash reserves.

“I’ll be bringing forward the best budget that we can. That’s my job. It might mean reserves,” Mayor Dan Coody said after the meeting. “I don’t know yet. We won’t know until we get all the budget figures back from all the divisions and process them.”

    Cash reserves can be described as the city’s savings, said Paul Becker, finance and internal services director. They are not a “rainy-day fund,” which is a specifically designated account, he said. Fayetteville does not have a rainy-day fund.

    City Attorney Kit Williams said the resolution was, as it states, a request.

    “I guess the administration can reject that request,” he said.

    Ferrell said his proposal was intended to tighten the budget, not tie staff hands in preparing the budget.

    Ward 2 Aldermen Kyle Cook and Nancy Allen and Ward 4 Aldermen Lioneld Jordan and Shirley Lucas joined Ferrell in support of the resolution.

    Lucas explained that the council works every year not to go into the reserve and finds itself whittling down the proposed budget.

    Ward 1 Aldermen Adella Gray and Brenda Thiel and Ward 3 Alderman Robert Rhoads voted against the resolution.

    Coody said at the meeting that not being able to use the reserves could mean raising property taxes or laying people off to have a balanced budget when it is proposed to the council.

    He said after the meeting that he would not advocate a property tax increase this year and that the city is not in a position to cut the workforce because it is already understaffed.

    Thiel said she would rather see what the city departments think is essential. Without use of the reserves to balance the budget, she said, the council could be put in the position of picking and choosing which city employees get laid off.

 

    Arts festival

    A few minutes after the budget discussion, Jordan proposed providing $32,500 to Fayetteville Downtown Partners for producing the 2008 Fayetteville Arts Festival.

    That figures was 13 times greater than the amount requested by the group and more than three times the amount of cash donations raised so far by the organization.

    Fayetteville Downtown Partners, which is producing the Labor Day weekend festival, did not request city money during the 2008 budget process but asked for $2,500 at the council’s agenda setting session last week.

    Downtown Partners board President Daniel Keeley told the council Tuesday that the organization had raised about $10,000 in donations.

    As part of his rationale for his amendment, Jordan cited previous council funding for trails, purchase of urban forest and support for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks from the economic development fund.

    That money is part of the city’s general fund cash reserves and is part of the money remaining from the sale of the Wilson Springs Business Park property, now known as springwoods.

    “I know that we have talked a lot about supporting the arts program, and I think it’s time that we do that,” Jordan said.

    Allen quickly seconded his amendment, which would have changed the city’s contract with Downtown Partners from $2,500 to $32,500.

    Rhoads said he was torn between wanting to support the festival and not spending more than the city should.

    “If I had all the money in the world, I’d give you a whole lot more than $32,500, but down the road I think we’ll have to come up with some funds … to maintain and enhance the Walton Arts Center,” he said.

    The amendment to provide $32,500 for the festival failed with a 5-3 vote. Jordan, Allen and Cook voted for it; Gray, Thiel, Rhoads, Ferrell and Lucas voted against it.

    However, the council then voted unanimously to provide $12,500 for the arts festival.

 

    Other business

    The council approved an amendment about street design and access, the hiring of two police officers, adding a provision for an energy efficiency certificate to the energy code, and a planned zoning district for a Habitat for Humanity development.

    A proposal to allow Aframe signs was left on first reading at the request of city planning staff, which wants to make some changes to it.

    Annexation of Holcomb Heights III was approved with a 7-1 vote. Cook voted against it.

 

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times; Date:Aug 6, 2008

 

 

 

By Skip Descant, The Morning News

 

FAYETTEVILLE - The Fayetteville Arts Festival got more than it bargained for Tuesday night when the Fayetteville City Council unanimously agreed to fund it $12,500.

The original proposal before the council was $2,500, which most members appeared to see as too low.

In July, the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission voted to give the festival $2,500 if the city coughed-up another $2,500. With the city council increasing the amount, the festival will get a total of $15,000 from the two public bodies.

The money will come from the city’s economic development fund, which now has about $1.2 million set aside as a reserve in the general fund, said Paul Becker, Fayetteville’s finance director.

Because the City Council legally can’t give money to an event like the arts festival, Fayetteville will enter into contract with Fayetteville Downtown Partners - the organizing body behind the festival - which will use the money to “promote, produce and manage” the festival.

“This will really help us with the marketing and advertising,” said Sarah Lewis, a member of the festival’s board of directors who spoke after the council vote.

The arts festival’s ideal budget is $54,000, said Daniel Keeley, the director of Fayetteville Downtown Partners.

So far, the group has attracted about $14,000 in in-kind donations and another $10,000 in private contributions. Another $15,000 puts the festival at $39,000.

“We’re only going to spend what we get,” said Keeley, who hinted that advertising and printing budgets likely would need to be scaled back.

However, if a previous proposal by council member Lioneld Jordan would have passed, the mood around the festival board would have been downright festive Tuesday night.

Jordan’s proposal was to give the festival $32,500. That proposal failed in a 3-5 vote, with only Jordan and council members Nancy Allen and Kyle Cook supporting.

“I support the arts, but I’m sorry, I can’t support this,” said Alderman Bobby Ferrell.

“I thought $2,500 was too low,” remarked council member Robert Rhoads, “but I think $32,500 is too high.”

Even Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody, a self-described art collector, did not support the proposal.

“How can we tell our employees, ‘We’ll give $32,500 to someone that didn’t ever ask for it, but we’re unwilling to give you a raise,’” said Coody.

“But we did spend $75,000 to bring in a consultant to ‘talk’ about economic development,” Jordan remarked.

Both Jordan and Coody will face each other in the upcoming mayor’s race.

GO & DO

Fayetteville Arts Festival
When: Aug. 29-31, Sept. 5-7
Where: Fayetteville Town Center

 

 

 

BY SUSANNAH PATTON Northwest Arkansas Times

In the midst of a long-range plan that will determine the best location for future facilities, Walton Arts Center officials are not turning their backs on the existing performing space: the 1,200-seat Baum Walker Hall in Fayetteville.

Terri Trotter, WAC interim president and CEO, said planning for the future does not exclude the current facility.

“Baum Walker Hall is a mainstay of those plans,” she said.

And to prove it, the center is investing more than $300,000 in backstage and technical upgrades.

“We’ve made a concentrated effort over the past 18 months to focus on the backstage and technical equipment,” Trotter said.

The most visible of the upgrades is the new stage floor, which crews are in the process of installing.

Jesse Adams, head carpenter at the Walton Arts Center, said the stage has held up fairly well considering 17 seasons of Broadway shows and dance performances. But nearly every show that has used the stage has screwed set pieces directly into the deck.

“After years of lagging into the floor, it starts to look like Swiss cheese,” he said.

All the holes make it difficult to handle the setups of some productions.

While installing a new floor, which consists of layers of plywood and fiberglass, crews are also putting in cable troughs so electrical cords no longer have to stretch across the surface of the stage but can be hidden out of site.

There is also a new orchestra pit lift to replace the lift that was installed when the performance hall was built in 1992. Three new 2000-watt spotlights were also added to the hall.

Upgrades that will immediately be noticed by patrons include the addition of five television monitors in the balcony and main lobbies. This will allow patrons who arrive late to see and hear what’s happening on stage while waiting to enter, Trotter said.

New equipment will allow concessions to sell a greater variety of beverages, she said, and computer scanners will allow patrons to purchase items with debit and credit cards.

The upgrades will support the performances at Baum Walker Hall, Trotter said, while three additional facilities are being considered for the future.

The Arts Consulting Group, which is conducting a three-phase feasibility study for the center, recommended the addition of a 2,200-seat performance hall, a 600-seat flexible space and a 100-seat black box theater to meet growing audience demand. The group is still evaluating various locations to put the new facilities, including the existing site as well as property in Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville.

Meanwhile, Fayetteville officials are negotiating a contract with Signet Development to construct a hotel, retail and commercial space, and two parking decks on city-owned land adjacent to the arts center.

Mayor Dan Coody said the city is trying to develop a plan where the Walton Arts Center could expand as it needs to “in a way that benefits both projects.”

“The Walton Arts Center is not going to go away,” Coody said. “We want to make sure the expansion happens here.”

ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times Jesse Adams, head carpenter for the Walton Arts Center, explains the construction of the suspended surface of the stage in Baum Walker Hall during a tour of the facility Monday as work continues to replace the stage floor.

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;     Date:Aug 5, 2008

BY SUSANNAH PATTON Northwest Arkansas Times

A free public art installation is expected to bring thousands of visitors to Dickson Street this fall.

Slow Dancing, created by David Michalek, is a series of 43 larger-than-life, hyperslow-motion video portraits of dancers and choreographers from around the world.

The videos will be projected on three 12-foot by 24-foot screens on the front of the Walton Arts Center from Oct. 16 through Nov. 13 and will be visible to pedestrians in the vicinity.

Projections will run from 7-10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 7 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.

Terri Trotter, interim president and CEO of the Walton Arts Center, said Fayetteville will be the third city in the United States where the project is seen. It premiered in New York City, appeared in Los Angeles and went to Montreal this summer, she said. It will show a few dates in Europe before coming to Fayetteville, she said.

“There’s been some good buzz about it,” Trotter said. “It’s been publicized numerous times in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. We plan to publicize it region- ally, and I think we’ll have some good regional draw for it.”

She said she also expects a lot of visitors from all over Northwest Arkansas.

“It should be a beautiful time of year, and it’s a free activity,” she said.

Trotter suspects people will come to see the show and also take time to shop, eat and drink.

According to the Arts and Economic Prosperity III Study conducted by Americans for the Arts, Trotter said, people in Northwest Arkansas spend an average of $20 beyond the price of the ticket when they go to an arts event. People coming from outside the two-county area spend an average of $50 above the ticket price, she said.

With a conservative projection of 25,000 attendees, Trotter predicts $683,000 could be added to the local economy over the course of the event.

For that reason, she’s hoping the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission will contribute $20,000 to help with the costs associated with the production, a total of approximately $200,000.

Trotter said the production can create a festival-like environment. People react to it differently, she said, and either watch intently or carry on conversations about the videos.

According to the production’s Web site, each of the video portraits is shot on a specially constructed set using a high-speed, high-definition camera recording at 1,000 frames per second. The result is about 10 minutes of extreme slow motion.

Three portraits are randomly selected for each cycle, allowing viewers to watch and compare dancers from different styles and cultures.

Trotter said the project has been called stunning simply because of its scale.

“The movements are almost undetectable at first until you watch it for a while,” she said. “It creates an interesting experience because you can see so much.”

The production seemed like a great follow-up to the Walton Arts Center’s highway flowers, a public art project along Interstate 540, Trotter said.

“We like to be able to offer that public art component, and it’s also very focused on the heart and soul of what we do, which is performing arts,” she said. “It’s an interesting mix of visual arts with a special emphasis on the dancers. It seemed to be something that fit with what we’re doing.”

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;     Date:Aug 1, 2008

BY SUSANNAH PATTON, Northwest Arkansas Times

The city of Fayetteville has long held the philosophy that if you help an event get started, it will grow into a full-grown festival one day and be able to support itself.

Marilyn Heifner, executive director of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, said events are typically funded in the beginning with the hopes that they will not have to be funded every year.

“Normally, the philosophy we’ve had is to give them some seed money to start and then they ought to be able to stand on their own,” she said.

Bikes, Blues & BBQ was once a fledging festival, nurtured by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and the Advertising and Promotion Commission. It has since grown into the city’s most successful event, attracting more than 350,000 people last year and handing out $100,000 to local charities.

However, not every festival grows at the same rate. Some struggle to stand on their own two feet and often fail while others continue to seek support from their benefactors.

But as resources decline and more programs and events fall victim to budget cuts, festivals may not be able to rely on city funding.

Such may be the case for the Fayetteville Arts Festival. Organizers are aggressively seeking funding for the twoweekend event held in the fall.

On Monday, the A&P Commission will consider a resolution passed down from the City Council urging them to contribute $35,000 to the festival.

Heifner said the commission will hear the request, but she’s not sure what the conclusion will be.

“The commission really doesn’t have any unallocated funds right now,” she said.

Heifner said the Fayetteville Town Center is cooperating with the festival as much as possible. The visual arts component of the festival will be held at the Town Center, as well as the art party held the evening before the festival. Heifner said she’s also working with festival organizers on ways to raise money for publicity.

“We’re giving all the help we can,” she said. “We’re hoping that will be at least a start in the right direction.”

The festival received $35,000 from the A & P Commission last year but did not reapply for funding in 2008. Daniel Keeley, board president of Fayetteville Downtown Partners, the organization responsible for putting on the festival, said the board didn’t apply for funding this year due to a lack of paid staff members.

Last September, when its three-year funding agreement with the city ended, the board let go its two paid staff members and became a volunteer-based organization.

Volunteers have been working since February to raise money for the event but admitted to the City Council last month that they could use some extra help.

Providing extra help isn’t something the city is prepared to do. Budget cuts last year forced the city to cancel its annual Red, White and Boom festival held on the Fourth of July.

Last year officials announced the cancellation of the city’s annual air show, Airfest, due to the overall expense of putting on the show.

Autumnfest, which began in the early 1980s, faded out in 2006 when attendance and sponsorships began to decline.

Fayetteville is not alone in its difficulty in funding annual events.

The Springdale Chamber of Commerce announced earlier this year that the annual FeatherFest would be canceled. Attendance and revenue have been declining over the past few years, according to Chamber officials.

So what makes some festivals more successful than others?

Bikes, Blues & BBQ started out as a chamber event. According to Bill Ramsey, the festival was born in 2000 when the chamber president at the time, Steve Ward, had a conversation in the alley between the Chamber building and the Fayetteville Police Department with then Police Chief Richard Watson.

In Ramsey’s first year as president in 2001, the festival was still being supported by the chamber.

“It wasn’t anything like it is today,” he said. The proceeds of the festival were split between the chamber and the Washington County Council on Aging.

The festival brought 4,500 bikes and 14,000 visitors to town that year.

“It kept doubling every year,” Ramsey said.

In 2003, the festival attracted nearly 45,000 bikers and 125,000 people. The number reached 300,000 in 2005 and kept growing.

Toad Suck Daze in Conway is run by a committee of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce. The 26-yearold festival occurs the first weekend in May and is run almost exclusively by volunteers, including the local police and fire departments.

Other successful festivals in the state started out with funding from private groups.

Riverfest, the state’s largest music and arts festival, started in 1978 when the Junior League of Little Rock brought in the American Wind Symphony. The event was called The Summer Arts Festival and was held at Murray Park. The following year, the event was renamed Riverfest and Riverfest Inc., a nonprofit, was formed to operate the festival. In 1983, the event moved to Julius Breckling Riverfront Park. In 2002, it expanded to the North Shore Riverwalk in North Little Rock.

Now, more than 245,000 people attend the Memorial Day-weekend event. Riverfest Inc. has invested more than $700,000 in Riverfront Park and the River Market District, including the Riverfest Amphitheatre and the Riverfest Pavilion at the River Market.

Mayor Dan Coody thinks Fayetteville could have longrunning successful festivals on a similar scale as Riverfest.

“Fayetteville is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the cultural tourism that a well-run festival program would bring,” he said.

Coody’s idea is to hire a full-time, year-round employee that would coordinate volunteers and plan events.

“We spend money every year throwing money at the problem,” he said. “Yet every year it’s a new ball game, another set of problems, because there’s no consistency, we’re spending money without a real solid vision of what it is were trying to accomplish.”

Festivals need to be a longterm vision, Coody said, with the goal of increasing by 15 percent each year.

But should the city take on the roll of putting on festivals?

“Only if we care,” Coody said. “ We’re missing an opportunity. Cultural tourism is more important than ever.”

Not only does it bring tourists and money to town, but it also enhances the cultural opportunities for local citizens as well, he said.

Coody acknowledged that hiring a festival coordinator is probably not realistic.

“I don’t think the majority of the council would see the importance,” he said.

But Coody sees the city competing with such wellknown festivals as the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas.

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;     Date:Jul 6, 2008

Familiar businesses closing doors in Benton County

BY JEFF MORES Benton County Daily Record

BENTON COUNTY — While plenty of new businesses have opened their doors or are scheduled to do so in Benton County in the coming weeks and months, some familiar names have closed over the past couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago, Oscar’s Steakhouse, located in the heavily-traveled Scotsdale Center in Rogers, served up its last cut of meat. The restaurant supplies have been cleared out, the lights are off and the real estate sign has been posted near the main entrance.

The Vineyard Restaurant, at 3200 S.W. Regency Parkway in Bentonville, recently served its last meal as well. The parking lot is empty and the doors are locked.

And on June 6, the downtown Bentonville Square will say goodbye to a non-restaurant business that developed quite a name for itself over the past three years.

First Fridays at Fusion Art Gallery have been among the most popular events in the downtown Bentonville area since the art supply store and gallery venue opened its doors in 2005. The first Friday of every month, a new exhibition featuring local artists opened — and Fusion’s doors opened to masses of art enthusiasts. It was a monthly celebration of not only original art, but local art.

But the First Friday event scheduled for June 6, which will feature every artist that’s even shown at Fusion, will be the last. Owner Cindy Suter recently made the decision to close Fusion Art Gallery for good.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Suter said of closing the business. “When the economy is struggling the way it is, artwork, galleries and art supplies are normally the first to go. People have to buy groceries, put gas in their car and pay their mortgages. We’ve clearly felt the effect of what’s going on in the economy today.”

Suter, who has made a name for herself as local artist, said she started Fusion because she was having trouble finding the quality of art supplies she needed. But when the two-story building at 109 N. Main St. came available, her business plan started to evolve. She purchased the building and, in addition to selling quality art supplies, turned a significant portion of the first floor into a gallery of original, local art. The second floor was turned into a space for art classes for children through adults.

“I would say up until the economy began to go downhill, we were seeing a nice steady growth in our business and sales — even through last year,” Suter said. “In October, we began to see not quite as much as it had been, but we were still growing some. But when the new year came around, it’s been a reversal.”

Suter said sales leveled out in January and continued to decrease ever since. Suter said she spent a great deal of time coming to her decision to close Fusion, but she said there really was no other option.

Suter owns the 4,000-square-foot building and said once she has liquidated her inventory, she will attempt to lease the space.

“We’re excited about our final First Friday, because it really will be a celebration of local art,” Suter said. “But it will be emotional when it’s all over.”

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;     Date:May 23, 2008

The Butcher Detels Duo — Betty Butcher, left, and Claire Detels — play “El Capitan” by John Phillip Sousa during the Four-Hand Piano From Vienna to Arkansas performance Saturday at the Fayetteville Public Library. The duo performed a number of pieces from artists ranging from Mozart to Col. Sanford C. Faulkner. The performance was sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council and the library. ANTHONY REYES Northwest Arkansas Times

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;     Date:May 18, 2008

Plenty of people have been saying for months (in some cases, much longer than that) that Fayetteville can’t just sit on its pretty little hind end and do nothing about swirling rumors that the Walton Arts Center — ground zero for the performing arts in Northwest Arkansas — may choose to relocate much of its operation to a new facility elsewhere.

Benton County? Maybe. Somewhere more accessible than Dickson Street? Possibly.

If you happen to be the sort of person that goes by Deep Throat’s famous words of advice for Woodward and Bernstein (“Follow the money”) then suggestions that WAC leaders may opt for Benton County don’t come across as entirely misplaced.

To our way of thinking there has been too much talk and not enough work toward bringing about a successful campaign to keep the Walton Arts Center right here in Fayetteville, and preferably expanded right on Dickson Street. Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas took the lead back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s to make the center a reality. Sixteen years ago, that effort spurred the revitalization of Dickson Street and downtown Fayetteville just in time for more than a decade’s worth of economic boom times.

But those times seem long gone. Area taxpayers probably aren’t in a mood to vote for any big expenditures to expand the Walton Arts Center at its current site — even though its representatives say that’s exactly what the popular concert hall needs. Which is what worries us. If growth to house big Broadway shows and star acts is inevitable, something in Fayetteville will have to give. Room for the WAC (located at the intersection of West Avenue and Dickson Street) will have to be made. A parking deck will have to built. Several millions of dollars (much of it public dollars) will have to be spent. But so far we’ve seen too little movement to bring talk of moving — regardless of what any feasibility study may suggest — to an end.

Which explains our pleasure with Mayor Dan Coody’s continued attention to this matter. On Monday Fayetteville’s top elected leader invited Dennis Hunt with Stephens Inc. to a meeting of the Advertising and Promotion Commission. The purpose? To discuss restructuring the city’s Hotel and Restaurant Gross Receipt Tax Refunding Bonds to create enough capital improvement funds (perhaps several million dollars) to make some difference.

According to Hunt, a restructuring may be the only way Fayetteville could raise a decent amount of money without raising taxes. Restructuring the bonds in question would also require voter approval. Either way, there’s no way of knowing at this early date how much money will be required, although more is probably a safe bet.

First, thanks, mayor, for putting up a fight for Fayetteville. No, bringing in somebody to talk things over doesn’t begin to qualify as a solution to what’s becoming an increasingly complicated problem — but it’s something. The community can’t just sit waiting until the WAC’s leaders announce their plans. Coody has kept a fire burning in the search for options.

As much as we are enthusiastic about the development of Crystal Bridges, Alice Walton’s art museum in Bentonville, and proud of the commercial development Rogers has created en masse along Interstate 540, it’s also clear that Fayetteville has the cultural foundation that can best be exploited through development of an expanded Walton Arts Center and a larger cultural arts district. The spirit of art lives well in Fayetteville. It doesn’t have to be manufactured. That’s why the natural place for the Walton Arts Center was in the heart of Fayetteville back then, and today as well.

How is all this going to play out? We wish we knew the answer to that. But the way things happen in any community is through leadership, not just allowing the winds of change to blow. As the Walton Arts Center evaluates its future, we certainly hope the intangibles that are so crucial to the success of artistic endeavors earns as much appreciation and weight in a location decision as does the more tangible elements of where the money and current development is.

Hopefully, the mayor’s efforts will help.

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;     Date:May 17, 2008