Cultural alliance plans to resume networking

HOT SPRINGS — For the first time since the covid-19 pandemic began, the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance will host an in-person quarterly networking meeting July 11 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

“I think it was prior to the pandemic,” the executive director of the HSACA, Mary Zunick, told The Sentinel-Record about the last time the alliance met in person. “I think it was probably at the very beginning of 2020.”

The reinstatement of in-person quarterly networking meetings offers the arts community opportunities to gather, network and discuss upcoming events or opportunities, a news release from the HSACA stated.

“As you might recall for Arts & the Park, in 2020 and 2021, we were almost all outside, so we tried to be very cautious and follow CDC guidelines,” Zunick said. “But this year for 2022, after Arts & the Park in May, we decided that we would go ahead and proceed and resume with the quarterly networking meetings.”

The HSACA plans to use the meeting to announce the theme for the 2023 Arts & the Park festival. It will also “take place shortly before the 33rd anniversary of Hot Springs’ Gallery Walk,” giving members a chance to prepare for the celebration, the release said.

The alliance hosted a few meetings online through Zoom over the last two years, but “they just weren’t as well-attended as the in-person meetings,” Zunick added.

The meeting will take place in The Warehouse, 301 Broadway St., “donated” by Gefer Sims, who owns The Warehouse and Esther’s Gallery & Gifts, the release said. The upcoming meeting is open to interested members of the community and free to attend.