$17M budget seen for visitors bureau
The Little Rock Visitors and Convention Bureau said it expects a 3 percent increase in both revenue and expenses next year, boosting its budget to just under $17 million.
That's up from $16.5 million this year, which is the projected actual revenue and expenses, not the budgeted amount.
Gretchen Hall, president and chief executive officer of the bureau, called 2015 "a banner year, with total tax collections up 7.19 percent year-to-date. We are hoping to hold the 2015 levels with an additional 2.5 percent increase over 2015 projected actual [collections]."
The Convention and Visitors Bureau, the official marketing arm of the city, is funded by hotel, motel, and restaurant taxes. It operates and manages the Statehouse Convention Center, the Robinson Center and the River Market.
Religious debate will be re-enacted
A lecture event Dec. 3 aims to revisit a 1930 debate at Little Rock High School between nationally known religious skeptic Clarence Darrow and Rabbi Ira Sanders.
This year's Sanders Distinguished Lecture will be a re-enactment of that debate, which took place in front of a packed auditorium of more than 2,000 people. The performance is planned for 6:30 p.m. at the Ron Robinson Theater at 100 River Market Ave.
The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. Reservations are requested, but not required, and can be made by calling (501) 918-3009.
The Sanders Distinguished Lecture was established in 2000 to commemorate Sanders' 40 years of service on the board of trustees of the Little Rock Public Library and the Central Arkansas Library System.
Speech spotlights architects' future
A Fayetteville professor will be in Little Rock on Dec. 8 to give a lecture on the new curriculum for 21st century architecture.
Elysse Newman, the head of the Department of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, will present her speech at 6 p.m. at the Arkansas Arts Center, 501 E. Ninth St.
Newman has been tasked with preparing a curriculum that prepares students for "the new, unexpected and increasingly complex challenges likely to be encountered in the practice of architecture," according to a press release. "Building on the old while incorporating the new, much of it research based, is what she and her staff will be doing."
The lecture, presented by the Architecture and Design Network, is free and open to the public.
More information is available by emailing [email protected].
Metro on 11/22/2015