When the Walton Arts Center opened on Fayetteville's Dickson Street back in April 1992, there was naturally a lot of excitement about the facility's capacity to attract big-time shows unlike any Northwest Arkansas residents had seen locally. But its supporters didn't view the center as just a big stage with plenty of seats.
Even before the facility opened, supporters worked to develop educational programs to ensure the center would become a source for nurturing artistic development in children, to help with creative and critical thinking, to deepen appreciation for the arts and to broaden future generations of patrons to support the arts.
It's been 30 years now and the work of spreading the word about art's benefits never stops.
Take, for example, a Walton Arts Center program designed to connect school districts with local arts organizations, making school officials aware of what those organizations do and, perhaps, what they can offer for educators and students.
The Artlook platform provides such details for Benton, Washington and Madison counties, according to Sallie Zazal, director of learning and engagement for the arts center.
It's certainly not unusual for resources to exist that would benefit students of area schools, but connecting those services to the educators planning out lessons can be a hit-and-miss prospect. Zazal said the new Artlook data is designed to deliver great arts experiences to children of all grades and in all schools.
Likewise, arts organizations may have ways to help -- through grant funding, for example -- but they don't necessarily know where the needs exist in local schools. Zazal recently told the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative, made up of the region's superintendents, that the effort is designed to "make access to arts education more equitable."
If knowledge is power -- and it is -- it sounds like Artlook and the support from the Walton Arts Center can be a valuable tool for area school districts, particularly the smaller ones that sometimes struggle in delivering quality arts education. Exposing kids to even one performance or artistic endeavor can unlock a world of possibilities in creative thinking.
We deeply appreciate educators' ability to deliver on math, science, language and similar subjects, but too often the arts can be an afterthought or, even if it is front of mind, educators aren't quite sure how to go about structuring arts education because of a lack of knowledge or access.
Staying true to the ideas expressed 30-plus years ago as Northwest Arkansas patrons of the arts worked toward establishing the Walton Arts Center, the organization continues to look for ways to have a big impact beyond the shows performed at the corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue.