Nicole Cotton fondly remembers her childhood holidays, with dinner on Christmas Eve with one set of grandparents and dinner on Christmas Day with the other, waiting until dark to open gifts and caroling around the neighborhood for hours.
"It wasn't the presents," says Cotton, who is director of the Faulkner Performing Arts Center on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. "It was everybody coming in town and eating and being together -- that time of year when the house was full and busy, and everyone was so excited."
FAQ
‘Elf’
WHEN — 3 p.m. Dec. 10
WHERE — Faulkner Performing Arts Center on the UA campus in Fayetteville
COST — Canned goods are sought for the Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Campus Food Pantry
INFO — 575-3933
Cotton accidentally created her own Christmas tradition last year, when the fledgling arts center hosted a holiday screening of "Elf" starring Will Ferrell.
"I was out to dinner with some of my friends who all have children 6 and under," she remembers, "and we were talking about the Faulkner Center and it being new, and someone said we ought to do some films so kids could come. It was a really quick turnaround, because this was November when we decided to do it, so we only had about 150 people come. But it was really cool, because we had people bringing their kids and their grandkids, we had women coming together as a girls' day out, we had older couples out on dates -- it was completely different than what we expected! We ended up reaching all ages!"
Cotton says when filmgoers stopped to shake her hand and thank her, saying they'd have never come to the arts center otherwise, "I knew we had to do it every year. They want to come back and bring their friends -- and it means we can expose more people to the idea that the arts are for everybody."
Donations of nonperishable foods will again be sought for the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry, a student-run emergency food assistance program established by the Volunteer Action Center at the UA.
The biggest thing new this year, Cotton says, is "visitors of all ages are invited to come dressed in their favorite holiday costumes. There's no pressure! But if they want to, we'd love to see it. I think kids will love another excuse to wear their reindeer antlers."
-- Becca Martin-Brown
NAN What's Up on 12/02/2016