Members walk through Arts Center’s new digs
The temporary, Riverdale-area Little Rock home of the Arkansas Arts Center was the site of the Sept. 23 annual meeting of museum members. Attendees walked into an expansive open area of what had most recently been a Walmart Neighborhood Market, where they viewed murals of the museum’s history and redesigned future before stepping into the meeting space.
Merritt Dyke, president of the Arts Center’s board of trustees, conducted the slideshow-assisted meeting, extending a welcome, introductions and acknowledgments. After Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. recognized outgoing board members, Dyke returned to the podium to recognize new and reappointed board members and officers. He later gave a president’s report.
Bobby Tucker, Arkansas Arts Center Foundation board chairman, gave the foundation report, noting that it had acquired 89 works of art for its collections and indicating the various institutions to which foundation collection works had been loaned. Laine Harber, interim museum director, outlined the center’s 2018-2019 milestones, topped by the debut of “Reimagining the Arkansas Arts Center Campaign for Our Cultural Future,” a $128 million fundraising campaign for the new Arts Center; and a partnership with the Central Arkansas Library System. (The official groundbreaking on the center’s renovation and expansion project took place Tuesday.) Also chronicled were the numbers of people affected by the museum and its various programs. Harber ended with the announcement of the center’s Employee of the Year — not one individual, but the entire staff.
Also giving remarks was Victoria Ramirez, the Arts Center’s new executive director. Harriet and Warren Stephens were recognized as co-chairmen of the museum’s capital campaign.
Harber returned to the stage to present Dyke with the Winthrop Rockefeller Memorial Award for his exceptional service to the center and support of the arts. After the meeting, a buffet lunch was served.