Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Theater names honorees, design team
Jewels yield treasure for food bank
Arecord crowd of more than 400 TheatreSquared patrons filled the Fayetteville Town Center for the 10th anniversary Gala for Education on Nov. 19 and helped raise some $125,000 for the nonprofit professional theater company.
Proceeds from the evening help support the organization’s statewide theater education outreach program, which has grown to reach some 17,000 students and teachers every year.
The group presented its 2015 Arts Advocate Award that evening to Jane and David Gearhart. The award is given annually to recognize “indelible contributions to the arts through leadership, inspiration and hard work for the lasting benefit of the Northwest Arkansas community.”
The 2015 Arts-in-Education Innovator Award went to Warren Rosenaur for “promoting arts access, learning and literacy for Arkansas youth.”
Big things are on the horizon for TheatreSquared, the largest of which is the construction of its own future permanent home to be built on the southeast corner of the intersection of North West Avenue and West Spring Street in Fayetteville. They currently stage productions in the Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios.
The benefit was also an opportunity to announce the lead design team selected for the 51,000-square-foot theater. Jonathan Marvel of New York-based Marvel Architects and London-based Charcoalblue will be responsible for the project selected as the first in the Walton Family Foundation’s Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program.
Those gathering for the gala included Sandy Edwards, Terrye and Patric Brosh, Lisa and Jeff Gearhart, Hannah and Greg Lee, Denise and Hershey Garner, Carl Smith, Tammy Lorince, Cathy and Mike Mayton and Stacy and Rod Bigelow.
The Jewels of Giving Gala on Nov. 20 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers yielded some $200,000 in treasure for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.
The nonprofit organization distributed 7.2 million pounds of food in 2014 to those in need in Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties.
Features of the evening included a moment to honor Marge Wolf, executive director, who will retire from the food bank at the end of this year (more on that in next week’s column) and an announcement from Mary Zettle of General Mills of a $50,000 donation from the company to the food bank.
Among those on hand to benefit the food bank were Barbara and Shawn Baldwin, Annetta and Spencer Tirey, Jennifer Johnson, Lisa and Pat Bourke, Tyler Clarke, Nanette and Billy Burns, Evelyn and Chuck Jorgenson, Betsy Reithemeyer, Fidel and Maricela Arroyo and Lucy and Shane King.
P. Allen Smith, television host, lifestyle expert, gardening guru and Bentonville Garden Club honorary member, once again
beauty may go unnoticed to those who are simply passing on the highway.
“I think a lot of people — when they see the mansion — don’t realize how encapsulated we are when you walk on the [Peel Compton] grounds,” she says. Lodged between Wal-Mart corporate headquarters and a Walmart Supercenter, it is surrounded now by roads and parking lots. But in the middle is an oasis. “When you walk onto the grounds, you really feel like you’re in a different world. You step back in time.”
It’s that sort of transportation into a different era that Hendren and her fellow volunteers are setting up to happen at the Christmas gala. Guests enter the mansion, are immediately greeted with a drink of choice — champagne or wine — and are invited to mix and mingle while the Arkansas Arts Academy carolers sing. Four of the 15 Peel Mansion tour guides will dress in Victorian attire and give a brief history of the place from the main room and front hall. And they’re good at it — because they have a passion for sharing this special
piece of Bentonville history.
“It’s been so amazing to meet the people associated with the Peel Mansion,” Hendren says. “The staff is incredible, also. They have all these neat ideas that people who come to visit [enjoy] all the things we’re involved in [making happen.]”
The indoor setting especially harkens back to the era too, filled with rare pine graining, a walnut staircase and antiques from the Historic Arkansas Museum and Old State House. Kerosene lamps rest on dressers and desks. Old smocks, dresses and children’s outfits are displayed in bedrooms lined with curtains and colors based on trends of Victorian interiors.
Everything, even down to the lighting of the house with globes, wicks and chimneys, is designed to continue the authentic state of the mansion where Col. Samuel Peel (the first native Arkansas congressman) raised his large family of nine children.
It’s been a delicate balance to maintain the historic elements of the place while conducting construction and restoration this year, with additions of a restroom facility, catering space and dressing room for wedding parties, as well as administrative spaces and a greenhouse to help manage the needs of the garden.
“I’ve been very blessed to be here while all the renovations are going on,” Hendren says. “It’s been nice to see the transformation over the past year, [while] the integrity and history of the home stayed intact.”
Even with the new structures “you can tell, between the main building and the new, it has the same old stucco [of Italianate villa], the same texture and feel. It’s really seamless.”
This is the first gala since the construction was completed, giving guests a chance to see the changes and enjoy the improved space. What’s more, they don’t have a strict dress code either. Just because the docents are in period clothing doesn’t meant the guests have to cinch a corset or don a top hat and tails.
“You can dress up [Victorian
style] if you want to, but you don’t have to feel like you have to be super sparkly” at this event, Hendren says. Suggested attire is cocktail or business. It’s more about the setting and your company. “What I love about this event is that you can get a table with friends and eat in one of the museum rooms surrounded by all of this [history].”
Visitors looking to mingle and meet a few people might reserve a seat in the main room, where many people will sit together. Those who want to have a more private party with a handful of friends can rent a table in one of the mansion’s rooms — and this is the first year that’s been an option.
With five wine pairings, trays of appetizers and a multi-course dinner, Hendren says there’s a lot to look forward to.
“We’ve had so many wonderful sponsors [like the Trinchero Family, the gala’s presenting sponsor] and people who have donated not just time and energy but also money to ensure the legacy continues,” Hendren says. “It’s takes a village to care for a house this big.”