WAC Plans, ACO Spruces Up

Arts centers look toward growth beyond 2013

Warren Rosenaur, longtime Fayetteville High School drama instructor, shows off the new auditorium, which opened in the fall of 2012.

Warren Rosenaur, longtime Fayetteville High School drama instructor, shows off the new auditorium, which opened in the fall of 2012.

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Walton Arts Center’s proposed expansions - growing the facility on Dickson Street in Fayetteville and building a second facility in Bentonville - had the highest profile in 2012, but other arts centers were opening and undergoing revitalization.

“We envision WAC as a multi-campus presenter, similar to many arts organizations around the country, able to host performances, special events and entertainment of all types in the right theater space for the event,” says Terri Trotter, the arts center’s chief operating officer.

But, she adds, “upgrading our main campus” comes first.

Trotter lists as key components:

◊A bigger lobby - more space for concessions, merchandise, mingling, events, more restrooms and a plaza that reaches out to Dickson Street and becomes part of the streetscape, Trotter describes.

◊An expanded Starr Theater that has its own dedicated entrance and lobby, with seating capacity growing from 165 to near 250 for performances.

◊More special event space including an indoor/outdoor space in the rose garden and a new, more visible lobby connection to the garden.

◊Significant additions to backstage space and a new lighting system for Baum Walker Hall.

◊Nearly doubling the size of WAC’s administrative offices to support growth.

“The need for these spaces is huge,” Totter says. “Walton Arts Center is operating close to full capacity. In 2002, we served 149,000 patrons, school children and community members. Just 10 short years later in 2012, more than 239,000 people attended 453 performances, activities,meetings and events at WAC.

This is an astonishing 61 percent increase! As audiences have grown, the constraints of the facility have become clear.”

Trotter says the city of Fayetteville’s decision to build a new parking deck next door to the arts center will accelerate expansion plans, with a goal for completion in 2015.

“As we design and build the Fayetteville project, we will begin the planning for an additional arts campus in Bentonville,” she adds. “We do not yet have a location, but our goal is to be near downtown and open by 2018.”

The new Bentonville facility is intended to have a 2,000-seat hall plus a 200-seat education venue, Trotter says.

While all of the WAC’s work is in the planning stages, the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale is about halfway done with its revitalization project.

Founded in 1967, ACO has been in its current home for more than 18 years, Administrative Director Kathi Blundell explains. The aging facility clearly needed work, but the decision to embark on a $1 million capital campaign wasn’t even announced until a private campaign had raised more than 75 percent of the money.

Working around art exhibitions, myriad classesand stage productions, the revitalization inside ACO has progressed quickly - new paint, new lighting, new carpet, new stage curtains, all new seats in the auditorium and more.

Although the foyer remainslargely unchanged, that’s coming, she says, when wood from the ACO’s new facade will be wrapped inside for a contemporary, organic experience.

“There’s still tweaking to bedone inside, but now we turn our attention outside. It’s going to be a total transformation.”

Then there’s the new kid on the block - the Fayetteville High School Performing Arts Center, which opened in the fall. The new facility, with 850 seats and stone-and-cherry wood construction, looks like it belongs around the corner at the Walton Arts Center but longtime drama instructor Warren Rosenaur has been telling parents, “the kids of Fayetteville deserve it.”

Beyond the beauty, the new theater offers a state-of-theart sound system, three times the lighting gear the previous auditorium had and touchscreen automated rigging to fly in scenery, a black box theater for meetings and smaller productions, a scene shop for set construction, along with band rooms and choir rooms.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” Rosenaur admits.

Whats Up, Pages 16 on 12/28/2012