Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Northwest Arkansas set to bloom with art, music
May flowers in Northwest Arkansas with all kinds of artistic blooms at festivals in Eureka Springs and Fayetteville.
ARTS FESTIVAL IN EUREKA
Eureka Springs is getting ready for its 30th annual Eureka Springs May Arts Festival, spotlighting the Ozark village’s visual (more than 350 working artists live in the community) and performing arts.
The ArtRageous Parade officially kicks things off, featuring elaborate floats, art cars, walkers in costume, dancers, musicians, jugglers and dance groups, 2 p.m. Saturday starting at the post office, 101 Spring St., proceeding along Main Street to the Carroll County Western District Courthouse. Viewers can line up anywhere along the route. Winners will be announced at 3 p.m.
The Four Seasons Project, four mobiles by Eureka Janet Alexander and John Stallings representing the beauty of the seasons, will debut at 6 p.m. Friday in Basin Spring Park on Main Street. They’ll remain on display throughout the month. Alexander will discuss the mobiles and guide visitors in building miniatures to take home, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. May 13 in the park.
The festival also includes concerts at the City Auditorium, 36 S. Main St., by the Ozarks Chorale (7 p.m. May 13; $10) and John Two-Hawks (2 p.m. May 14; 12, $40 VIP). Call (479) 2537788 or visit theaud.org.
A complete schedule is available at eurekaspringsfestivalofthearts.com.
ARTOSPHERE IN FAYETTEVILLE
Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., is the centerpoint of the eighth annual Artosphere: Arkansas’ Arts and Nature Festival, Thursday-May 20 at indoor and outdoor spaces across Northwest Arkansas.
Outdoors, the Trail Mix Weekend, May 13-14, will feature music, art, hiking and biking along local trails and the Razorback Regional Greenway,
stretching from downtown Fayetteville to the Bentonville town square, which is the focus of Saturday’s activities, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Things get underway with a bike-decorating celebration in the Walton Arts Center’s West Avenue parking lot, moving north to Lake Fayetteville; to Shiloh Square in downtown Springdale; to the Mercy Trailhead in Rogers; and ending up at Lawrence Plaza, just off the Bentonville square, with a parade commemorating the Razorback Greenway’s twoyear anniversary. Admission is free.
Artists and musicians along the route will include the Bike Zoo Giant Butterflies, Squonk, Chapel Music Series performers Claire Lynch and the Seamus Egan Project and local entertainers, including guitar/cello duo Rozenbridge, bluegrass and folk trio the Crumbs, folk and jazz duo Melody Pond and acoustic country/bluegrass band the Sons of Otis Malone.
The Trail Mix focus will shift to Fayetteville’s Walker Park, 10 W. 15th St., 5-8 p.m. May 14, with, at 7 p.m., Squonk Opera’s Cycle Sonic, giant, animated human-powered stages that sprout bulbhorns, banners and whirligigs. Admission is free.
Indoors, the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, more than 90 musicians from around the world with music director Corrado Rovaris on the podium, will play three concerts: ■ 8 p.m. May 12, “Live From Crystal Bridges: Mozart in the Museum,” Great Hall, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville. Tickets are $40; the all-Mozart program will also air live on public radio station KUAF-FM, 91.3.
■ 7 p.m. May 17, “Mendelssohn in Scotland,” Baum Walker Hall, Walton Arts
Center. Felix Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture and Symphony No. 3, “Scottish”; Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn. $10.
■ 8 p.m. May 20, Baum Walker Hall. Luciano Berio: Quattro versioni originali della “Ritirata notturna di Madrid”; Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 7; Avner Dorman: Frozen in Time (featuring percussionist Malavika Godbole). $10.
The Dover Quartet — Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; and Camden Shaw, cello — will be the main performers for the Chapel Music Series. They’ll play an all-Beethoven concert at 7 p.m. May 9 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 224 N. East Ave., Fayetteville ($10) and the world premiere of Four Miniatures for String Quartet by Richard Danielpour, commissioned for the quartet by Walton Arts Center and Artosphere, for “Live From Crystal Bridges: Dover Quartet,” 4 p.m. May 13 at the Bentonville museum ($25).
Other Chapel series performances:
■ 6:30 p.m. May 11: Claire Lynch sings country ballads, bluegrass and swing, with some Southern Appalachian
clog dancing, Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel, 504 Memorial Drive, Bella Vista ($10).
■ 6:30 p.m. May 16: The Seamus Egan Project will perform traditional Irish music by Egan, a founding member of the band Solas, Chapel Ruins at Sassafras Springs Vineyard, 6461 E. Guy Terry Road, Springdale ($10).
A couple of other events of interest that require tickets:
■ Manual Cinema’s Lula del Ray, 7 p.m. Thursday, Baum Walker Hall. Inspired by the music of Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline, and performed with vintage overhead projectors, shadow puppets, actors in silhouette and music, the story of an adolescent girl who becomes obsessed with a soulful country music duo and decides to run away from home. ($10)
■ 7 p.m. May 7: MOMIX, Opus Cactus, Baum Walker Hall. The Washington, Conn.-based dance company, through a “multimedia experience,” brings the Sonoran Desert to life. ($15-$45).
Call (479) 443-5600; ticket information and a complete calendar is available at waltonartscenter. org/artothat