Foundations of Arkansas' Creative Economy

CREATIVITY IN THE NATURAL STATE Deep Roots, High Hopes

Foundations of Arkansas’ Creative Economy Addendum

Due to an oversight, St. Francis County was mistakenly omitted from this report. In terms of Table 7, in 2000, St. Francis County had 14 full-Time artists, designers, and performers a rate of 5.9 full time artists per 1,000 employed. St. Francis County’s assets include the St. Francis County Museum, which offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the history of the county as well as East Arkansas Community College, the sponsor of the annual Ridgefest Fall Festival, which offers a wide range of entertainment to visitors to the Forest City campus. EACC offers students a wide range of arts electives and is in the process of constructing a Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. CREATIVITY IN THE NATURAL STATE Deep Roots, High Hopes

Foundations of Arkansas’ Creative Economy

Regional Technology Strategies, Inc.

With Mt. Auburn Associates, Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges Volume 3 • April 2008

Supported by a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation Also available online at www.rtsinc.org: Volume I - Creativity in the Natural State: Growing Arkansas’ Creative Economy Volume II - Ducks, Documentaries & Design: Tales from Arkansas’ Creative Economy

We would be delighted if you quote this book in your publications or make copies of portions of this book to give others. However, we do ask that you send us a copy of any publication in which this book is quoted.

ISBN 1-931613-05-2 Acknowledgements

Regional Technology Strategies would Project Advisory Panel like to acknowledge the contributions of Ginger Beebe, First Lady of Arkansas many people who helped bring this publication to fruition. We had vital support Linda Beene, University of Arkansas and able advice from our colleagues at David Belcher, University of Arkansas- Mt. Auburn Associates. In addition, our Little Rock partners in Arkansas, the Arkansas Arts Council, the Arkansas Association of Joyce Brooks, Guachoya Arts Council Two-Year Colleges and Arkansas Science and Technology Council, provided signif- Ed Clifford, Bentonville-Bella Vista icant support in helping select the indi- Chamber of Commerce viduals and organizations profiled and Tobi Fairley Wells, T. Lamarr Interiors accessing information. The distinguished and T. Lamarr Fine Art advisory panel listed on this page provided valuable advice and information. Ruth Hawkins, Arkansas State University Those who made major contributions to Ken Hubbell, Hubbell Associates the report include RTS staff members Dan Arthur Hunt, The College of Aspiring Artists Broun and Sarah Butzen; Michael Kane, Beth Siegel, and Peter Kwass of Mt. Auburn Robert Hupp, Arkansas Repertory Associates; Marcia Kingslow of Kingslow Theatre Associates, project evaluator; and Robert Donnan, consultant who also provided Marla Johnson Norris, Aristotle many of the photographs. We greatly John Cain, KABF Radio appreciate the contributions of the many Arkansas citizens who participated in our Don Munro, Munro Shoes regional focus groups. John Simon did a Denisa Pennington, Arkansas Dept of masterful job in editing and making sure Economic Development individual styles were consistent and the content was clear. Maxine Mills and Abby Dick Trammel, Arkansas State Board of Brown of Maxine Mills Graphic Design in Higher Education Carrboro did all of the design and pro- Ex Officio Members duction of the final publication. John Ahlen, Arkansas Science & We want to thank all these people and Technology Authority organizations whose efforts make Arkansas such a creative place to live and do business. Edward Franklin, Arkansas Association of Two year Colleges Finally, a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation makes this publi- Joy Pennington, Arkansas Arts Council cation and our work in Arkansas possible. We continue to be grateful for their support. Stuart Rosenfeld, Project Director Regional Technology Strategies April 2008

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Deep Roots 11

Creative Economy Reprise 12

Creative Assets—The Foundation of the Creative Economy 13

Building on the State’s Creative Assets 14

Cultural Assets: The Building Blocks of Arkansas Creative Economy 16

Learning the Skills: Education and Training in Art and Design 16

Networking for Fun and Profit: Associations and Organizations 20

Showcasing Creativity: Events and Performances 22

Creative Environments: Places and Spaces 24

Distinguishing Features: Design Capabilities 26

Making It Happen: Accessing Resources 28

The Creative Economy, Region by Region 31

The Northeast: Heart of the Ozarks 32

The Southeast: Can a Rich Cultural Heritage Lift a Poor Economy? 35

The Southwest: Continuing to Manufacture, but Looking Ahead 40

The Northwest: Creativity and Rapid Growth 46

The Central Region: Little Rock and Beyond 50

Previewing Opportunities and Challenges 55

Arkansas’ Creative Economy: Overview of Assets, Opportunities, and Challenges 56

Drilling Down into the Sub-Clusters 57

Introduction

reativity—according to the dic- young people, entrepreneurs, talented tionary, “the use of the imagina- professionals, and successful companies, C tion or original ideas, especially and spur innovation by them. The report in the production of an artistic work”— also examines where these assets reside fuels the economy, stokes innovation, and where they are in short supply, and and feeds the soul. For too long, too which areas are reaping benefits from much of the economic value of Arkansas’ them, and which are not. creativity has gone unnoticed and under- appreciated. Its cultural attractions, sce- In Arkansas, as in most states, the com- nic beauty, and folk traditions have long panies and people that comprise the cre- attracted visitors who spend money, but ative sectors are recognized as sources of beyond tourism, creative enterprises were economic growth neither in public policy not acknowledged to be a legitimate sec- nor the allocation of resources. Such sup- tor of the state’s economy. State support port as these sectors enjoy comes mainly has always been directed at large industri- from state efforts to promote tourism, al and commercial employers. from innovative business ventures, and from the philanthropy of citizens, corpo- The previous report, Growing Arkansas’ rations, and foundations. Creative Economy, made the case for creativity as a force in the state’s economy Arkansas has a real opportunity to plot a on the basis of the numbers of people course that, building on its unique fea- who are self-employed in industry sec- tures and innate ingenuity, emphasizes tors that meet the criteria of “creative,” creativity and uses it to best advantage in which means that they compete primarily its schools, businesses, technologies, and on the basis of the cultural or aesthetic communities. content of their goods or services. In Stuart Rosenfeld comparison to other clusters in the state, April 2008 what we defined as the creative cluster is the third largest. Most economists project high growth for sectors such as gaming, digital media, and fashion, and places competing for jobs are beginning to recognize the importance of the arts and culture to their efforts. As one writer noted, “Rather than focusing obsessively on large firms or symbolic projects…or simply seeking to cut taxes and provide financial incentives to favor large companies, communities need to emphasize those things that lead individuals and companies to remain in a particular place of their own accord.”1 Those things increasingly have to do with art, culture, and lifestyle. Deep Roots, High Hopes attempts to determine what educational, physical, social, and financial assets must be developed to support a creative and cultural environment that will attract and keep 9

Deep Roots

orthwest to southeast, from the Ozarks to the Delta, and from its N northeastern-most tip to Texarkana, Arkansas is pregnant with cultural talent and enterprises. Its formidable creative identity is rooted in an innovative milieu of banjo and blues musicians, artists and authors, potters and poets, directors and designers, dance companies and film crews, and animators and architects, among others. The businesses and entrepreneurs that comprise the state’s creative cluster, the strengths of which were discussed in the 2007 report Growing Arkansas’ Creative Economy, operate as a regional system that generates income and wealth by con- verting artistic, design, and cultural content into products and services. The components of the value chain by which this is accomplished variously supply or support the creative and cultural enterprises that convert aesthetic and cultural content into, or directly produce, as well as reproduce, disseminate, display, and sell such goods and services. Augmenting the nearly 35,000 Arkansans employed in classifiable creative enterprises are scores of others operating under the radar screen in creative endeavors not easily identified or categorized. To tap the economic benefit of the exist- Elizabeth Smith, a profes- ing creative core as well as the underly- local and regional economies to become sor at the University of ing stratum of as yet under-realized cre- Central Arkansas, teaches drivers of economic as well as cultural ative potential, the state must actively to a new generation of activity. Some of the state’s creative assets mine it for creative assets that can pro- Arkansans. Photo are being developed and built upon in vide the foundation for new and existing Courtesy of UCA. ways that generate economic impact, but creative enterprises. many are not. A primary goal of this That Arkansas possesses significant assets phase of the study is to identify catalysts related to the development, expression, that can accelerate the pace at which and experience of creativity and culture Arkansas can be moved down the path is clear. Its colleges and universities, to fuller realization of its creative eco- numerous organizations, and hundreds nomic potential. of cultural venues and spaces fuel artistic How strong the creative assets that con- and creative endeavors in every region stitute the foundations of Arkansas’ cre- of the state. ative economy are, and whether they What is less clear is whether these cre- present areas of opportunity for specific ative assets are sufficiently connected to creative sub-sectors or geographic sub 11 regions, are among the questions ad- artist, musician, and writer are readily dressed in this report. identified as doing “creative work,” if they choose to so classify themselves Creative Economy Reprise (and many do not). Landscape architects do routine as well as creative work. The Our 2007 report showed Arkansas’ cre- artisan manufacturer is even harder to ative economy, when defined by industry classify. Firms that make upscale fashion classifications, to constitute one of its apparel or furniture and market to dis- largest clusters. The cluster is composed criminating customers willing to pay a To designate of four sub-clusters: visual, literary, and premium for appearance or expressive- performing arts; entertainment and new ness, for example, must also satisfy func- a company a media; product and environmental tional needs and meet production sched- “creative enter- design; and cultural heritage and preser- ules and quality standards. To designate vation. In the National Governors Asso- a company a “creative enterprise” thus prise” thus ciation’s 2007 analysis, only transporta- presumes the prominence of aesthetics tion/logistics and processed foods clus- and distinctiveness as competitive advan- presumes the ters led the creative cluster as a source tages, which might be construed to be of jobs. When the self-employed were a more or less subjective assessment. prominence of included, nearly 35,000 citizens earned their livelihood by generating from cre- The value of the creative economy lies aesthetics and ative endeavors more than one billion in the ability of creative enterprises to distinctiveness dollars in wages and self-employment commoditize art and culture without for- income. Were all those who depend on saking the appeal to consumers’ values, as competitive creative activities as secondary income tastes, and emotions that brings prem- sources (for example, the vast majority ium prices. To earn a living from their advantages... of writers), those in sectors not primarily craft, independent writers need editors, classified as “creative,” and those who publishers, printers, advertisers, book under-report their incomes to be includ- distributors, stores, and, as they develop ed, this total would undoubtedly be reputations, agents. The scope and vari- much higher. ety of enterprises beyond the casts required to produce a film are clearly The precise composition of the creative evident in the lengthy lists of credits at economy is not so easily ascertained. The

Universities offer degrees and programs in Mass Communications along with a host of other creative programs. Photo courtesy of UCA. 12 the close of commercially released an increasing segment of the population Consumption movies. Add talent, employment, and is making purchase decisions based not advertising agencies and movie theatres so much anymore on utility or even sta- patterns are and concessions to makeup and music, tus, but on aesthetics, meaning, and self- technical production crews with opera- expression. Corporations that recognize changing, an tors, gaffers, and best boys, set design, this are sponsoring museum shows and increasing modeling, editing and special effects, food purchasing art not just as patrons of cul- services, transportation, and security, and ture, but as good business policy.3 Wal- segment of film and video become a powerful eco- Mart’s comprehension of this is reflected nomic engine for which states now vigor- in its move into designer goods, specialty the population ously compete. Some visual artists rely foods, green design, and sponsorship of on framers, and many sell through gal- art exhibits. is making pur- leries, stores, and web sites and increas- chase deci- ingly engage other companies to multiply Creative Assets— their original compositions as giclees, The Foundation of the Creative sions based prints, posters, and even t-shirts. Tal- Economy ented designers can produce extraordi- not so much nary exteriors and interiors for new It takes more than creative people to real- homes and offices, devise unusual pack- ize the full economic benefit of the cre- anymore on aging for products, and conceive memo- ativity that resides in a state. Successful rable brand identities. creative clusters enjoy a support structure utility or even of public and private sector institutions status, but on Economic development organizations that provide education, training, techni- can promote the growth of the creative cal and business assistance, venues for aesthetics, economy by attracting and supporting production, exhibition, and performance, these types of creative enterprises and and resources. Elements of a state’s meaning, and creative people. But participants in re- schools, colleges and universities, small gional meetings organized across Arkan- business centers, extension services, cul- self-expression. sas for this study lamented the continued tural institutions, and other organizations emphasis on traditional recruitment and that target creative businesses or people lack of economic development effort are part and parcel of a creative cluster. directed at the creative sector. “Our re- It requires an extensive support structure gion is not thinking about our culture to develop a brand for the state and to in economic terms,” remarked one. distinguish its creative and customized Others, however, saw signs, at least, that products, that can create a “buzz” that some regions of the state are beginning generates market demand for goods to understand its potential. “Made in Arkansas” that are a source of Their value, of course, transcends the eco- memories or meaning associated with nomic sphere, and the arts should be sup- places consumers might have lived, visit- ported for their intrinsic value in enriching ed, or attended school or to which they lives and enhancing communities, giving can in some way relate. pleasure and providing emotional and Arkansas’ “creative assets” can be usefully 2 learning experiences. But this side of the organized into six categories: arts, which is more widely understood and acknowledged, already attracts sup- • Associations can be somewhat for- port from local arts councils, foundations, mal groups of compatible creative governments, and private donors. economy players variously designated guilds, councils, cooperatives, and We believe that recognizing the economic arts centers as well more informal as well as intrinsic value justifies far more groups that come together or interact state support for and investment in the as clubs and networks. Most associa- arts. Consumption patterns are changing, tions are membership based, event-

13 oriented venues for networking, organizations that add value to prod- learning, and collaboration. Such ucts and services through design includ- mechanisms for developing “social ing industrial, graphic, and digital capital” are at the heart of all success- media design as well as manufacturers ful industry clusters. that compete on the basis of design. • Education and training aimed at cul- • Resources that support the creative tivating creative economy talent is economy include sources of funding, variously provided by public schools, incentive programs, and information dedicated private arts and craft and technical assistance from private schools, private programs and teach- foundations, government agencies, ers, and educational programs and and non-profits. courses in the arts and design within institutions of higher education and Building on supporting industries. the State’s Creative Assets • Events and performances that showcase elements of the creative econo- To gauge Arkansas’ most significant cre- my include scheduled theatre, festi- ative assets, the study team compiled vals, shows, celebrations, exhibits, from background research, reviews of gallery openings, and readings, open documents, and interviews with key in- as well as ticketed. formants a database of the state’s key creative assets organized by type and sub- • Places and spaces such as museums, cluster. Information about a wide range historic sites, public art, arboretums of activities and assets, ranging from small- and gardens, and other locations in scale, local museums to festivals that at- which creative economy assets are tract thousands of visitors annually to the housed, created, or exhibited includ- state, was collected. Next, to identify ing geographic districts and neigh- assets that might have been missed and borhoods with an arts focus, exhibi- bring some on-the-ground perspective tion halls, film and music studios, and context to the analysis, the team held incubators, and shared space for cre- a series of meetings across the state to ative enterprises are in themselves solicit local stakeholders’ views of their creative economy assets. regions’ most significant assets. • Design talent includes individuals and By its nature, such a compilation cannot be claimed to be comprehensive or all- inclusive. Indeed, some of the assets it Delta Made – Rural Heritage Development Initiative In 2006, the attempts to document are informal, only Delta region was chosen to be one of two pilot sites for the locally publicized, or embedded in other National Trust for Historic Preservation sponsored Rural activities or businesses and therefore dif- Heritage Development Initiative. Three partners in the Delta are ficult to categorize. It nevertheless repre- collaborating to show how heritage and history can be the sents our best effort to assess the state’s basis for economic revitalization: Main Street Arkansas, the creative assets for the purpose of identify- Arkansas Delta Byways Regional Tourism Association, and the ing patterns and opportunities therein. Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas. One RHDI initiative, designated DeltaMade, is a regional branding and promotional The report draws heavily on information program for locally made products that incorporate the Deltas gleaned from regional focus groups and culture and history. Twenty-five local crafts, food products, and creative assets inventory to identify com- other wares are being promoted as DeltaMade in 16 Arkansas petitive strengths and challenges implicit retail locations to enable tourists to take home a little piece of in Arkansas’ creative economy. It exam- Arkansas and at the same time make a real difference to the ines these specifically with respect to: viability of many of the Deltas small home-grown businesses. • each of the state’s creative assets, namely, associations, education and

14 Local Motion Gallery of Arts Established in 2004, Local Motion is the first fine arts gallery in Texarkana that promotes the work of local artists. In fact, its the first fine arts gallery Texarkana has had for many years. As its name suggests, Local Motion is driven by a strong sense of place. Its founding artists noticed a dual need: that Southwest Arkansans usually have to leave the area in order to buy and experience art, and Southwest Arkansan artists usually have to leave the area in order to sell and show their art. Why, they rea- soned, should we not be selling the best of Arkansas to Arkansans? Their rootedness to their home place is also expressed through their artistic themes, such as a layout that asked their artists to paint landmarks of Texarkana, and future ones that may include the colors of Arkansas, or Arkansan landmarks or land- scapes. At present, Local Motion is run entirely as a collective, on the volunteer labor of its artist members.

training, events and performances, develop its niches. Some of that buzz is places and spaces, design talent, and already emanating from the creative cen- resources; ters being developed in the Delta and • the state’s five economic development Ozarks. Other regions continue to look regions: northwest, northeast, cen- for their creative centers. Not every com- tral, southeast, and southwest; munity can develop a local creative cluster, but most have some creative or cul- • and key sub-clusters: visual, literary, tural assets that, accorded the requisite and performing arts; entertainment support and resources, can make a signif- and new media; product and envi- icant contribution to the local culture ronmental design; and cultural her- and economy. itage and preservation. The final report in this four part series, to Arkansas is vying with communities be published later in 2008, will suggest across the United States to make itself local and state policies for increasing and synonymous with creativity. To lay claim better distributing the economic and social to “creative clusterhood” and distinguish benefits of creative enterprises and people. itself from other places, it must find and

15 Cultural Assets: The Building Blocks of Arkansas Creative Economy

o generate markets, showcase The building blocks of the assets (Table products, build reputation, and 1) are roughly organized according to T foster growth, a creative economy the sub-cluster they best fit: visual, liter- needs a solid base that includes (1) edu- ary, and performing arts; entertainment cational programs that cultivate new and and new media; product and environ- enhance existing talent, (2) associations mental design; and cultural heritage and that provide a social infrastructure for restoration. We elaborate, and where pos- networking, learning, and sharing, (3) sible, estimate the assets. But because scheduled events and performance series many of the state, association, and web- that attract and expose audiences to ele- based databases that supplement the doc- ments of the creative economy, (4) places ument reviews, focus groups, and inter- and spaces in which to house, display, views on which this report draws are and sell those elements, and (5) resources web-based, voluntary, or membership- and services that support the develop- based, they are likely to miss many who ment of creative enterprises and activities choose not to join, advertise, or other- of creative workers. That Arkansas pos- wise be included. sesses such a base is manifested in creative endeavors being pursued through- Learning the Skills: Education and out the state, from the Hot Springs Docu- mentary Film Institute to the Ozark Foot- Training in Art and Design hills Filmfest, Ozark Stageworks, and “I A creative economy emerges and is sus- Believe in McGehee” theatre company. tained by individuals who variously

Table 1. Asset Categories

Category Description Organizations Formal support networks and groups such as guilds, councils, associations, and arts centers as well as informal clubs, networks, and organizations. Education and Training Programs and instruction aimed at developing or enhancing creative talent variously offered by public and private arts and craft schools, private teachers, and within educational institutions and supporting industries. Events and Performances Activities such as scheduled theatre, festivals, shows, celebrations, exhibits, gallery openings, and readings, open as well as ticketed, that showcase the creative economy. Places and Spaces Locations such as museums, historic sites, gardens, arts districts, neigh- borhoods, exhibition halls, film and music studios, incubators, and shared space in which creative assets and enterprises can be created, housed, and displayed. Design Talent Individuals and organizations that add value to products and services through design including industrial, graphic, and digital media design as well as manufacturers that compete on the basis of design. Resources Support such as sources of funding, incentive programs, and information or assistance provided by government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private foundations. 16 develop an interest in and gain an appreciation for the arts that they express as audiences and patrons or who acquire arts-based skills and knowledge that they impart to others as teachers or apply to the production of creative assets or development of creative enterprises. A wide range of certificate and degree programs in the arts and design are offered by Ark- ansas’ educational institutions, which also afford aspiring and active artists and designers alike access to resources, services, and connections and provide venues for exhibition and performance that make the state’s creative assets more accessible to the general population. Learning and appreciation are developed and reinforced in the public schools. Ark- Aja Nia Hearne, senior violinist in rehearsal for ansas has maintained a stronger emphasis value is leading these institutions to “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Turn on the arts. It is one of only three states explore ways to integrate the arts and Me Roun’”, a Parkview in the nation to require an arts teacher in design into their employment and entre- Black History presentation every school and arts class for every stu- preneurial missions. in the William J. Clinton dent, and has since 1986 required a half Presidential Center. Northwest Arkansas, Phillips, Arkansas credit in the arts for high school gradua- Parkview’s orchestra, State University at Beebe, and Rich tion. To meet these statutory requirements, choral and theatre pro- Mountain and Oauchita are among the the education system employs 239 high grams presented this community colleges that offer arts and original script tracing school arts teachers and 1,026 elemen- crafts oriented instruction as well as, slave songs through his- tary and middle school arts teachers. increasingly, programs in graphic arts, tory to the Civil Rights’ Public school arts education is supple- animation, and design. Two-year pro- Movement. mented by some 100 teachers who offer grams are offered in the visual arts, but private lessons in music, dance, or art. not in creative writing, which is not con- Arkansas is also one of the few states that sidered a legitimate career track for two- offer a state-wide high school that com- year students (although writing courses bines math and science with the arts. Pre- are offered by two-year institutions in the eminent among the state’s efforts to com- northwest and southwest regions). Arkan- Learning and bine the arts with technology in its high sas State University at Beebe, Rich Moun- schools are the EAST Initiative, which fac- tain Community College, and Oauchita appreciation ilitates the teaching of math and science Community College have become active by affording students access to digital arts members of CraftNet, an international are developed media, and My Community, which makes alliance of community colleges that is and reinforced available to students tools for documen- seeking to build stronger rural econo- tary film making through which they can mies through the application of crafts. in the public learn about their communities and culture. All regions of the state have four-year schools. Arkansas’ community college system is programs in visual arts, creative writing, emerging as a potentially powerful asset and graphic arts. Although the state’s 17 of its creative economy. Although the degree programs in visual arts greatly state’s community colleges have always exceed the two in writing, one of the lat- offered the arts as part of their liberal ter, the creative writing and creative arts and transfer curricula, a growing translation program at the University of appreciation for their potential economic Arkansas at Fayetteville, is among the most

17 Figure 1. Number of Four-Year Colleges (21) with Degree Programs in Creative Fields

Visual art 17 Writing 2 Film 2 Drama 14

Dance 2 Music 19 Media 13 Graphic & Int Design 8 Arch & related 1 Cultural 5

Figure 2. Number of Two-Year Colleges (23) with Degree Programs in Creative Fields

Visual art 7 Drama 2 Music 2 Media 7 Graphic & Int Design 12 Arch & related 2 Cultural 1

innovative and highly regarded in the for example, having garnered national country. Few schools have degree programs awards. Literary publications include in the crafts, although many two-year South Arkansas Community College’s The state has colleges offer selected non-credit courses. Between the Lines, the University of Arkansas-Monticello’s Foliate Oak, and Arkansas’ educational systems support developed a Arkansas Tech University in Russellville’s all of the sub-clusters of the creative award-winning Nebo. particularly economy to varying degrees, and the visual, literary, and performing arts Collectively, these institutions awarded strong reputa- sub-cluster to a considerable degree. 224 baccalaureates in 2007, this relatively Most of the state’s colleges offer arts, low number probably reflecting low demand, tion in creative writing, and some performing arts possibly because the degrees have less writing... degrees or credentials, some quite highly market value than degrees in other fields. regarded nationally. The state has devel- More important on a resume might be oped a particularly strong reputation in the reputation and connections of the creative writing, the writing program at instructor and opportunities afforded by the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, the school to show, perform, or publish. 18 The Parkview Mime. Troupe pose in front of the bridge adjacent to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library while performing for THEA Paves the Way, a fund raiser supporting college scholarships for high school artists.

A number of excellent private schools mass media or multimedia, 23 of them and art centers offer shorter programs in John Brown University’s relatively new that address the needs of those seeking but increasingly popular program in digi- to learn or improve a craft technique, tal arts/media. not acquire a degree, supplement the Approximately 30 students are enrolled system of programs in educational insti- in each of the three tracks (film and video, tutions. The Rosemary Rhea Regional graphic, and design) of the strong multi- Arts Center in Magnolia, Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, Eureka Springs School for the Arts, and Art Ventures Watercolor Holidays in Conway offer courses in selected disciplines. The entertainment and new media sub- cluster is served by university programs in radio and television and digital media. In 2007, 57 baccalaureate degrees were Historic 1886 awarded in radio television and 344 Crescent Hotel and degrees plus a handful of certificates in Spa in Eureka Springs.

Table 2. Certificates and Degrees Awarded by Institutions of Higher Education in Arkansas, 2006-2007

Sub-cluster Assoc./Certificate Bachelors Masters Visual, literary, and performing arts 40 435 29 Entertainment and new media 11 401 25 Product and environmental design 69 208 9 Cultural heritage and preservation 0 5 0

Source: Summary of Degrees/Certificates Awarded by Arkansas Institutions of Higher Education, Arkansas of Higher Education web site, 2008. *Degrees that are embedded in other categories such as liberal arts, multidisciplinary studies, or education are not included in the totals. 19 media program offered by the University ers. Associate degrees or certificates of Southern Arkansas’ two-year branch in awarded by community colleges include Magnolia. About half those who graduate 40 in graphic design and 10 in web from these programs remain in Arkansas. design. A for-profit school, the ITT Student projects in Arkansas State Uni- Technical Institute in Little Rock, also versity at Beebe’s strong set of accredited offers a range of baccalaureate and associ- courses in desktop publishing and com- ate degree programs in the new media puter animation took first, second, and and design fields, including the fields of two third place awards for multimedia graphic, industrial, fashion, or interior or website design in a national competi- design; animation; 25 desktop publish- tion (that includes four-year colleges) ing; and web site design. conducted by Phi Beta Lambda (Future Even fewer programs specifically target Business Leaders of America) in 2007. the cultural heritage and preservation Excepting architecture, formal educational sub-cluster. One program in historic programs for the product and environ- restoration graduated five in 2007. Most mental design sub-cluster are fewer. of those employed in this sub-cluster Architecture generated 53 baccalaureate likely graduated from more generic liber- degrees in 2007, landscape design 149, al arts programs in arts and culture. Parkview’s orchestra all awarded by the University of Except for those who want to teach, performing at the Pulaski Arkansas-Fayetteville: 135 bachelors and degrees and certificates tend to be less County Court House for nine masters degrees in landscape archi- important in the creative cluster than in the “Medieval Feast,” an tecture awarded by the college of agricul- other clusters, the skills, ideas, and con- annual collaboration ture involved design courses, but the between the Parkview tacts acquired in the process often being degree holders are not primarily design- orchestra, choral and more highly valued than whatever cre- theatre programs. dentials are awarded. It’s not unusual for students to enroll in only those courses that especially appeal to them or are taught by a particular person. Consequently, community colleges also offer a wide range of non-credit courses in the business and practice of art as well as in design, and universities and cooperative extension offer courses through continuing education. All of these purveyors of knowledge and instruction in the arts play a major role in bringing art and culture to Arkansas communities.

Networking for Fun and Profit: Associations and Organizations Creative economy enterprises, tending to be quite small and flexible, rely more heavily on networking than on vertical integration to achieve scale. With the dis- appearance of large studios, for example, networks have come to define the music and film industries, which are increasingly populated by large numbers of small specialty companies and freelancers. Many artists, artisans, and designers pre- 20 fer to work autonomously or, if not alone, in small, intimate groups. But cre- atives, however much they might cherish their privacy and independence, need each other as sources of innovation, vali- dation, and information, and as business associates. They benefit from shared space and resources and leverage their collective production to attract greater numbers of customers. “No market relies more heavily on social networks than the exchange of cultural goods.”4 Whereas artists and craftspeople have traditionally pursued mutual support and market visibility through guilds, cooperatives, collectives, and networks (the Arkansas Arts Council, for example, hosts a website, http://www.arkansasarts.com/ programs/registry, that connects prospective customers with a registry of 390 artists throughout the state), designers and performers have tended to rely on more informal venues such as eating and drinking establishments, gallery openings, and bookstores that regularly attract individuals with creative occupations and inter- ests. Both formal and informal associational infrastructures are thus critical assets of Arkansas’ creative economy. The visual, literary, and performing arts sub-cluster exhibits the strongest associative behavior at the local level. Cover of 2008 Arkansas Formal structures such as councils, • Twenty-five-member White County Artists Calendar book, pro- guilds, and clubs are visible and measur- Creative Writers in Searcy meets duced by the Governor’s Mansion Association. able. Writers, for example, who rely monthly and hosts workshops and heavily on peer critique and feedback, social events. are particularly well organized in “No market Other statewide writers’ groups include Arkansas: relies more • Started in 1931, The Poets the Arkansas Writers’ Association, Arkansas Roundtable has ten branches that Literary Society, the Arkansas Literary heavily on host workshops, an annual National Forum at Henderson State University, Poetry Day celebration, and monthly and Arkansas’ Pioneer Branch of the social net- National League of American Pen Women. contests throughout the state. works than • Members of Fiction Writers of Visual and crafts arts are represented by Central Arkansas meet monthly, pub- 41 listed arts councils plus numerous the exchange lish a newsletter, and generally sup- guilds and centers that display art and port each other’s efforts to publish. host special events, speakers, and meet- of cultural ings. Visual arts-specific organizations are • The Ozark Poets and Writers goods.” Collective in Fayetteville, Arkansas concentrated in the northern half of the conducts monthly readings. state. Lawrence County China painters is -Elizabeth Currid 21 representative of organizations that are and learning, and some provide such highly specific to a discipline and area, useful services as information about the Arkansas Craft Guild with member- events, venues, both physical and web- ships that are statewide and less focused. based, for product exposition, and access Bella Vista is among Arkansas’ 27 web- to or active distribution of resources. listed quilters guilds. A striking charac- The cultural heritage and preservation teristic of these organizations is that so sub-cluster is served by fewer organiza- many are dues-based, suggesting suffi- tions. But it includes the approximately cient interest among the state’s practition- 140-member Arkansas Museums Asso- ers of the visual arts to support more ciation, founded in 1966, encourages membership-based activities. “interaction and cooperation” among Some 25 associations are active in music members through professional develop- and dance. However, many more are locally ment initiatives and the publication of organized and informal choral groups, choirs, newsletters and hosting of conferences. and shape-note singers that meet regularly to socialize, make music, and in some Showcasing Creativity: instances perform regionally or record. Events and Performances Product and environmental design and That Arkansas is rich in cultural events entertainment and new media are organ- and scheduled activities that present and ized primarily through national industry promote both static and performance- or professional organizations. The more based arts-related products is clearly evi- than 500-member Arkansas branch of dent from a review of anecdotal evidence the American Institute of Architects is and listings published on state and local staffed in Little Rock, but has volunteer web sites and maintained in databases. regional section chairs in East Arkansas, Some of these events attract people nation- Arkansas is Fort Smith, and the Northwest. The U.S. wide; others, such as scheduled art Green Building Council, which also has walks, square and contra dances, book- rich in cultural regional branches, has offices in Little store readings, pub music, and the events and Rock as well, and AIGA, the Association “events’ that always accompany Eureka for Professional Design, lists Arkansas Springs’ Lucky 13 Starlight outdoor cine- scheduled State University as an institutional hub. ma (e.g., flea market, slumber party, These associations host monthly meet- musicians, dinner, parade), are primarily activities that ings, workshops, and other events that targeted at residents but also intended to bring architects and designers together. entice visitors to stay a little longer. present and The American Society of Interior Designers, a national association that represents pri- The more than 600 special events com- promote both marily commercial designers, has a state piled by the state in 2006 included the static and branch in Little Rock that hosts events. following: Other regional or national associations • 62 arts and crafts fairs; that offer the advantage of broader con- performance- • 14 antique shows; nections crucial to the innovation pro- based cess, but with less impact on local net- • 17 agriculture, food, and culinary working, include the Association of arts festivals; arts-related Professional Landscape Designers, Amer- • 8 literary festivals; ican Association of Webmasters, and • 65 music and dance festivals; products... Southwest Theatre and Film Association. • 6 film festivals; All of these organizations host a wide- • 5 design shows (fashion and ranging variety of events that members furnishings); and and their friends are encouraged to exploit as forums for interaction, sharing, • 46 ethnic, heritage, and preservation festivals. 22 The 224 community celebrations and 226 arts sub-cluster). These widely- adver- seasonal events hosted in 2006 by Arkan- tised, statewide festivals, albeit small in sas communities around their history or number, include several important, well- holidays nearly all included various forms known and well-attended events such as of music, arts, and crafts. That same year, those held in Hot Springs, that add con- these communities were the venue for 10 siderably to Arkansas’ growing reputation ...who could concert 172 performance series. as a venue for creative independent and studio filmmaking. But there are also imagine, for Some 135 events including more than numerous local events such as the Lucky 60 arts and craft festivals are readily asso- 13 Starlight Outdoor Cinema in Eureka example, an ciated with the visual, literary, and per- Springs, billed as “good, clean, weird, forming arts sub-cluster, and the many Arkansan family entertainment,” that shows movies community and heritage celebrations are weekly on a wall adjoining a parking lot. increasingly including arts and crafts crafts or her- exhibitors. Conway’s Toad Suck Daze fes- Of the 172 performance venues identi- itage-related tival, for example, commemorates a long- fied in the inventory, fewer than half are vanished eponymous tavern at which formal such as auditoriums, performance festival that did steamboat crews gathered to “suck on a halls, or campus facilities. Ninety-four bottle ‘til they swelled up like toads.” The are small, informal spaces—66 clubs, not include inclusion of arts and crafts makes the fes- nine coffeehouses, and 24 restaurants— tival part of the asset base for the arts, that are open and accessible to a wide music? and a wide range of other activities part range of consumers. of the asset base for the other sub-clus- Product and environmental design are ters; who could imagine, for example, an represented by the fewest regular events, Arkansan crafts or heritage-related festi- five design shows for fashion and fur- val that did not include music? nishings. This number does not include, Preeminent among the scheduled events however, narrowly targeted shows spon- associated with the entertainment and sored by, for example, state chapters of new media sub-cluster are six film festi- national associations that represent archi- vals (music, dance, and theatre perform- tects or interior designers. ances are considered to be associated The greatest number of special events is with the visual, literary, and performing

The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock houses a distinctive collection of visual art, including a world-class collection of unique works on paper. 23 generated by the cultural heritage and preservation sub-cluster. Most of the 246 ethnic and heritage festivals, 224 community festivals, and 226 seasonal celebrations included crafts, music, literary arts, and artisan foods. The Ghosts of the Past living history candlelight tour through the Gillett town site, for example, brings to life nearly 300 years of Arkansas history in music, dancing, and stories of the spirit, Pocahontas’ Black History Month includes quilting, foods, a tour of the underground railroad, community potluck, and speakers, and Scott’s Homespun Day is a journey back in time with crafters from the Ozark Folk Center who spin, weave, and dye in the manner of the area’s pioneer past.

Creative Environments: Places and Spaces The places and spaces in which Arkansas’ creative assets are created, housed, expe- Downtown Arts rienced, shown, or sold include galleries, Festival in Fayetteville bookstores, boutiques, art centers, museums, music studios, radio stations, and theatres as well as viewable public art such as can be found in parks or adorn- ing buildings. Hospitals, dentists’ offices, restaurants and clubs, and corporate lob- bies often display private art to impart a Walton Arts Center. The Walton Arts Center desired mood or atmosphere (Mercy includes two theaters, an Medical Center in Rogers, for example, amphitheater, and a plaza displays photographic art to create a in addition to the gallery calming, healing environment). pictured here. Because most people interested in making art, whether for livelihood, avocation, or Petit Jean State Park, Morrillton Named for the sweet- hobby, are interested as well in experi- heart of an early French explorer of Arkansas, whose sad encing art created by others, communities romance became an Arkansas legend, Petit Jean State Park rich in creative enterprises tend also to features architecture that endures as a legacy to the crafts- be rich in the visual, literary, and per- manship and conservation achievements of the Civilian forming arts. A web search found 88 art Conservation Corps. The park includes three National galleries throughout the state, more than Historic Districts and contains more than 80 trails, buildings, half concentrated in just three cities: Little and bridges. The most prominent architectural structure, Rock, Hot Springs, and Eureka Springs. Mather Lodge, stretches along the bluff of scenic Cedar Viewing and making intersect, for exam- Creek Canyon. The bluffs, waterfalls, and vistas of Petit Jean ple, in foundation-supported programs Mountain inspired the creation of Arkansas first state park, that place art in public schools with the and along with it Arkansas state park system. dual goals of inspiring students to develop their own by exposing them to the

24 Art and Design for Healing: When the Washington Regional Medical Center, a not-for-profit, community- owned and locally governed hospital in Fayetteville, opened its new state-of-the-art facility in 2002, its plan- ners wanted to avoid the standard institutional hospital appearance. The Center preserved features of its former site, which featured a log farmhouse, spring-fed natural pond, two creeks, and large hardwood trees to create a tranquil healing environment that includes an open atrium that spills out into a landscaped courtyard with a flowing water, landscaped walking paths with seating areas around the perimeter of the building, a walking/jogging path, and a meditation labyrinth adjacent to a natural pond. Then the Center turned to local art to create an even warmer and more nurturing internal environment, one that would put patients and visitors at ease and aid the healing process. Bill Rogers, Director of the Washington Regional Foundation, turned to the regions artists to create that soothing atmosphere. A committee representing the hospital, art community, and board selected and purchased art and place it throughout the public areas of the hospital. This both recognized and showed the regions art and contributed to the recovery process. The hospitals art collection runs the gamut of pastels, wood carvings, sandstone sculptures, fabric art, stone art, and oils. talents of established Arkansas artists. Campus-situated fine art galleries open to the public include Southern Arkansas University’s Brinson Fine Arts Building in Monticello, Ouachita Baptist’s Hammons Gallery in Arkadelphia, and the Univer- sity of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s Fine Arts Center. Even communities from which all sub-clusters of the creative economy are absent can use creative assets such as street art to enhance their attractiveness to residents and firms, as Fort Smith has “Birdsong,” an example of done with outdoor sculptures and Forest gauge public response and establish a art exhibited in Washington City and Pine Bluff with downtown murals. reputation, or for people with other Regional Medical Center in Rogers. Supplementing dedicated spaces are the careers to express and share their artistic many clubs, bookstores, coffeehouses, but secondary talents. and restaurants in the state that provide Arkansas’ entertainment and new venues for new and emerging artists to media sub-cluster is quite well represent- exhibit and sell their work, new and less- ed by five film and 80 recording studios well known poets to read their work, and that support the 96 film companies and musicians to perform. Patrons in such plethora of independent producers and hybrid establishments as Hot Springs’ musicians that provide a foundation for Golden Leaves Book Store and Eureka professionals and amateurs intent on Springs’ Mud Street Café, surrounded by making music and producing films. These the products of creativity, experience art and 21 studios that are open to the pub- as a seamless part of their environment. lic encourage and enable non-profession- Local art hanging in a downtown coffee- als’ engagement with art as well as pro- house and local musicians who can be vide resources and outlets for the work heard over dinner afford people who of full-time musicians and filmmakers. might not take the time to visit a gallery or attend a concert the experience of an Product and environmental design environment of art and creativity. Exhib- manifested in private spaces is not readily iting and performing in these informal catalogued. Banks and professional settings is a way for emerging artists to offices often invest in design to generate a

25 Little Rock’s EMOBA Black History Museum educates positive corporate image, hospitals and the United States, and a restored 1928 Arkansans about Black doctors offices, as noted earlier, to create Esso station in Mena has been turned into artists’ contributions to a calming environment that reduces a museum and historic site that attracts the state’s culture and promotes pride in the patient anxiety, and manufacturing plants large numbers of tourists. Small museums heritage of Arkansas’ to brighten the work environment and like these that celebrate and commemorate black communities. improve productivity. particular aspects of local creative and cultural life dot the state—there are 119 The cultural heritage and preservation of them—and complement its many fine sub-cluster is defined largely by place. El major museums of fine art and culture. Dorado’s, Van Buren’s, Morrilton’s, and Hot Springs’ downtown districts, Bates- Nearly every county in Arkansas has ville’s commercial district, Helena’s older some sort of museum dedicated to its homes, and all of Eureka Springs are his- heritage. That by far the majority of torically preserved and designated cultur- Arkansas’ museums fall into the area al heritage spaces. In Leslie, Serenity Farm studies and local culture category (see Bread’s bakers demonstrate for visitors Table 3) reflects a level of local pride and ancient techniques for making hand-shaped, interest in the heritage of individual com- wood-fired bread that is shipped all over munities that clearly constitutes a creative asset. Table 3. Museums in Arkansas Distinguishing Features: Military 8 Design Capabilities Music 3 With traditional manufacturing in Arkansas, Science and Industry 16 as elsewhere in the South, increasingly moving production offshore, some com- Visual Arts 13 panies are turning to design to develop Area Studies and Local Culture 105 niches less susceptible to global competi- Other or Multidisciplinary 5 tion. The key is to identify products, 26 such as the furniture and accessories made by Stone County Iron Works and Agritourism in Pumpkin Hollow. Agritourism, defined as Ozark Cedar and Forged Iron in Moun- any activity, enterprise or business which is designed to tain View, purses by LindaLu bags in increase farm and community income through combining the Little Rock, or the graters by Microplane essential elements of the tourism and agriculture industries, in Russellville, that embody designs and is embodied in Piggotts Pumpkin Hollow. Pumpkin Hollow, features that are more important to con- or Dalton Farms as its know commercially, is a fully opera- sumers than price. Arkansas manufactur- tional farm that affords visitors the experience of farm life as ers employed 183 people self-classified as well as a host of fun activities. The largest commercial gourd “designers” according to the 2000 census, grower in the entire Southeast, the farm harvests pumpkins but that number omits the larger number and gourds of all kinds and sizes ranging from small ones of companies that contract out for design used in jewelry to large ones that end up as birdhouses. At or rely on their owners or engineers to its core, though, Pumpkin Hollow is about creating a fun provide design for their own products. environment for visitors to the farm in the fall, who encounter a corn maze, haunted Halloween adventures, hayrides, and To gauge the importance of and potential some of the most unique pumpkins in Arkansas. In 2006, for design, we conducted an online sur- more than 12,000 visitors (roughly half from outside the vey of the state’s manufacturers. Respon- state), including more than 4,000 students, visited Pumpkin dents represented a wide range of manu- Hollow. Owners Darrel and Ellen Dalton are investigating the facturing sectors, from those like custom possibility of restoring the farmhouse to show a new genera- furniture for which design is a necessity tion of Arkansans what life on the farm was really like. to those that would seem to be turning out standardized products such as corru- gated boxes. Of 78 respondents: frequently in products (63%) or graphics • 57 percent stated that aesthetics of (51%). One in ten respondents use de- design is integral to or significant for sign for interior and exhibition space, their competitiveness; almost two in ten for branding. • two in five stated that at least half The responses suggest that Arkansas’ their sales are attributable to design manufacturers clearly believe in design. characteristics; A majority of respondents perceived their • about two thirds stated that design competitiveness to hinge on design (see ideas are customer-driven; Figure 4), and nearly half attributed more Revolutionary Designs, • almost three in four stated that cre- than half their sales to design (see Figure located in Hatfield, is one ativity is important when hiring 5) and expected to increase their invest- of many Arkansas manu- employees, only one in ten that it is ments in design over the next three years. facturers that uses design not important; A further indication of the importance as a way to compete effectively in a global • 42 percent expect to increase their marketplace. investment in design within the next three years; • 57 percent assign specific design responsibilities to staff or outside consultants, two-thirds of whom are full-time designers; • almost half use external design consultants, three in five from in-state; . n u o

• only 11.5 percent stated that they r B n worked with state colleges and uni- a D f o

versities on design issues. y s e t r u o c

Arkansas manufacturers employ design o t o h in a variety of ways (see Figure 3), most P 27 Figure 3. What Forms of Design Do You Use these firms attach to design is the premium they place on creativity in prospective em- 70% 63% ployees. Creativity was cited as an important or very important skill in prospective 60% 51% employees by more than 75 percent of s t

n 50% the respondents. Only ten respondents e d

n perceived design to play no role in prod- o

p 40% s uct sales, and only six regarded creativity e R

f to be unimportant in prospective employees.

o 30% t n

e Customers were cited by 64 percent of c

r 18%

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P respondents as the most or second most 10% 10% 9% important source of design ideas, internal staff by 49 percent of respondents. More 0% than half the firms surveyed assign spe- Product and Graphic Fashion Interior and Communi- cific design responsibilities, including industrial design design design (clothing, exhibition cations design (consumer (printing, layout) accessories) design (interior, (branding, graphic design (51 percent), to staff or products, exhibitions) corporate identity) prototypes) outside consultants. Most of these firms (63 percent) employ full-time designers, Figure 4. How Important is Aesthetic Design to Your Competitiveness with 46 percent contracting with outside firms. Five of the 26 firms that use full- 35% 32% time employees in design capacities also contract out for design services. Men- 30% 26% tioned by the one in nine respondents 25%

s that indicated that they worked with t 25% n

e state colleges and universities on design d n

o issues were the University of Arkansas-

p 20% s

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e College, and North Arkansas Community c r

e 10% and Technical College. P

5% Making It Happen: 0% Accessing Resources Integral role Significant role Limited role No role Historically, artists and performers have had to rely on public and foundation Figure 5. About What Percent of Your Product Sales are Due to Design grants to support their work as cultural 25% 24% goods rather than business products, and 22% there has been little attention to programs to help them convert their talents into 20% successful business operations. If artists s t

n and other creative endeavors are to be e

d 15% 15% 15%

n viewed as viable business entities with

o 15% p

s growth potential, they will need the capi- e R

f tal, information, and business assistance

o 10% t 10% n that enables them to become profitable e c

r in addition to support for their cultural e P contributions to their communities and 5% society. State resources fall into two categories: 0% None 1-25% 26-50% 51-75% 76-99% All grants for the arts from foundations and 28 Supporting the Arts. The non-profit THEA Foundation, founded in 2001, advocates the importance of art for the development of youth and encourages the participation of young people in art. The Foundation has awarded nearly $800,000 in scholarships to high school students in the visual and performing arts. Together with the William J. Clinton Foundation, THEA has placed fine art donated by 140 artists in 152 public schools across the state. The Foundation hopes that through the experience our students will have an opportunity to gain insights about themselves and the world that might not be possible other- wise. In some schools, the students own art is displayed as a way to get them excited about it and see it in a new light. THEA also runs actors and dance workshops and partners with North Little Rock to offer art classes in the East End neighborhood. public agencies, and business capital and cluster relies, like more traditional sectors, services from public and private sources. on private investment, banks, “angel” in- Save for a few community foundations vestors, and venture capital funds. But it and services with regional priorities, most also enjoys support from the Arkansas Film of these resources are available statewide. Commission, a variety of state programs in the schools, and some foundations. The Arkansas is home to 15 foundations that product and environmental design com- support the visual, literary, and per- panies are more apt to operate in a more forming arts sub-cluster. In addition, conventional fashion, be better known by state and national government agencies banks and more familiar with govern- and many national foundations, such as ment programs, and have greater access. Rockefeller, Pew Charitable Trust, Ford, and Kellogg, make grants for the arts. The cultural heritage and preservation Grants from national foundations tend to sub-cluster is supported largely by govern- Arkansas’ be highly competitive and depend on the ment funds and agencies, and most impor- size of the field and funders’ annual budg- tantly, the Department of Arkansas Heritage. cooperative ets and priorities. State support is some- The National Endowment for the Humanities what more stable, albeit also subject to and National Endowment for the Arts, as extension has budgets and priorities. well as state and national foundations, an excellent are other major sources of funding. The Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, Agencies that deliver business services, grasp of the funds, on a competitive basis, art organi- although available to creative cluster busi- significance of zations, outreach projects, artists on tour, nesses, are limited by lack of knowledge in-school artists residencies, arts curricu- of the sub-clusters and lack awareness of cultural and lum projects, and individual artist fellow- and familiarity with their needs. The state’s ships, and makes mini-grants to school- cooperative extension service is perhaps creative busi- based projects for the professional devel- the strongest source of support, although opment of arts teachers. It also manages oriented towards smaller cities and rural nesses, and www.arkansasartists.com, a web site that areas. Arkansas’ cooperative extension helps commu- promotes many of the state’s best-known has an excellent grasp of the significance artists and connects them to tourists, col- of cultural and creative businesses, and nities develop lectors, and other customers. Federal and helps communities develop plans and government business assistance programs infrastructure and farms and agricultural plans and are available to creative enterprises, but producers develop niche products and typically they are unfamiliar with the spe- exploit possibilities for agritourism. infrastructure cial needs of artists, especially the self employed and, conversely, arts are una- The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sci- ware of the potential sources of support. ences, and the Arts contributes to the doc- umentation of Arkansas’ cultural history The entertainment and new media sub- through its Arkansas Memory Project. Be-

29 gun in 1998, the student-produced archive the extension agents can match them of Arkansas history research and teaching with expertise. Most other industries in materials includes official documents, pub- the creative economy including digital lications, maps, letters, narratives, record- media, sound studios, architecture, adver- ings, photographs, art, and other artifacts. tising, and broadcasting compete in the usual way for services from small business The product and environmental design development centers and market develop- sub-cluster is served by the Arkansas ment and small business loans, subject to Science and Technology Authority, main- the strength of their business plans and ly through its manufacturing extension growth potential. The major gap is self- arm, Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions, employed and freelance operators, who which has the resources to help manufac- might not qualify as a “business.” turers take advantage of artistic design if

30 The Creative Economy, Region by Region

rkansas is a robustly diverse but • Central region (11 counties): historically economically poor, Little Rock A state that only recently has begun • Southeast region (14 counties): to generate better paying jobs and new Pine Bluff wealth. The state is far from poor, how- • Northwest region (16 counties): ever, in its arts and cultural heritage. Fayetteville and Fort Smith Each of its geographic regions has, over time, developed and preserved its unique • Southwest region (18 counties): history, culture, and even quirks. The Texarkana, El Dorado, and Camden. music of the Delta, for example, differs The Northwest, by far the state’s fastest markedly from that heard in the Ozarks, growing region, has the smallest African- and opportunities for design in the state’s American but largest Latino population urbanizing regions are vastly different (see Tables 1 and 2). The Southeast, than in its rural, agricultural areas. But which has lost population, has the largest even as these distinctions shape the number of African-Americans and the forms creativity takes and the way it does highest poverty and unemployment rates. and could influence community and the As the synopses in this chapter reveal, each economy, the increased mobility of talent region has creative assets, but place and and ease of access to information are circumstance shape the economic and erasing hard geographic boundaries, and social outcomes associated with them. traditional differences among the state’s regions are diminishing. To determine where the creative economy clusters and distinguish the forms it takes Table 4. Population Distribution by Region, 2006 and how it is supported in various parts of Arkansas, we used the five geographic Region Population % White % Black % Latino regions designated by the Arkansas Central 760,468 75 22 4 Department of Economic Development. Each of these regions includes multiple Northeast 377,563 88 10 3 counties and is anchored by one or two Northwest 823,922 94 2 8 cities or towns or varying sizes. These Southeast 317,810 57 41 2 include: Southwest 531,109 79 17 5 • Northeast region (13 counties): Statewide 2,810,872 81 16 5 Jonesboro and Mountain View

Table 5. Population Growth, Unemployment, and Poverty by Region

Percent Change in Percent Region Population 2000-2006 Unemployment Rate, 2006 Percent in Poverty 2004 Percent Non-Metro Central 5 5 15 27 Northeast 1 6 18 70 Northwest 14 4 13 45 Southeast -4 8 21 51 Southwest 2 6 17 51 Statewide 5 5 16 45 31 The Northeast: sas’ second smallest economic develop- Variety Fuels ment region. It is also one of the least Creativity racially diverse. Eighty-eight percent of the region’s population is white. Its Afri- The national can-American population is concentrated perception of in the eastern part, Cross, Jackson, and Arkansas’ creative heritage is rooted Mississippi counties having 64 percent of chiefly in the Ozark Mountains, part of the region’s African American, but only the Northeast Arkansas economic devel- 22 percent of its total, population. Although opment region that is to a large extent several counties saw more robust growth, distinguished by the crafts and music Craighead, Greene, and Stone recording associated with the Ozarks. But Northeast increases of four percent or more, overall Arkansas offers even more variety than the region’s population remained relative- the popular traditional activities associat- ly stagnant, increasing by less than one ed with Mountain View’s Ozark Folk Life percent from 2000 to 2004. Center. Want to live where it seems every other citizen plays a stringed instrument? Long considered one of the poorest Consider making Batesville your home. regions in the nation, the area known as Want to catch up on the latest quirky lit- the Ozarks has seen conditions improve erary sensation, or perhaps even shake over the past half-century. Although the John Grisham’s hand? Head for Blytheville. Northeast, with poverty and unemploy- You might catch some of country music’s ment rates of 17.5 percent and 6.2 per- biggest stars performing in Jonesboro, cent respectively, remains Arkansas’ sec- and while you’re up in the area check out ond poorest region, it has seen some some of the world-class crafts available in signs of progress. Median family income Mountain View or enjoy a bevy of musi- in Stone County, for example, increased cal groups picking out new tunes on the from only 31 percent of the national courthouse square. median in 1959 to 56 percent in 1999 - still low, but progress nevertheless. Regional Overview The region’s economy is fairly diversified, The Northeast region stretches from the with several counties more manufacturing- Mississippi River in the east to the thriv- dependent than other parts of the state— ing population centers of the easternmost Mississippi County, for instance, has a reaches of northwest Arkansas. Encom- thriving steel industry—and tourism a passed by this large area are several dis- major contributor in other parts of the The national tinct sub-regions, each with its own eco- region, particularly the Ozarks, which nomic and creative profile. Jonesboro, attracts visitors by virtue both of the nat- perception the state’s fifth largest city, is home to ural beauty of the area and the strong base Arkansas State University, which drives of traditional crafts. Two counties, Sharp of Arkansas’ much of the cultural activity in the sur- and Stone, are retiree counties as defined rounding communities. Culturally dis- creative by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: tinct Batesville is the largest community “an over-sixty population that has grown heritage is in the Ozark region, and Mountain View, by more than 15 percent due to immigra- home to many of Arkansas’ traditional tion.” The draw for retirees is much the rooted chiefly arts and crafts, is drawing growing num- same as for tourists, natural amenities bers of retirees from around the country. and a growing affinity for the arts. in the Ozark The rural areas that lie between these communities remain sparsely populated. We use, among other measures, the U.S. Mountains... Department of Agriculture Economic With 361,266 residents, 31 percent of Research Service’s “Bohemian Index,” whom live in the two county metropolitan which registers the number of individuals area of Jonesboro, the Northeast is Arkan- employed as artists and in related occu-

32 pations, to assess the extent of the cre- Table 6. Full-Time Artists, Designers, and Performers in the ative economy in each region. The num- Northeast Region by County, 2000 ber of artists per 1,000 employed persons in each county of the Northeast region, County Number Number Per 1,000 Employed very likely an undercount owing to rea- Clay County 19 2.5 sons cited earlier, is reported in Table 6. Craighead County 244 6.1 Educational Institutions Cross County 14 1.7 A network of community colleges and Fulton County 10 2.2 four-year institutions is playing an increas- Greene County 71 4.2 ingly important role in the economy of Independence County 107 7.0 the Northeast region: Izard County 53 10.8 • Arkansas State University in Jackson County 26 3.7 Jonesboro, the region’s only public four-year university and the fourth Lawrence County 57 7.9 largest institution of higher education Mississippi County 55 2.7 in the state, offers through its Depart- Poinsett County 22 2.1 ment of Fine Arts both bachelor’s and Randolph County 45 5.9 master’s degrees in music, theater, and art. The university is instrumen- Stone County 30 6.9 tal, through its degree in arts educa- Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2006 tion, in educating future teachers of http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CreativeClassCodes the arts, and is also exploring non- traditional types of creative endeavor as reflected in its multi-disciplinary bachelor of science in digital media students hands-on experience in the and design degree, which includes art of food preparation. courses in the School of Fine Arts • Educational offerings in the and communications school. Northeast region are not limited to • Another significant contributor to the post-secondary institutions’ formal economy of the Northeast region, is degree programs. From mid-April to the private, four-year Lyon College, October, for example, Mountain which offers undergraduate degrees View’s Ozark Folk Center offers in the arts and is working closely classes in traditional crafts and music with local music groups. Lyon also as well as an annual one-week pro- actively supports the Ozark FilmFest, gram at the Ozark Folk School that which is becoming known nationally immerses individuals in these tradi- known not only for its annual pro- tional art forms, and Pocohantas’ pri- motion of new films but also for its vate Studio for the Arts offers area educational outreach to the region’s residents arts programs in dance and high school students. theater and operates a theater that • Several of the region’s two-year col- stages productions yearround. leges offer courses in the arts. Ozarka • Finally, several regional arts councils College, in Melbourne, awards an sponsor arts programs, many aimed associate degree in the culinary arts at young people. Jonesboro’s to students who acquire the requisite Foundation for the Arts, for exam- practical skills in operating and ple, offers an extensive arts and working in a restaurant and catering dance program that includes spring operation. In 2007, the college 2008 classes in ballet and hip-hop as opened a new dining room to afford well as in traditional crafts.

33 Festivals and Events to pickers and musicians from around the region play traditional music. The Northeast region, like Arkansas generally, hosts events and festivals through- The region’s performance venues are out the year. Not included in the follow- complemented by a number of galleries ing 46 are numerous one-time promo- including Arkansas State University’s tional events. Bradbury Gallery located at the Fowler • Nine arts and crafts shows Center, which the university estimates hosts more than 360 arts events every • Five culinary festivals year including the nationally recognized • One dance festival Delta National Small Prints Exhibition. • Two film festivals The region is home as well to many pri- • Ten festivals that celebrate the vate galleries at which local artists can region’s history and culture exhibit their work. Show openings of ...one of the Jonesboro’s Sara Howell Gallery, which • Six community celebrations features national as well as local artists, best venues • Three music festivals are a highlight of the region’s artistic cal- for music is endar, and the Arkansas Craft Guild, also As certain festivals have evolved, organiz- in Jonesboro, operates a gallery that the lawn ers have taken steps to preserve some showcases homemade crafts from the emphasis on their roots. When the around the state. Arkansas Folk Festival, for example, outside the Less formal venues include The recently shifted its focus away from the Community Gallery, located in a bank in Mountain state’s traditional crafts and arts, a com- Clinton and open during banking hours, pensatory move was made to maintain as which enjoys the support of the North View court- part of the festival the showcasing of Central Arkansas Foundation for the Arts products made in Arkansas. house, and Education, and Mountain View’s annual Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour on which, Places and Spaces affords shoppers an opportunity to visit on many The Northeast region, especially through some of the state’s greatest craftspeople its institutions of higher learning, has who choose to exhibit their wares in the evenings, many different venues for the exposition comfort of their own studios. of creative endeavors. Jonesboro’s cam- Recognized as one of the nation’s premier locals and pus-situated Fowler Center, for example, independent bookstores, That Bookstore has hosted performances by the Memphis in Blytheville, one of the few establish- visitors alike and Arkansas Symphonies, Vienna Piano ments visited by noted author John Trio, and Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin set up lawn Grisham on his book tours, hosts literary Brothers, and its 11,000-seat convocation events that attract readers from through- center has been nearly filled by Nelly, chairs and out the region and beyond. Kelly Clarkson, and Trace Adkins and listen to other national touring acts. Smaller performance venues abound as well. Associational Infrastructure pickers and Historic theaters in Blytheville and Numerous arts councils and organiza- musicians... Jonesboro as well as Batesville’s Lyon tions coordinate volunteers and generally College and Mountain View’s Ozark Folk support creative endeavors throughout Center host community performances the region. Among the most active is The and smaller touring acts. In fact, one of Foundation for the Arts in Jonesboro, the best venues for music is the lawn which sponsors one of the most compre- outside the Mountain View courthouse, hensive dance programs in the state. The on which, on many evenings, locals and Batesville Symphony League, which has visitors alike set up lawn chairs and listen made that community a haven for string

34 musicians, variously sponsors the ative economy and drives local artists to Foundations Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Lyon seek markets and venues for their work Community Orchestra, and North outside the region. Interviewees also are important Arkansas Youth Orchestra. cited limited philanthropic resources. Foundations are important sources of sources of A goal of many of these organizations is support for community artistic endeav- to encourage the pursuit of creativity and support for ors, and increasing the dollars spent in creative occupations by the region’s support of the arts could make a signifi- youth. Extensive youth programs are community cant difference in communities through- offered by the Foundation for the Arts, out the region. Finally, community repre- artistic endeav- and many young people learn about film- sentatives believed that local govern- making in year-round programs spon- ments should be forthcoming with ors, and sored by the Ozark FilmFest. greater financial support for the arts, or increasing the Less formal collectives organized by at least greater recognition of the impor- many of the region’s artists include the tance of creative enterprise to the econo- dollars spent in Arkansas Craft Guild, which brings arti- my of the Northeast region. sans thoughout the Ozarks together to support of the promote shows and other events, and was instrumental in reserving a portion arts could of the annual Arkansas Craft Festival to The Southeast: make a signifi- “Made in Arkansas” products. The Guild- Can a Rich sponsored Educational Support Asso- cant difference ciation promotes the learning of tradi- Cultural tional crafts by school age children in Heritage Lift a in communities Poor Economy? the region. throughout the Southeast Arkansas, widely referred to as Museums and Cultural Centers the Delta, possesses a rich cultural her- region. The Ozark Folk Center is perhaps the itage. One of the South’s leading cultural most prominent, but by no means the centers in the early decades of the twenti- only, cultural center in the Northeast eth century, Helena boasted a famous region. Among the region’s 22 museums opera house that hosted John Philip and historic sites are Osceola’s Mississippi Sousa’s band and Jenny Lind as well as County Heritage Center, which traces the Shakespearean companies. With the history of that county, Fairfield Bay’s Log ascendancy of the blues in the region, Cabin Museum (a bona fide 1850 log the King Biscuit Radio Hour spread the cabin), and the Veterans Military gospel from famed Helena radio station Museum in Hardy. KFFA. In keeping with its roots, the Southeast region today is looking to its Looking Ahead creative assets, among them its many museums and festivals, to stimulate a Although northeast Arkansas clearly pos- slow-moving economy. sesses significant creative assets, interviews and focus groups with area resi- Regional Overview dents identified several challenges that must be met if the region is to realize With high unemployment and seven of the full economic potential of its creative the Arkansas’ 17 persistently poor coun- economy. Notwithstanding impressive ties, the Southeast is the poorest region strides in terms of income growth, the in one of America’s poorest states. Not legacy of persistent poverty continues to surprisingly, it is the only region that has pervade the region. Limits to the dispos- lost population over the past six years. able income that can be spent on the arts Economically, the region is fairly diverse. restricts the further expansion of the cre- Five counties depend on a diminishing 35 important cultural assets are tied to the African-American community that accounts for two-fifths of its population. Table 7 provides a measure of the region’s creative economy using the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service’s “Bohemian Index.”

Educational Institutions One of the region’s most important creative assets, the state-supported, historically black University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), offers degrees in art, music, and journalism as well as courses in art and graphic design. Local cultural activi- The Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie ties and artists are the focus of a universi- in Stuttgart depicts the manufacturing sector (30 percent or ty museum and gallery. The latter recent- history of agriculture more employed) and four have agricul- ly featured a multimedia retrospective on and pioneers who tural economies.5 Pine Bluff native and internationally farmed the area. renowned jazz artist Clark Terry. The region’s population is almost evenly split among its four metropolitan and Watercolor painter Henri Linton heads nine non-metro counties.6 The Southeast UAPB’s art department and is the driving is by far the state’s most ethnically force behind much of the school’s cre- diverse region, and many of its most ative outreach.The university’s annual black-tie Chancellor’s Benefit for the Arts, Table 7. Full-Time Artists, Designers, and Performers in the which raises funds to support its arts and Southeast Region by County, 2000 cultural activities and emphasizes the importance of the creative economy to County Number Number Per 1,000 Employed the region, draws luminaries from all over southeast Arkansas. The region’s Arkansas County 48 5.2 other four-year institution, the University Ashley County 40 4.2 of Arkansas at Monticello, also offers Bradley County 13 2.8 degrees in the arts and sponsors arts Chicot County 31 6.3 events on campus. Cleveland County 20 5.5 The region’s four, two-year community Crittenden County 114 5.5 colleges do not offer degrees in the fine arts, but most offer degrees in graphic Desha County 0 0.0 design and related disciplines. Drew County 44 5.5 Jefferson County 210 6.3 Events and Venues: Lee County 3 0.8 The Delta Blues and More Lincoln County 10 2.2 The Warfield Concert Series features Monroe County 6 1.6 everything from symphonies to pop artists, yet mention Southeast Arkansas, Phillips County 20 2.2 and most people think of the blues. Sharp County 39 6.5 Some of the region’s strongest creative Arkansas 6.9 assets build on this indigenous musical tradition. For 22 years, Helena has Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2006 played host to the Arkansas Blues and http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CreativeClassCodes

36 Heritage Festival, formerly the King Biscuit Music Festival after the sponsor Delta Wolf Trap in West Memphis Delta Wolf Trap is a of the KFFA blues radio show that is in collaboration between performing artists and early childhood its sixty-seventh year of broadcast. One education professionals that uses the arts as a way to of the signature events on the national engage children and their families in learning and in creative blues calendar, the festival draws visitors expression. The Delta region was chosen by stART smART, from around the world who want to see a program that support arts-in-education programs for the blues performed in its birthplace. young children, as one of three pilot sites in the country. Pine Bluff hosts a yearly Jazz Fest named Delta Wolf Trap serves east Arkansas, west Tennessee, and for native son Clark Terry that builds on north Mississippi, and makes use of drama, music, and his and others’ jazz roots, as well as a movement in order to get children interested in learning and juried barbecue competition, Smoke on involve their families and teachers in the children’s artistic the Water, that features music that com- and educational development. The goal is for the arts to plements the region’s delicacies, and become a new way of teaching, learning, and knowing. Helena is home to the annual Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Festival that brings nationally renowned acts to the Delta community. measure outside church halls in the larg- Gospel music and church musicians are er context of the creative economy. among the region’s most significant cre- College and university facilities are ative assets. Many churches employ full- among the region’s primary performance time ministers of music who organize venues. Most of the Warfield Concert choirs, hold concerts, and generally pro- Gospel music Series events, for example, are held in mote their faith through music. A large Phillips Community College’s 1,200-seat proportion of Arkansas’ African-American and church Fine Arts Arena. churches, for which music is an integral musicians are part of the ministry, are concentrated in But music is not the only cultural asset the Southeast region. More than 40 per- around which southeast Arkansans like among the cent of the Arkansas churches of the to gather. The thousands of migratory African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, birds that flock to the flooded timber- region’s most one of the largest predominantly African- lands around Stuttgart, Arkansas are American denominations in the country, joined every Thanksgiving by more than significant are in the Southeast, 11 churches in Pine 30,000 people flocking to the World’s creative assets. Bluff alone.7 The influence of gospel Championship Duck Calling Contest and music and church musicians is clear with Wings Over The Prairie Festival. Among respect to congregations, but difficult to the creative enterprises that target the

Delta Cultural Center in Helena. 37 influx of hunters is Rich N’ Tone Calls, locally are Pasquale’s (hand-rolled) which manufactures handcrafted duck Tamales of Helena (“So good you’ll suck calls that are marketed throughout the the shuck”), Mollie’s Originals (handcraft- country. The popularity of these meticu- ed purses made in Helena), and Miller’s lously designed creations is due not only Mud Mill (handcrafted pottery made in to their quality, but also to the fact that Desha). These and other DeltaMade they are manufactured in the city recog- products featured on the web site nized to be the nation’s premier water- www.arkansasdeltamade.com are market- fowl destination. Stuttgart is also home ed as “products of the soil and soul.” to Mack’s Prairie Winds, one of the largest Even this poorest of Arkansas’ five eco- outdoor retailers in the country, which nomic regions manages to make some operates in addition to its large retail financial resources available to its cultural store an extensive mail order business. and arts groups. Most of a number of affiliates of the Arkansas Community Places and Spaces: Foundation provide small grants to cul- Showing off the Region’s Past and tural organizations, and the Community Present Foundation of Greater Memphis provides Proportionally, the Southeast region is some cross-border support to Crittenden home to more “museums, historical sites, County. and similar institutions” than the state as 8 a whole. The Delta Cultural Center is Associational infrastructure but one; most counties include small his- Local economic development organiza- torical museums and, as in much of tions and chambers of commerce organ- Arkansas, other unique places that ize most of the region’s festivals. In part, emphasize more off-the-beaten-path ele- dependence on these organizations ments of life in the Delta. Pine Bluff’s reflects the small number of arts councils Band Museum features more than 700 and other organizations that focus on cre- Efforts to vintage instruments, some nearly 300 ative endeavors. Although the Arkansas years old; Stuttgart’s Agricultural Arts Council lists only three organiza- capitalize on Museum highlights the region’s depend- tions in the Southeast region that can be ence on farming through exhibits that the Delta classified as arts councils, far fewer than show how the region’s early settlers made in any other region in the state, these their living off the land; and local artists brand include organizations are extremely active. display their work in the Guachoya the region’s Cultural Arts Center and other galleries The Crittenden Arts Council, for exam- Rural Heritage and exhibit halls scattered throughout ple, which serves West Memphis, not the region. Also in Pine Bluff is the Arts only brings noted national performers to Development and Science Center of Southeast the community, but is also active in pro- Arkansas, in which can be found exhibits moting the arts in the local public Initiative, which of local and international art alongside schools, which earns it support from the displays that explain scientific studies in business community as well as from the is championing terms that children can understand. public. The organization also supports individual artists including the Delta a new venture Common to all these museums is the Artist Society, a number of artists in dif- promotion of the Delta’s rich cultural her- ferent media who network and occasion- called itage. Efforts to capitalize on the Delta ally engage in joint marketing efforts. The brand include the region’s Rural Heritage Guachoya Cultural Art Center in Lake Arkansas Development Initiative, which is champi- Village brings together artists in that oning a new venture called Arkansas DeltaMade. Delta community. DeltaMade. Among the products and establishments that carry the DeltaMade One of the region’s most important arts label to indicate that they are produced institutions is Helena’s state-supported 38 The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Fine Arts Gallery hosts regular exhibitions.

Delta Cultural Center, which pursues its highlight instead blues events in mission of promoting the Delta’s history Memphis and across the river in and culture by variously organizing Mississippi, particularly Clarksdale. exhibits on blues music, sponsoring con- There also seems to be a need to better certs including the Arkansas Delta Family integrate its African-American community Gospel Festival, and assisting with the into the region’s creative economy. Faculty preparation of lesson plans for area report, for example, that because it is per- schools that offer curricula intended to ceived to be a black institution, many further students’ understanding of the people “don’t want to come to that side region’s rich cultural heritage. of town” to take advantage of some dynamic programming in the arts offered by the Looking Ahead University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Other The Southeast region clearly has a strong interviewees reported that African-American cultural base on which to build. Its tradi- residents did visit community wide insti- tions are steeped in the blues and the tutions such as the Southeast Arkansas’ history of the earliest visitors to the state. Arts and Science Center. Although a But individuals interviewed for this proj- major part of the state’s rich musical her- ect expressed frustration at the region’s itage, the African-American church has seeming inability to capitalize on these been neither measured nor nurtured as and other inherent strengths. An example an asset outside the religious community. is the blues music scene. Although wide- It is also clear that the region’s limited ly promoted and well attended, the blues resource base has had a negative impact festival’s future has been rendered uncer- on the arts. Cultural institutions tradi- tain by recent funding struggles of the tionally thrive in areas with strong corpo- sponsoring organization. More daunting rate and philanthropic support, resources even than the survival of the event is the the Southeast, relative to other regions of struggle to ensure that blues music the state, is sorely lacking. remains part of the local culture. Few public venues in the region feature live blues music on a regular basis, and Arkansas is rarely mentioned in travel articles in national publications that 39 The Southwest: tant in parts of the region, particularly in Continuing to the Diamond Lakes region, Ouachita Manufacture, Mountains, and along the Ouachita River, but Looking areas that draw hikers, climbers, campers, Ahead hunters, fisherman, and other nature en- thusiasts as well as attract large numbers The recent erosion of resource-based of vacation homeowners. manufacturing and rural population loss has left southwest Arkansas, which has Owing in part to its resource-based man- long depended on its natural resources to ufacturing activity, the Southwest is the drive its economy, struggling to develop a region most heavily dependent on manu- new formula for economic progress. Grow- facturing. In most counties, at least 20 ing its creative economy is becoming an percent, and in some more than 30 per- important part of the solution. New cent, of the residents work in manufac- grassroots cultural activities are springing turing industries, including fabricating up throughout the region in both tradi- metal products, tires and automotive tional and new media, and the region is parts, aerospace components, and gar- blessed with strong educational assets dening and landscaping tools and Tourism that can be leveraged to support cultural machinery. development and train creative workers. officials, for The region is facing a number of serious economic challenges: example, Regional Overview • Outmigration is a pressing concern, are coming The Southwest region encompasses 18 most non-metro counties having lost counties that stretch from the city of Hot population, and the region as a to view the Springs in the northeast to the Oklahoma whole, although total population has and Texas borders on the west and grown slightly in recent years, still creative econ- Louisiana border to the south. This significantly lagging the state. region, which descends southward from • The region’s critical manufacturing omy as com- the ridgelines of the Ouachita Mountains sector has been incurring significant in the north to the rolling hills and pine plementary job losses. forests of the Gulf Coastal Plain, is largely to the region’s rural. Its 427,000 residents are about • Although the region’s unemployment evenly distributed, one-third in its two rate only slightly exceeds the state established metropolitan areas, Hot Springs and average, poverty plagues much of the Texarkana, another third in its “microp- region, particularly the southernmost outdoor recre- olitan areas,” and the remaining third in counties, in which poverty rates rou- wholly rural counties.9 Hot Springs, the tinely approach and even exceed 20 ation market... region’s largest city, has a population of percent. only 38,000. Texarkana has 30,000, the It is in this context that creative assets are abutting city of Texarkana, Texas almost attracting greater attention as potential another 30,000. The next largest commu- contributors to regional economic devel- nities, El Dorado, Camden, and opment. Tourism officials, for example, Arkadelphia, all have populations of are coming to view the creative economy 20,000 or fewer. as complementary to the region’s estab- The region’s economy is heavily resource- lished outdoor recreation market, with based. Many residents work in the farm- the result that tourism materials are ing and forestry industries, many more in increasingly emphasizing the region’s pic- the poultry processing, wood products, turesque small towns with their historic and paper plants that constitute a large centers, numerous music, craft, and cul- share of the region’s manufacturing econ- tural festivals, and cultural venues omy. Resource-based tourism is impor- including museums, performing arts

40 facilities, galleries, and historic sites. a range of cultural opportunities in a These same cultural offerings are also variety of disciplines, primarily music, believed to be helping to make the region the visual arts, and dance. Cultural assets ...the Diamond an attractive locale for vacation homes. can also be found on a lesser scale in some of the region’s smaller communities The Southwest region’s strongest creative Lakes region including Camden, De Queen, Hope, assets, its music, visual arts, and cultural Magnolia, Mena, and Mount Ida. has further heritage, are being supplemented by an emerging film and video production indus- Table 8 reports for each county in the fueled demand try. The region’s largest, best established Southwest region the number of artists, cultural center, Hot Springs, long-stand- designers, and performers and their rela- for cultural ing dependence on tourism has spawned tive concentrations. The data underscore a range of cultural activities, and growth the role played by Hot Springs (Garland amenities. in retirement and vacation home owner- County), Arkadelphia (Clark County), ship in the city and the Diamond Lakes and Texarkana (Miller County) as centers region has further fueled demand for cul- of the region’s creative economy. tural amenities. The approximately 400 artists and performers living in Hot Educational Institutions Springs in 2000 according to federal data The Southwest region’s creative economy have likely increased in number since. enjoys considerable support, particularly Hot Springs hosts numerous music, craft, and cultural festivals and has a thriving Table 8. Full-Time Artists, Designers, and Performers in the gallery district, several performance ven- Southwest Region by County, 2000 ues, and a number of museums and exhibit spaces. The city’s signature annual County Number Number Per 1,000 Employed cultural events are the nationally recog- Calhoun County 12 5.1 nized Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and Hot Springs Music Festival. Clark County 129 12.1 In part because of the film festival and Columbia County 87 8.2 presence of its organizer, the Hot Springs Dallas County 5 1.4 Documentary Film Institute, the city has Garland County 400 10.9 also attracted a number of small film and video production businesses. Hempstead County 3 0.3 Hot Springs County 55 4.1 Other important concentrations of creative assets are found in Arkadelphia, Texarkana, Howard County 48 7.6 and El Dorado. Two universities in Arka- Lafayette County 7 2.2 delphia, Henderson and Ouachita Baptist, Little River County 20 3.4 offer degrees in a number of artistic disci- Miller County 139 8.2 plines and provide venues for the visual and performing arts. Faculty and stu- Montgomery County 25 6.7 dents of these institutions contribute sig- Nevada County 23 5.4 nificantly to the community’s cultural life Ouachita County 48 4.2 through performances, exhibits, and pri- Pike County 30 6.1 vate teaching. A local arts organization in Texarkana has spurred development of Polk County 20 2.4 two new major cultural facilities, a the- Sevier County 24 3.5 atre and a visual arts center, and in El Union County 97 5.2 Dorado a number of small-scale events, Arkansas 6.9 venues, and educational programs, many supported by local philanthropic and arts Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2006 organizations, have combined to provide http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CreativeClassCodes

41 . s n i k n e J d r a h c i R f o y s e t r u o c o t o h P Texarkana’s ArtSmart program integrates the arts in the fine arts, from three four-year insti- degrees in theatre arts, and Henderson into education by having tutions. Henderson University and offers a degree in mass media communi- students get creative Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia cation. These institutions also offer including making a comic and Southern Arkansas University in degrees in music and visual arts educa- strip about geometry. Magnolia as well as the two-year Texarkana tion, and their presence affords opportu- College offer degree programs in the nities for local musicians to obtain pri- visual arts, drama, and music, the latter a vate music instruction. Six of seven particular strength. The region also has at Arkadelphia music teachers listed on the least 11 private dance schools, two the- Arkansas Music Teachers’ Association atre-affiliated drama schools, and 40 web site are on the faculties of one or the music teachers offering private music les- other of these institutions. sons or classes. Hot Springs, although the region’s major The commercial arts enjoy somewhat less arts and cultural center, does not have a extensive support. Degrees and certifi- strong post-secondary educational base, Degrees and cates in graphic design, computer-aided but is home to a unique public secondary design and drafting, web design and school for which the arts is one of three certificates development, and mass media communi- areas of academic focus. National Park cations, among other disciplines, are Community College, the city’s only high- in graphic offered by the aforementioned institu- er education institution, offers a non- design, com- tions as well as by Cossatot Community degree choral music program and an College in De Queen, National Park associate degree program in graphic puter-aided Community College in Hot Springs, Rich design, and has proposed a degree pro- Mountain Community College in Mena, gram in photography. Texarkana College, design and and Southern Arkansas University in Texarkana, offers associate degree pro- Technical Branch in Camden. grams in art, drama, and music, the latter drafting, web curriculum being the most extensive. Arkadelphia’s Henderson University and Although on the Texas side of the border, design and Ouachita Baptist University both offer the college offers in-state tuition to bachelors degree programs in a variety of Arkansas residents through a reciprocal development, artistic disciplines. The most extensive agreement with the state of Arkansas. and mass offerings are in music, followed by the visual arts. Ouachita Baptist offers pro- In addition to its degree programs, media com- grams in vocal studies, instrumental Texarkana College’s continuing education studies, church music, and theory and department hosts the Bill Moran School munications, composition. Henderson offers a music of Bladesmithing, a partnership between degree with options in vocal and instru- the college, the American Bladesmithing among other mental music. Society, and the Old Washington Historic State Park near Hope that keeps alive one disciplines, Ouachita Baptist also offers degrees in of southwest Arkansas’ most celebrated graphic design and studio art. Mediums craft traditions. At the primary and sec- are offered... include painting, drawing, ceramics, ondary level, the Texarkana Regional Arts mixed media, and computer graphics. and Humanities Council works with Henderson offers a degree in digital art school districts in Texarkana and two near- and design. Both institutions offer by communities to introduce arts into the 42 schools through its ArtsSmart program, events and festivals annually including ...Texarkana whereby visiting artists help teachers jazz and gospel music festivals, crafts integrate the arts into daily instruction. shows, art festivals, cultural heritage cele- and two brations, and dance festivals.. The Hot Southern Arkansas University (SAU) in Springs Documentary Film Festival, nearby Magnolia offers bachelors degrees in a which shows more than 100 documen- number of artistic disciplines including communities tary films, and Hot Springs Music visual arts (studio art, graphic design), Festival, which brings together for a music (vocal and instrumental), theatre, introduce arts series of performances established and and mass communication (with an emerging classical musicians from into the emphasis on broadcast and print journal- throughout the United States, attract the ism) as well as advanced degrees in largest and most far-flung audiences. schools music and arts education. In nearby El Dorado, Southern Arkansas Community The region’s smaller communities host through its College offers courses, but no degree pro- their share of cultural events and festi- grams, in the visual arts and music. ArtsSmart Faculty members at these schools also program... provide private music instruction in Magnolia and El Dorado.

Events and Festivals Communities throughout southwest Arkansas celebrate the region’s artistic and cultural heritage and showcase regional and national creative talent with numerous events and festivals. More than 50 are held annually, including 13 music festivals (many featuring Arkansas’ homegrown bluegrass music), 11 crafts festivals, nine history and cultural festivals, six visual arts festivals, three culinary festivals, two dance festivals, one documentary film festival, one literature festival, and six multi-disciplinary festivals.

Hot Springs, also the region’s major As shown in Southern tourism destination, hosts more than 20 Living in Hot Springs.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts in Hot Springs is a state residential school for academically talented high school juniors and seniors. One of the few state math and science high schools that includes the arts in its title, it offers a wide range of programs including Art and Science of Photography, American Folk Music and Acoustics, Multi-Dimensional Art, Studio Art, and Art History. Math and science students learn science through art and learn art through science. Last year, for example, the folk music and acoustics class performed Back Roads to Woodstock at the Ouachita Little Theatre. President Clinton, who introduced the legislation that created the school when he was governor, spoke at its 2007 commencement. The school recently introduced a documentary film program in partnership with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute, and is contributing to documenting Arkansas cultural history through its Arkansas Memory Project, a student-produced archive of Arkansas history research and teaching materials. begun in 1998, that includes official documents, publications, maps, letters, narratives, recordings, photographs, art, and other artifacts.

43 ing theatres, concert halls, and audi- Ouachita Art Trail: Mena has long been the center of toriums) and at least eight clubs and activity in Polk County, which is rich in creative history and restaurants that regularly feature culture. Until recently, however, the only way for tourists to musical performances; and buy the wares of local artists and artisans was to happen • 15 film and video production facili- upon their home business or booth at a local fair. Three ties and two music recording studios. partners recognized this undertapped market and came These venues, although scattered through- together to address it. The Ouachita Creative Community out the region, are most heavily concen- Council, Rich Mountain Community College, and Mena Art trated in Hot Springs and Arkadelphia. Gallery are creating an artisan trail that marks the locations Hot Springs has at least 17 galleries and of area craftspeople and other attractions to make them artists’ studios, many clustered in the more accessible to visitors. Once a year, as the Ouachita city’s Gallery District, five museums Art Trail studio tour, the trail will provide collaborative mar- including a local history museum, a sci- keting for area artists. It will eventually include a branding ence museum, a Madame Tussaud’s Wax component, with Ouachita Creation being used to desig- Museum, the Hot Springs National Park nate the work of local artists. Museum, and a muscle car museum, and several clubs and restaurants that feature musical performances. Although the city vals. The Ouachita Mountain community does not have a performing arts center, of Mena has a particularly active schedule three facilities provide performance space, ...local arts with a bluegrass festival, a monthly series the largest being the Hot Springs Conven- of bluegrass concerts, a crafts festival, an tion Auditorium. The Hot Springs Docu- groups believe arts festival, and a dance festival. El mentary Film Institute’s Malco Theatre, Dorado hosts five annual events that fea- which presents documentary films dur- that additional ture the visual arts, music, cultural her- ing its 10-day Documentary Film Fest- itage, and regional cuisine. Among the ival, schedules other film presentations resources and more unusual events found in these and events throughout the rest of the more ways to smaller communities are the Arkansas year. Hot Springs is also home to at least Storytelling Festival at De Gray Lake nine film production businesses thanks, link artists State Park near Bismark and the Quartz, in part, to the presence of the Docu- Quiltz, and Craftz Festival in Mount Ida. mentary Film Institute. Film production together are businesses can also be found in Mena, Places and Spaces El Dorado, and Texarkana as well as needed, as elsewhere throughout the region. Venues for arts and cultural displays, are avenues exhibits, performances, and productions Henderson State University and Ouachita provided by higher education institu- Baptist University have provided Arka- for producing tions, local governments, private non- delphia with high quality exhibit and and marketing profit organizations, and individual performance space. Henderson State’s artists and entrepreneurs, among other Arkansas Hall includes a 965-seat audito- their work and entities, include: rium and 162-seat studio theatre, and its Russell Fine Arts Center includes the Har- • At least 34 facilities that display or wood Recital Hall and Russell Fine Arts strengthening sell visual arts, including one art Gallery. Ouachita Baptist’s Jones Perform- museum, 11 exhibition spaces, 13 relationships ing Arts Center seats 1,500 and its Verser private galleries, and nine artists’ Theater 200. Henderson also has a muse- shops and studios; with other seg- um of natural and social history. ments of the • At least 23 museums (excluding art museums) and four visitors’ centers Associational Infrastructure community. focused primarily on area and cultural studies; Southwest Arkansas has a fairly strong support structure for creative activities, • 10 performing arts facilities (includ- 44 especially music and the visual arts. Most haven’t yet achieved the critical mass communities with high levels of such needed to become a significant creative activity—Hot Springs, Arkadelphia, El cluster. The challenge for the region is to Dorado, Magnolia, and Texarkana, for build, coordinate, and leverage its cre- example—have local arts councils or other ative assets so as to catapult its creative The challenge arts support groups. Even in communi- economy into a more central role in its ties with lower levels of creative activity, economic life. for the region such as Ashdown, Hope, and Nashville, Regional branding might help. The region local arts councils can be found, and a is to build, doesn’t have a well-defined cultural image new organization is forming in Camden. like the Delta or Ozarks. Whether it can coordinate, Hot Springs also has a number of organi- forge a distinctive creative identity and zations that specialize in particular artis- become known for unique creative prod- and leverage tic disciplines including the visual arts, ucts, and whether, building on the prom- documentary film, and jazz. Most rural its creative ising start of the Hot Springs Documentary areas lack much networking. Such local Film Institute and a small core of film arts groups as there are believe that addi- assets so as and video production businesses, it can tional resources and more ways to link become a center of film and video pro- to catapult its artists together are needed, as are avenues duction are important questions the for producing and marketing their work region should be asking. creative econ- and strengthening relationships with other segments of the community. The region should also be exploring omy into a opportunities to more fully leverage its Some local arts groups have been instru- considerable educational assets. Could more central mental in developing and operating arts educational resources be mobilized to facilities, most notable among them, per- role in its eco- spin off new creative enterprises, help haps, the Texarkana Regional Arts and artists and musicians learn entrepreneur- Humanities Council, which operates the nomic life. ial skills, retain graduates with creative city-restored Perot Theatre that presents talent, and serve as venues for network- music and theatrical performances. ing and information sharing? TRAHC also transformed a former federal courthouse into the Regional Art Center, The region’s many independent artists, which presents a series of changing art often living in isolated rural communi- exhibits. On a smaller scale, El Dorado’s ties, face the challenge of developing bet- South Arkansas Arts Center has devel- ter ways to communicate among them- oped a multi-use facility that houses selves, with partners such as the tourism three art galleries, a theatre, ballet and industry, and with markets. What new photography studios, classroom space, technologies might be tapped and organi- and open studio space for artists. zational structures formed to integrate and scale up disparate creative activities? The region’s formal philanthropic base for arts funding is limited. Four foundations, Only by finding ways to meet these chal- two in El Dorado, one in Arkadelphia, lenges will the region be able to more and one in nearby Amity, make arts and fully capitalize on the only partially tapped cultural grants. potential of its creative economy.

Looking Ahead Developing its creative economy holds the potential to generate considerable economic benefits for a region grappling with economic and demographic change. But although the Southwest region boasts a wide range of creative activities, they

45 The Northwest: shopping centers and restaurants is val- Creativity and ued at approximately $2 billion. The Rapid Growth population is growing so fast that a new school is required about every seven Throughout most months, and the once tiny regional air- of the twentieth port is now served by every major airline century, northwest Arkansas, which with non-stop flights to Los Angeles, stretches from Fort Smith to the Missouri Chicago, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Houston, state border, was a prototypical poor and the Research Triangle, among other southern rural region that attracted few destinations. outsiders and had fewer minorities. The U.S Department of Agriculture in 1980 The need to attract workers from all over classified five of its 16 counties as having the world is one reason arts and culture “persistent poverty.”10 The region was have become so important to the region. The need to heavily dependent on agriculture and Although its communities have a strong some growth in manufacturing for cultural heritage in traditional music and attract workers employment. Seven of its 16 counties arts, the region has not been able to com- were designated “agriculture-dependent,” pete for young talent with urban hubs from all over three “manufacturing dependent.” Eureka like Austin, Atlanta, Memphis, or the Re- Springs, popular in the early twentieth search Triangle. The influx of more archi- the world is century for its curative waters, lost much tects, interior decorators, people emplo- one reason of its rejuvenative appeal with the matur- yed in the architectural crafts, and land- ing of medicine. scape and web designers means an even arts and cul- greater demand for art and cultural events. Regional Picture ture have To the east, the historic Eureka Springs The picture of northwest Arkansas paint- in Carroll County has experienced an become so ed above predates the ascendancy of economic resurgence as a magnet for mega-retailer Wal-Mart and poultry giant artists and writers and a popular site for important to Tyson that transformed the region. It’s no weddings and conventions. Nearly 38 longer sleepy, depressed, agricultural, or percent of the county’s work force, more the region. even industrial. Wal-Mart employs nearly than six times the state average, is em- 30,000 people, its 1,200 suppliers anoth- ployed in the arts, entertainment, recre- er 12,000 or so. Add Tyson Foods, J.B. ation, accommodations, and food servic- Hunt, and their respective suppliers and es, and the county was recognized as a you have one of nation’s densest “logistics national “Rural Arts Haven” in a recent clusters,” one that relies on a continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture paper. flow of highly skilled employees from Boone and Benton counties are both well around the world. The Northwest region, above the national average in concentra- which had 30 percent of the state’s popu- tion of artists, performers, and designers, lation in 2006, has since 2000 grown at and the region’s largest cities, Fayetteville more than 14 percent, nearly three times and Fort Smith, are increasingly relying as fast as any other region. on the arts and culture and investing in downtown cultural districts to compete Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and for the new people and companies and Fayetteville as well as surrounding and their incomes. more remote towns are experiencing explosive growth as new jobs are created The entire region is attracting large num- and business travelers pour into the area. bers of retirees, also major consumers of New construction underway in and the arts and culture. Six northwest Arkan- around Bentonville, the home of Wal- sas counties were designated “retirement Mart, in the form of 2,300 residences, 14 counties,” defined by the U.S. Department banks, 6,600 hotel rooms, and numerous of Agriculture as having an over-sixty

46 The Communication Art Institute, a writers’ colony in Eureka Springs. population that has grown by more than ing areas, is expected to bring hundreds 15 percent due to immigration. of thousands of visitors annually to the region when it opens in 2010. The region is now beginning to get attention in the national press. The New York Times travel section, for example, featured: Table 9. Full-Time Artists, Designers, and Performers in the • Fayetteville in April 2006, calling it Northwest Region by County, 2000 “flush with youth, culture and natural beauty, a college town that loves County Number Number Per 1,000 Employed its football, but . . . also has a grow- Baxter County 106 7.0 ing arts and music scene, a historic Benton County 575 8.0 downtown with a 19th century square, galleries, farmers markets and Boone County 144 9.5 arts festivals, the Walton Arts Center, Carroll County 210 17.9 and good restaurants”; Crawford County 111 4.8 • Eureka Springs in 2007, describing it Franklin County 19 2.5 as “some weird cross of Asheville, NC Johnson County 10 1.0 and Oak Bluffs, MA, all perched on the side of a hill that would make Logan County 45 4.9 San Francisco proud and topped with Madison County 28 4.5 a grand old hotel. In short, it’s fun.” Marion County 55 2.7 Construction of the Crystal Bridges Newton County 17 4.8 Museum of American Art is well under- Pope County 146 5.9 way on a 100-acre site in Bentonville. Scott County 10 2.1 Designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, the museum is the talk of Searcy County 13 4.2 the art world. The 100,000 square foot Sebastian County 438 8.3 building, which will house three gal- Washington County 885 11.5 leries, a public education learning center Arkansas 6.9 with an auditorium, a professional education area, and visitor services including Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2006 meeting spaces, museum store, and din- http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CreativeClassCodes 47 Educational Institutions program, communication arts, performing and visual arts, and an asso- The region’s leading educational institu- ciate of arts degree that transfers to tions play a significant role in supporting a baccalaureate. its creative economy. • Arkansas Tech, in Russellville at the • The University of Arkansas’ School southern edge of the region, has of Architecture in Fayetteville won departments of art and music with national recognition in 2007 from majors in fine arts, graphic design, the Association of Collegiate Schools and music. of Architecture, American Institute of Architects, and American Institute • North Arkansas College in Harrison, of Architecture Students, and the in its liberal arts, not occupational, Community Design Center, also in track, offers programs in studio art, The region Fayetteville, won two awards for multimedia, and graphics and web is also home design education. design. • The University of Arkansas’ MFA • The University of the Ozarks in Clarks- to 23 private program spans ceramics, design, ville, the first racially integrated col- painting, printmaking, photography, lege west of the Mississippi, hosts the schools of art, and sculpture, and has, since 1966, Walton Fine Arts Center, a state-of- music, and included one of the strongest gradu- the-art performing arts complex. ate creative writing programs in the The New Design Center in Fayetteville dance includ- country with courses in poetics and has become the first school of design in fiction theory as well as traditional ing the Eureka the state. Founded in 2005 by Sonia and contemporary literature. Guttiérrez to “put Arkansas on the map Springs School • The University of Arkansas’ MFA in design,” the center offers a two-year, program also includes film and com- 68-credit certification program in digital of the Arts... munications, although not with a full design that includes graphic design, multi- degree, but strong enough to afford media, games, video design, and web actors “equity contract points.” design as well as the business skills need- • Northwest Arkansas Community ed to convert creativity into income. College’s Communications & Arts The region is also home to 23 private Division has a graphic design degree schools of art, music, and dance includ-

Eureka Springs School of the Arts, in western Arkansas, which offers more than 40 summer workshops and year-long classes for youth and for adults. 48 ing the Eureka Springs School of the • Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center last Arts, which has master classes and sum- year presented a Broadway series, dance mer workshops for adults and youth in a series, international musicians, sym- wide range of disciplines including clay, phonies, and world-class performers, acrylics, woodturning, drawing, photog- and supported in-school residencies. raphy, and jewelry. The Main Street Crea- • Fort Smith created in its convention tive Community Center, also in Eureka center an “Artplace” with paintings Springs, offers after-school arts programs and sculptures, held a reception, sold for youth and evening programs for the art, and selected 12 sculptures to adults. Another 46 individuals offer pri- be strategically situated throughout vate lessons or classes. the city to enrich the environment. • Springdale’s Arts Center of the Events and Festivals Ozarks, which has been supporting The more than 200 major annual events, and promoting the area’s arts for fairs, and festivals that feature, market, or more than four decades, hosts con- highlight the art, design, entertainment, certs, children’s theatre, crafts fairs, and history of the Northwest region, a gallery, and food festivals. which do not include the many one-time • Eureka Springs’ historic auditorium, events organized to celebrate a particular opened in 1928 with a concert by occasion or experience, include: John Phillip Souza, has since featured • 30 arts and crafts shows; such stars as Ray Charles, Judy Collins, • three children’s events; Bill Cosby, Bela Fleck, Emmy Lou Harris, Alison Krause, Lyle Lovett, • 105 community celebrations; and Randy Newman. • 13 culinary festivals; Music, especially, is not confined to the- • three performing arts events; atres or centers in the Northwest region. • four design shows; No fewer than 13 restaurants, seven cof- • six film festivals; fee houses, and 18 clubs, heavily concen- • four literary events; trated in Washington County and around the university, regularly schedule appear- • 10 pageants and parades; and ances by musicians. The region also • 37 nature or seasonal festivals. boasts 44 film and 24 music studios. In 2006, the second annual Fayetteville Eureka Springs is also among Northwest Arts Festival generated $50,000 in sales, region cities that have devised unique more than double the previous year’s total. ways to use space. In a downtown parking lot lined with art, during “Lucky 13 Places and Spaces Starlight Outdoor Cinema” weekends, From the largest performing arts centers classic movies alternate with recent hits to local art galleries and the walls of cof- projected on the side of a building, com- fee shops, any places or spaces explicitly plemented by pre- and post-movie live built or designated for the production, entertainment (and sometimes outdoor marketing, or display of art, design, or slumber parties). culture constitutes a regional asset. The Arkansas Arts Councils list 47 art Consider, for example, the following: galleries in the Northwest region, 25 in • Fayetteville is designating and zoning Eureka Springs, four in Bentonville and a downtown cultural arts district to Fayetteville, and the remainder distrib- help it leverage its heritage and cul- uted among the other eleven communi- ture and stem the flow of businesses ties. Increasingly, restaurants (including to suburban malls. Eureka Springs’ Mud Street Café and

49 Creative Cottage Inn Restaurant), coffee shops, to distinguish itself from other rapidly specialty stores, and even bed and break- developing metro areas by managing its amenities will fasts are displaying and selling art, and growth and urbanization in ways that some of the world’s best-known designers retain its cultural heritage and give new play a large are represented in Abetica’s showroom, a and old citizens alike a sense of place. gallery of designer furnishings in Rogers. part in attract- New residents brought by new jobs offer One issue artists face as the region grows tremendous opportunities for the creative and becomes more prosperous is cost. ing the kind economy, as clients for designers and Artists surveyed in Fayetteville in 2005 architects, consumers of goods, and col- of talented indicated a need for more affordable stu- lectors of art. Crystal Bridges is expected dios and housing and more venues to to attract tens of thousands of new visi- employees the reach markets. tors each year. Creative amenities will play new industries a large part in attracting the kind of tal- Associational Infrastructure ented employees the new industries need need and in The creative economy of the Northwest and in enticing tourists to stay longer. The enticing region is locally organized, generally region’s educational systems will bear within specific disciplines and mainly in some of the responsibility for helping tourists to the crafts and performing arts. Fayette- people to learn the competencies needed ville is home to a dance coalition and by the new businesses including the cre- stay longer. blues society, Bull Shoals to an arts and ative enterprises that provide services and humanities council, and Siloam Springs support as well as arts-related experiences. to the Sager Creek Arts Association. Harrison and the rural Subiaco have arts New residents and businesses will also councils and Gentry a fine arts society. increase the diversity to the region, gen- Some are membership organizations; erally a positive attribute in building cre- others host affairs at which their con- ative economies and attracting talent. It stituents can meet and interact. We found will be a challenge to integrate old and few examples of regional organizational new in a region not so long ago rather forums for any of the other elements of isolated, and to maintain traditions and the creative economy. Social relations preserve positive aspects of the culture among those involved in design, media while catering to new forms of growth. arts, and culture seem to depend on national professional associations and informal connections, often made at the many events and festivals the region The Central hosts throughout the year. Region: Little Rock Museums and Cultural Centers and Beyond The Northwest region is home to 46 Eleven-county museums ranging from the Wal-Mart central Arkansas is a diverse and thriving store in Bentonville, Old Jail Museum in region in which the creative economy is Greenwood, and Frog Fantasies in Eureka expressed in many forms: through the Springs, to Snake World in Berryville, to design-based manufacturing firms Kohler museums of art and science including and Munro Shoes, through fine arts ven- Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, which, ues such as the Chamber Music Society when it opens in 2010, will contain the of Little Rock, through culture- and local nation’s largest collection of American art. history-based celebrations such as the Malvern Brickfest, and through the cellu- Looking Ahead loid creations presented at the Ozark As the state’s fastest growing region, north- Foothills Filmfest. Urban and somewhat west Arkansas’ greatest challenge will be wealthier than much of the rest of the 50 state, the Central region enjoys a strong Table 10. Full-Time Artists, Designers, and Performers in the concentration of Arkansas’ creative assets. Central Region by County, 2000

Regional Overview County Number Number Per 1,000 Employed The eleven most urban counties of the Conway County 46 5.4 highly urbanized Central region together Faulkner County 318 7.5 account for more than 33 percent of Grant County 34 4.5 Arkansas’ total population and include not only the state’s most populous city, Lonoke County 56 2.3 Little Rock, but half of its ten largest Perry County 3 0.7 cities. It has a slightly higher household Prairie County 18 11.4 income than the state’s other regions, and Pulaski County 1744 10.1 relatively more households in the wealth- iest, and fewer in the poorest, brackets. Saline County 341 8.5 Van Buren County 62 15.9 The region’s economy has a strong white- White County 117 4.0 collar emphasis. Much of employment is concentrated in professional services, Woodruff County 8 9.9 government, education, and sales, although Yell County 28 11.1 manufacturing and construction and trans- Arkansas 8127 6.9 portation and logistics are strong. In these three categories, the Central region Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2006 appears to be beginning to successfully http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CreativeClassCodes shift towards new, globally competitive industries. Its manufacturing strengths, region’s creative economy. The University for example, traditionally bricks, lumber, of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) offers and paper, are transitioning to advanced bachelors degrees in studio art and art materials, biomanufacturing, and aero- history and masters degrees in both and Seven space. The region’s foundation in food in art education. Its three fine arts gal- institutions of processing also remains strong and con- leries accept exhibition proposals from tinues to attract new firms. local artists, providing not only an im- higher portant public venue for them but also But the creative economy does not seem opportunities for the local community education even to be on the radar screen in the to experience art (university faculty region’s economic profiles and strategic regularly offer lectures related to the contribute plans. A 2004 strategic economic devel- gallery installations that are free and opment plan by Angelou Economics significantly open to the public). A minor in digital makes no mention of creativity or the graphics enables UALR students to pur- arts. Tourism is widely seen to be impor- to the sue more industry-specific arts educa- tant to the area, though, and with many tion and training. Central of the region’s significant tourism assets based on creativity, tourism-related The University of Central Arkansas in region’s strategies for economic development Conway provides gallery space in its would be likely to involve creative assets small Baum Gallery of Fine Arts and stu- creative in some way. Certainly, the proportion of dent-run Black Box Gallery. Somewhat artists to the overall employment base more application focused than UALR’s economy. seems to suggest that a degree of impor- program, its arts instruction leads to tance attaches to the creative economy. degrees in art education, art history, ceramics, graphic design, painting, pho- Educational Institutions tography, printmaking, and sculpture. Seven institutions of higher education The region’s educational institutions also contribute significantly to the Central offer a number of performance-related 51 Right and Left Brain Learning at Parkridge Magnet High School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts: Arkansas has what might be the nations only magnet school that combines typically left brain learning of math and science with typically right brain learning associated with the fine arts. Serving three school districts in Pulaski County, the 300- student school enrolls 100 in the fine arts each year. The current National Merit Scholar semi-finalist is a drama student. Learning in this unique institution is interdisci- plinary, with science students taking arts classes, fine arts students taking math and science, and all inter- mingling and exchanging experiences. The schools annual spring musical is open to all, and more than once a lead part has gone to a science student.

degree programs including several in and sell visual art on site. Another exam- music, dance, and theater. Central Baptist ple is “Making ‘It’ in Arkansas,” a round- College’s music program is among the table on filmmaking in the state that more interesting, offering music as a includes discussion of what it offers degree with a minor in business, Chris- novice and seasoned filmmakers. tian counseling, or religious education. The region is particularly rich in festivals This program structure reveals an element and events. The following inventory, of Arkansas culture that became clear at which excludes the region’s many ad hoc the beginning of this study: that music, festivals and special events staged as one- like the visual arts, can be “application time celebrations, is likely an undercount: oriented,” experienced not only as performance, but also as a part of many pur- • 18 music festivals A public that suits and occupations, particularly as re- • 21 crafts festivals late to African-American faith institutions. • Nine culinary festivals comes to live North Little Rock’s College of Aspiring • 10 festivals celebrating some aspect of with and enjoy Artists, embedded in Shorter College’s local or Arkansas history and culture two-year associates degree program, • Three literature festivals the presence combines the study of music and business applications, but from a novel per- • 12 additional festivals that are multi- of art and cre- spective. TCAA brings business, sales, disciplinary or celebrate dance, film, or the visual fine arts ative displays and management know-how to bear on the world of music with the goal of Bringing art and creative endeavors out is more likely to teaching students not only how to refine into the open for everyone to experience and improve their performing, playing, and enjoy contributes to the quality of consume the and songwriting abilities, but also how life in the region, important not only for to manage the external aspects of the its own sake, but also for its effect on work of local music business. the desirability of the region as a place artists and to live and for businesses to locate. A Events and Festivals public that comes to live with and enjoy craftspeople... Tourism is a significant contributor to the presence of art and creative displays central Arkansas’ economy, and the is more likely to consume the work of region’s creative assets, together with the local artists and craftspeople, and attend areas natural beauty and amenities, are the festivals at which that work is made among the primary drivers of tourism. At available. a series of outdoor business events known locally as Little Rock’s “Big Downtown Places and Spaces Thursdays,” for example, local musicians Some of the most distinctive venues for create an environment conducive to casu- the presentation and experience of art al networking while local artists create are found on the campuses of the Central 52 The Gann Museum in Benton commemorates the town’s bauxite mining history – starting with this distinctive building, the only known structure in the world made entirely out of bauxite. region’s institutions of higher education. • eight higher education venues. The University of Central Arkansas’ Silas Spaces specifically set aside for the expo- D. Snow Fine Arts Building, for example, sition of the arts or culture include Cad- houses Centre Stage, a fully equipped, ron Settlement Park (or, assuming a “looser” 307-seat proscenium stage with adjoining definition of culture, Pickles Gap Village) shop areas for scenery and costume con- in Conway, the sculpture Promenade struction. Also on UCA’s Conway campus along Little Rock’s River Front, and the are the Studio Theatre, a newly equipped still developing historical and arts dis- “black box” space, and the Donald W. trict of downtown North Little Rock. Reynolds Auditorium, a new, 1,200 seat, state-of-art equipped performance hall wired for live radio and television broad- Associational Infrastructure casts. On the Hendrix College campus Because central Arkansas is home to can be found two performing arts venues, the state capital, it has as well as many Staples Auditorium and Cabe Theater. organizations and institutions that support the creative assets and economy of In the region’s many less formal venues, the region many others that have state- performance, although secondary to, is wide responsibilities. The organizational nevertheless closely allied with, the estab- infrastructure that serves as the founda- lishments’ primary function. Performers tion for the Central region’s creative in restaurants, clubs and bars, and coffee- economy is consequently not organized houses, for example, enhance the envi- along disciplinary lines to the degree that ronment and create an atmosphere that it is in the other regions of the state. is conductive to eating, drinking, and Twenty-one of its arts organizations and socializing. The Central region has no guilds are multi-disciplinary. Seven of fewer than: these are foundations or exclusively • 36 clubs and coffeehouses that dis- funding organizations. The other four- play local art on their walls or pro- teen are broad-based organizations such vide venues for live music; as arts or culture councils that promote a • nine restaurants that do the same; wide range of creative endeavors. Seven of the twenty-one multi-disciplinary • 14 halls and auditoriums; and organizations have a statewide mission. 53 The other fourteen are focused on small- only a pleasing amenity and tourist er units such as towns or counties. (The attraction, but an integral part of the arts organizations generally do not organ- local economy. ize along regional lines, but rather tend The region’s creative economy, however, to be either local or statewide.) as noted earlier, is not mentioned in its Among the arts organizations in the economic development strategic plans, Central region that do organize along dis- seeming to be regarded as an economic ciplinary lines are: factor only to the extent that it provides • seven organizations that are focused activities for tourists. This is a trap that on drama; is easier for the Central region to fall in- to because, unlike other (in many cases • four organizations that promote poorer) regions of the state, its creative dance; economy activities and offerings are not • 19 organizations that perform or pro- organized along the lines of any particu- mote music; and lar cultural identity. The Delta blues, • three visual arts and crafts organizations. Ozark folk traditions, even eclectic ex- pressions of the northwest are cultural Looking Ahead identifications directly connected to the respective locales’ primary modes of cre- With its strong base of creative and arts- ative expression and the types of creative based assets, the Central region is rich in goods for which they have come to be creative and cultural experiences and known. If its creative economy is to be opportunities. Its urban centers, central advanced and its impact on the overall location, relative wealth, and role as the economic fortunes of central Arkansas state’s capital all confer advantages not increased, the Central region will need shared by the state’s other regions. Its to tease out its cultural identity and challenge now is to exploit these advan- explore how to develop its creative as- tages in a way that makes the arts not sets within the context of that identity.

54 Previewing Opportunities and Challenges

he state of Arkansas has a sizable Although the creative economy, broadly reserve of assets to offer its creative defined, encompasses a wide range of T businesses and people. They rest in industry sectors and companies, it can be the state’s educational institutions, calen- subdivided into sets of companies with dar of events, and places in which cre- like characteristics. The previous report ativity is developed, displayed, and defined four such sub-clusters. shown. They reside in the organizations • Visual, literary, and performing arts that represent, and that fund and serve, includes artists and artisans, photog- creative enterprises and people, and in raphers, writers and publishers, and original products produced by those peo- art schools. ple and enterprises. Some of these assets • Entertainment and media arts have been planned and managed at the includes radio and television stations, state level, others at the community level. recording studios, bookstores, and Some are the ideas of inspired citizens film production companies. wanting to serve their communities, others commercial ventures expecting to • Product and environmental design make a profit. Taken together, the assets includes architects and interior deco- that we have been able to uncover in rators, graphic design and culinary both expected and unexpected places arts, and ornamental ironwork com- constitute a solid foundation for panies. Arkansas’ creative economy. Nonetheless, • Cultural heritage and preservation these assets also reveal gaps, where a includes museums, historical sites, stronger support system might generate historic preservation and renovation new opportunities and greater success in efforts, and foundations. advancing the creative economy, especially in the rapidly growing media, digital, Because some companies and arts institu- and design markets. This final section tions fit more than one category, the sub- summarizes the opportunities and chal- clusters are not mutually exclusive. But lenges identified by our analysis: viewing the creative economy through the lens of these sub-clusters neverthe-

The Delta Cultural Center in downtown Helena is a museum of the heritage and culture of the Arkansas Delta. 55 less makes it easier to observe regional artists into the schools to share their cre- strengths and weaknesses, identify new ativity with the students in order to help opportunities, and formulate strategies to keep creative traditions alive, especial- for plugging gaps. ly in disciplines related to the local community’s artistic heritage. Arkansas’ Creative Economy: Creative people are attracted to Arkansas. Overview of Assets, Opportunities, The state’s abundant natural resources and Challenges and beauty, and attendant recreational What emerged from the focus groups, activities and life styles, attract creative interviews, and analyses was an apprecia- people. These natural resources, together tion for the state’s artistic and cultural with a relatively low cost of living, make strengths, the opportunities available to Arkansas an ideal place for artisans, it, and the challenges it faces in trying to designers, and high-tech entrepreneurs further develop the economic potential to live and work. of its creative economy, particularly in its Arkansans feel a strong sense of place. poorer and more rural communities. Arkansans’ sense of place is rooted in their identification with the creative and STRENGTHS AND OPPORTUNITIES cultural economy. Interviews and focus Creative expression is ubiquitous. State- groups revealed a strong common theme: wide, Arkansans engage daily in a wide that Arkansans feel a strong attachment variety of creative activities. Whether to, and appreciate the distinctiveness of establishing a small museum to celebrate their state, their regions, and their towns. their community’s local heritage or par- This is reflected in widespread interest in ticipating in small-town community the- and commitment to celebrating local her- ater or online poetry blogs, residents itage and issues of local interest as well as exhibit a strong propensity towards cre- in the embracing of homegrown and ative activity and creative expression. indigenous products and creative and Even in communities in which no signifi- cultural traditions. cant economic contribution of the arts and creativity is in evidence, the ground- Infrastructure supports creative sectors. The arts, design, and related organiza- Arkansans’ work is laid in the form of interest in and appreciation for the creative elements of tions that form a support infrastructure sense of place life. A creative economy emerges when for the creative economy at the state, communities build upon this foundation regional, and local levels are mostly is rooted in of natural creativity and link it to local focused on niches in which they provide and regional economies. information to, and support the work their identification of, their constituencies with the goal of Arkansas’ educational system values the bringing the experience of art and design with the cre- arts. Appreciation for the arts starts early to all Arkansans. and runs deep in Arkansas. The arts have ative and cul- retained a more prominent position in CHALLENGES AND NEEDS tural economy. Arkansas’ than in most other states’ pub- Greater statewide coordination across the lic K-12 education, and the state is home creative economy. Arkansas has many to one of very few state math and science strong arts-focused organizations, but no schools that have added the arts. The single organization that ties all the pieces Arkansas School of Math, Science and together, that represents all of the state’s the Arts provides an exemplary model for creative economy constituencies and doc- integrating left and right brain thinking. uments their needs and successes. The A number of Arkansas communities, Arkansas Arts Council’s role is an impor- moreover, are participating in the state’s tant one, but it is not to be a statewide Arts in the Schools program. This brings coordinating body for all sectors of the

56 creative economy. With creative activity it will take a focused effort to extend a widely dispersed throughout the state, new image from the northwest corner to new organizational structures and com- the entire state. munications methods might be needed to promote information sharing, net- Drilling Down working, and collaboration among cre- into the Sub-Clusters ative individuals and enterprises. Each of the four sub-clusters has a par- Many institu- More emphasis on, and coordination ticular set of strengths and challenges among, creative economy career paths around which it can build a framework tions of higher within higher education. Many institu- for future actions and recommendations. tions of higher education provide valu- education pro- able and, in some instances, innovative The visual, literary, and performing arts sources of instruction in creative and vide valuable arts-related fields. What is lacking is a This is the sub-cluster most commonly unified leadership group to coordinate associated with the creative economy, and and, in some their activities and a statewide strategy is, in fact, a major source of its content. instances, for leveraging their resources to advance Although artists, writers, and performers the creative economy. Coordination are numerous, Arkansas is best known innovative becomes increasingly important as the for its literary arts and music traditions, contribution of these assets to the state’s particularly in the Ozarks and Delta. sources of creative economy grows. Notwithstanding formidable pockets that have gained national recognition, the arts instruction in Economic development entities’ limited and crafts are less visible statewide. understanding of and appreciation for the creative and potential of the creative economy. STRENGTHS AND OPPORTUNITIES arts-related Chambers of Commerce and economic Deep strengths in specific creative niches. development organizations, in rural areas The literary arts, in particular, have a fields. in particular, are not sufficiently informed rich, deep tradition in Arkansas, reaching about, and focused on, the state’s creative into every corner of the state. An expan- economy. Economic development practi- sive base of support that includes strong tioners generally do not appreciate the college and university creative writing full scope of the economic roles, poten- programs, networks of published and tial, and contributions of that economy. yet-to-be published authors, literary festivals, venues for readings, a well-known Cultural constituencies within the state’s writers colony, multiple online and print creative economy are isolated. Racial literary journals, and bookstores has enabled divides persist within the creative econo- Arkansas to turn out a plethora of good my. Although their culture and art are and great writers. important elements of that economy, the African-American and growing Latino Gospel and choir music in the African- communities are only slowly, and with American churches, though it often goes difficulty, becoming involved in formal unnoticed in measures of the creative arts activities that include a variety of economy, is nevertheless a significant cre- ethnic and racial traditions. ative asset. The College of Aspiring Artists is exemplary among efforts to Arkansas does not have a widely recog- blend the cultural, social, educational, nized creative identity. Some Arkansas and economic potential of gospel music. regions and communities have well- established creative economy brand iden- Traditional creative roots that continue to tities, but the state as a whole does not. It be nourished today. Many communities continues to be viewed as agricultural have maintained strong folk craft tradi- and industrial. Crystal Bridges will be a tions to the present day, some even con- major factor in changing that image, but tinuing to develop and revitalize them. 57 Arkansas artists registry, a service of the Arkansas Arts Council that provides web links to member artists.

Examples include Mountain View’s folk creative economy offered by the state’s music and the state’s extensive network higher education institutions are viewed of quilters. as fine arts and cultural assets, not as economic opportunities. Programs in World-class creative communities. The how to start and manage a business arts and crafts communities of Eureka enterprise in the arts are still underdevel- Springs and Hot Springs, both highlight- oped at most of these institutions. Al- ed in recent editions of “The 100 Best Art though the “arts” part of Arkansas School Towns in North America,” are already on of Math, Science and the Arts has been America’s cultural map. When complete, underfunded. progress has been made Crystal Bridges will elevate the entire Communities and this reflects the ingenuity and per- Northwest region to a new level in the art sistence of the administration and staff. in which real world, and has the potential to change the cultural landscape of Arkansas. The Business needs of artists. Many artists estate costs success of these regions in attracting expressed a need for help in pricing, are rising attention and tourists from around the marketing, and selling their artwork, and world needs to be leveraged to brand the many who currently sell primarily to the beyond what entire state. tourist trade would like to export their art as well. Many also are finding studio Local networking among artists and arti- artists can space and art-congenial housing harder sans. Artists in many communities have to come by, particularly in regions enjoy- established with their peers social and afford risk ing growing economic and cultural pros- business networks, and arts councils in perity (Fayetteville and the Northwest pushing out communities such as Texarkana and Jones- region, for example). Communities in boro are playing a major role in promoting which real estate costs are rising beyond one of the the arts and culture. This work is being what artists can afford risk pushing out done in other communities by smaller, assets primarily one of the assets primarily responsible for volunteer-led groups such as Mountain their prosperity. responsible for View’s Off the Beaten Path Tours. Stronger connections between the philan- their prosperity. CHALLENGES AND NEEDS thropic and creative communities. Foun- Expanded and reoriented educational pro- dations are viewed by artists and cultural grams. The many programs related to the organizations throughout the state as 58 being less than forthcoming with funding a connection between the digital and for creative economy activities and proj- media arts and science in Arkansas high ects. That this study’s analysis identified schools, and giving young people ideas the strong base of foundations and phil- about career opportunities in these fields. The blues, for anthropic corporate support for the arts Also contributing in this area is the T as a strength suggests that either this base Tauri Filmfest, at which youth films are example, has is not being fully capitalized upon or its showcased and earn awards. And, an on- deep roots in support is not being well communicated. line community extends the reach of these Whichever is the case, connections efforts to budding filmmakers in some of the Arkansas between potential supporters and the arts the state’s most rural communities. community need to be strengthened. Delta, and Growth in film production. The number of films produced in Arkansas has grown, is part of the Entertainment and new media from one or two per year in the 1980s, Although this sector of the Creative Econ- to four or five per year in the 1990s, to cultural and omy has not been particularly well endowed more than ten per year since 2000. nor well known, the technical and digital regional identity sides of the arts are important because CHALLENGES AND NEEDS of those who the state is investing in them in its schools Increased marketing and development of and their market potential is significant. African-American arts. Arkansas’ creative live there, par- economy has some unique and distinc- STRENGTHS AND OPPORTUNITIES tive aspects that should constitute enor- ticularly the Recognized strength in the documentaries mous assets. The blues, for example, has niche. The importance and value of doc- deep roots in the Arkansas Delta, and is African-American umentary films is growing. Examples of part of the cultural and regional identity population. Yet this include, the My Community pro- of those who live there, particularly the grams in which high school students pro- African-American population. Yet the the Delta real- duce documentaries of their home towns, Delta realizes little economic impact from the ascendancy of the nationally known its blues heritage. The Arkansas Blues izes little eco- Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute and Heritage Festival (formerly the King and its work with the Arkansas School of Biscuit Blues Festival), for example, al- nomic impact Math, Science and Arts, and the Ozark though it is national in scope and brings from its blues Foothills Filmfest with its focus on in tourist dollars, draws too little on Arkansas subjects. Delta-based musicians for performances heritage. and has little connection with the Delta’s Filmmaking skills and opportunities in local and regional economies. the schools. The EAST program is making

Table 11. Films Produced in Arkansas

Years Motion pictures Documentaries TV series or films Total Prior to 1970 10 2 1 13 1970-1975 13 0 1 14 1976-1980 13 0 2 15 1981-1985 6 0 6 12 1986-1999 25 0 6 31 1991-1995 15 0 6 21 1996-2000 22 1 3 26 2001-2005 30 5 11 46 2006-2007 26 10 13 49 59 More attention to the media arts in community college programs. Many of the skills needed to capitalize on the strengths of the entertainment and media arts would logically be developed in community colleges. Because the community colleges have not yet developed the capacity to build those skiils, out-of- state film crews often bring in their own workforce, and the Arkansas loses out on the jobs and the revenues.. Relatively few recording studios. The relatively small number of recording studios (proportionate to what would be expected for the state’s population) hinders the development of local semi-professional and emerging musicians who need to record in order to market themselves and build their reputations.

Product and environmental design This sub-cluster encompasses all aspects of design including buildings, interiors, products, packaging, and branding. The state’s design potential seems quite strong within the manufacturing sector, and the manufacturer’s survey emphasized that this asset can be highly leveraged to strengthen that sector.

STRENGTHS AND OPPORTUNITIES Arkansas manufacturers are ahead of the curve. Manufacturers’ growing understanding of the value of design to their Poster for the markets and competitive positions is 2007 May Festival of reflected in plans to increase investments the Arts held annually Distance from entertainment and new in design. This bodes well for their abil- in Eureka Springs. media power centers. The US entertainment ity to innovate beyond the design and and media industries are based primarily aesthetic qualities of their products, on the two coasts. To make and maintain which are increasingly considered to be connections with these power hubs requires the focus of consumer choice and thus overcoming the disadvantages of distance key to competitiveness in national and and being removed from the “scene.” At global markets. the very least, it requires travel and creative ways to build relationships. New demand and market niches in green construction. Expansion of Arkansas’ Intense competition among states for film- green building niche (there were 25 ing locations. Other states, such as neigh- LEED certified projects underway in the boring Louisiana, have devised com- state in early 2008) promises to open up pelling and attractive incentive programs new opportunities for architectural and that draw filmmakers. Arkansas lacks interior design firms. such programs. 60 Growing understanding of the economic curricula, to a much greater degree than and social value of design. Increasingly, the most states and despite the increased state’s institutions and private companies emphasis on testing for basic skills. This are beginning to realize the value of inte- emphasis on arts and culture reflects rior design and invest more heavily in it. leadership at the state level, primarily that of former governor Mike Huckabee. CHALLENGES AND NEEDS To maintain this emphasis, the current Arkansas A stronger educational infrastructure for leadership will have to somehow signal needs to design. The state’s lack of a strong base of its continued high-level commitment to a design talent is not being addressed by place for the arts and culture in education. develop its its higher education institutions. Edu- cation for architects is limited. Only one Pride in local culture and heritage. The base of university offering an undergraduate pro- state’s hundreds of regularly scheduled gram and no graduate programs being and advertised cultural events and festi- architectural offered, and programs in graphic and vals that showcase local heritage, art, web design need to be bolstered to sup- and culture not only attract visitors and talent to port advertising, manufacturing, and generate income, but also instill in resi- ensure that, at other creative sectors. dents, and particularly in youth, a sense of pride in and appreciation for place. the very least, Greater use of in-state capabilities for Many Arkansas museums also highlight publicly funded construction. Too many local culture. Arkansas- architectural design projects, including publicly funded projects, are going to CHALLENGES AND NEEDS based projects out-of-state architectural firms. Arkansas More extensive marketing of cultural her- needs to develop its base of architectural itage by economic development entities. can be under- talent to ensure that, at the very least, Although Arkansas is artistically and cul- Arkansas-based projects can be undertak- turally rich, because of its cultural identi- taken by top en by top ranked, in-state architectural ty and pride in its heritage, the state has ranked, in- design firms. not really begun to translate its cultural riches into economic riches. Regions state architec- More on-ramps to the information high- such as the Arkansas Delta, as mentioned way. Arkansas ranks 47th in the country earlier, could do more to market their tural design in terms of broadband access. This has cultural assets, and regional economic serious has implications for the creative development organizations that actively firms. economy, including limiting regional promote tourism could more aggressively artists’ access to markets and discourag- mention and market the arts and culture ing online training in such fields as digi- to enhance their economic impact. tal design.11 Increased cultural representation. Cultural heritage and preservation Arkansas has a variety of cultures that contribute rich histories to its creative Arkansas stands out in its efforts to pre- economy. To date, it has proved difficult serve, maintain, and market its natural to connect these to and integrate them and historical assets. Almost every com- with the larger creative economy. The munity has historical sites or nature pre- state needs to ensure that the full range serves, or both. of Arkansas’ culture including African- STRENGTHS AND OPPORTUNITIES American and Latino elements are repre- Cultural heritage assets as educational sented, and work to expand the audience tools. Arkansas has been able to effective- for activities and events in which these ly integrate culture into its public school population groups are already represented.

61 Notes

1. Joel Kotkin, quoted in Samuel Western, Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River: Wyoming’s Search for its Soul (Moose, WY: Homestead Publishing, 2002).

2. Kevin F. McCarthy et al., Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2004.

3. Julian Stallabrass, Art Incorporated: The Story of Contemporary Art, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.

4. Elizabeth Currid, The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, & Music Drive New York City, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

5. The USDA Economic Research Service’s county typology can be used to determine whether a particular county’s economy is dependent on a particular industry or industries.

6. Pine Bluff, including three counties, is its own MSA; Crittenden County, which includes West Memphis, is part of the Memphis, Tennessee MSA.

7. http://www.ame-church.com/.

8. Based on location quotients calculated from County Business Patterns, 2005.

9. A metro area assumes a core urban area of 50,000 or more population, a micro area an urban core of at least 10,000 (but fewer than 50,000). Each metro or micro area consists of one or more counties including the counties that contain the core urban area as well as any adjacent counties that are significantly socially and economically integrated (as measured, for example, by commuting to work) with the urban core.

10. Ranked in the lowest quintile of per capita income in every census since 1950. Lloyd D. Bender et al., The Diverse Social and Economic Structure of Nonmetropolitan America, Rural Development Research Report No:49, Washing- ton DC; U.S. Department of Agriculture

11. “Pryor set for hearing on state’s broadband,” Northwest Arkansas News, August 25, 2007.

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