LITTLE ROCK — The year was 1959, and Arkansas' national reputation was far from positive.
The televised images at Little Rock Central High School from the fall of 1957 were still relatively fresh on the minds of many Americans. Little Rock's public high schools had been closed during the 1958-59 school year, an action that also received widespread national media coverage. Economic development had slowed to a crawl.
In the midst of the negative publicity, Winthrop and Jeannette Rockefeller agreed to lead a statewide capital campaign to significantly enlarge what then was known as the Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock's MacArthur Park.
Win Rockefeller had been in Arkansas for six years at that point. He had fled New York City and the tabloid coverage of his playboy lifestyle to visit Little Rock businessman Frank Newell, a friend from his Army years. Arkansas was everything that New York wasn't, and it was the kind of 180-degree shift Rockefeller needed.
He bought a large tract of land atop Petit Jean Mountain and began developing his ranch. In the process, he fell in love with Arkansas and its people. He was enchanted by the state's natural beauty, but he also believed that Arkansans should have access to some of the cultural amenities people back in New York took for granted.
The Museum of Fine Arts had been created in 1937, but it had never attracted much attention or financial support. Thanks to the Rockefellers, however, the museum was renamed the Arkansas Arts Center in 1961. By 1963, there were five galleries, a 381-seat theater, four classrooms, an art reference library and sculpture courtyards.
In 1968, with Winthrop Rockefeller still heavily involved, Townsend Wolfe was brought in as director. It was he who led the transformation of the AAC into a truly statewide institution and convinced his board to concentrate the center's collection on drawings.
I thought about this history Sunday night, a half-century after the Rockefellers began their capital campaign, as people from across Arkansans mingled in the MacArthur Park complex. The visitors were anxious to obtain a sneak preview of the exhibition of Egyptian artifacts that would open to the public five days later.
Titled "World of the Pharaohs: Treasures of Egypt Revealed," the exhibition was brought to Little Rock by Warren and Harriet Stephens. It opened Friday and will run through July 5 of next year. Officials at the center are hoping it will attract almost 300,000 people during its run of slightly more than nine months.
Those who received an advance look Sunday commented to each other how that they felt as if they were inNew York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington or at least Dallas. It was a proud moment for the Arkansans who have contributed to the arts center through the years.
Winthrop and Jeannette Rockefeller likely would never have dreamed of where their efforts would lead. More than a decade ago, Warren and Harriet Stephens took up where they left off. The 1,300-squarefoot Strauss Gallery was added in 1989 and since 2000 has been the home of rotating art exhibitions. By February 2000, a $22 million capital campaign had resulted in a 30,000-square-foot addition and renovated spaces elsewhere. The following year, the Paul Signac Gallery and the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Drawing Research and Education opened.
Wolfe retired in 2002 following 34 years of leadership, but Nan Plummerwas hired away from the Toledo Museum of Art and continues to move the arts center forward.
The current exhibit represents the high-water mark of the past 50 years. People are expected to travel from across the country to view an exhibition that includes mummies, jewelry, statues, sculptures and Egyptian art spanning more than 3,000 years of history.
Internationally recognized art historian William Peck collaborated with local curator Joseph Lampo to develop the exhibition in a way that would best tell the story of ancient Egypt and its people. For the largest event of its kind ever to be held in Arkansas, the arts center has extended its hours from 9 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. each Tuesday; from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; and from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on weekends.
There will be a series of events tied to the exhibition. They include a teachers' academy, an IMAX movie at the Aerospace Education Center, lectures and workshops. Little Rock hotels are offering special packages, andthe Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau is pulling out all of the stops to attract people to the city between now and next July.
The December edition of Spirit magazine,the in-flight publication for Southwest Airlines, will have a 22-page section titled "Meet Little Rock." The publication has the second largest audience among in-flight magazines with an estimated 3.2 million readers each month. These readers obviously are people who travel. Thanks to the Arkansas Arts Center, they now have an additional reason to travel to Arkansas.
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the senior vice president for government relations and public outreach at The Communications Group in Little Rock.
Editorial, Pages 19 on 09/26/2009