The countdown is on

We’re getting close to the April 22 grand opening of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA). The museum hasn’t attracted half the publicity that a presidential library received, but the AMFA debut in MacArthur Park is the biggest thing to happen in downtown Little Rock since the Clinton Presidential Center opened in November 2004.

In 2021, Icon magazine published a piece headlined “Architecture To Look Forward To.” The eight projects in the story included only one in the United States — the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.

“Another major cultural project for Jeanne Gang and her studio, AMFA provides a new public gallery and gathering space,” the magazine noted. “The project … also focuses on strengthening and clarifying connectivity with the broader AMFA campus.”

Gang, a MacArthur Fellow (commonly known as the genius grant) and a professor in practice at Harvard Graduate School of Design, heads Studio Gang. The firm does work around the world, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. This is Studio Gang’s first Arkansas project.

Studio Gang’s Arkansas work was honored with a Best of Design award from The Architect’s Newspaper in 2019. The award honors exceptional architecture, design and building projects throughout North America. Meanwhile, internationally known landscape architecture firm SCAPE designed 13 acres of MacArthur Park surrounding the museum.

“In working with Studio Gang and SCAPE, we’re realizing the most contemporary ideas about museums and public spaces,” says Victoria Ramirez, AMFA’s executive director.

Along with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AMFA will give the state two worldclass art museums. That’s pretty amazing for a state of just more than 3 million people.

Last month, AMFA officials announced that the facility will create more than 100 additional jobs. These include everything from food-service personnel to artists who teach classes. Two job fairs were held in February in an attempt to fill the positions.

“We’re working together to improve the quality of life in our region and are excited to expand our team,” Ramirez says. “We look forward to expanding local partnerships and announcing more in the upcoming months.”

She describes the museum as a cultural hub, and that fact was never more evident than in January when it was announced that AMFA will partner with Ballet Arkansas and the Arkansas Cinema Society. Art, dance, film and theater will all come together in the stunning facility.

I served on the founding board of the Arkansas Cinema Society, and it has been gratifying to watch the organization grow under the steady hand of executive director Kathryn Tucker. Due to her years in the film industry, Tucker has contacts from New York to Los Angeles. When she grew up in Little Rock (her father, Rett Tucker, is one of the men I consider a father of the modern downtown Little Rock), what was then the Arkansas Arts Center was a haven for her.

“The partnership feels like both the beginning of something beautiful and like coming home,” Tucker says. “The opportunity to host filmmakers like Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Richard Linklater and Mary Steenburgen in this state-of-the-art facility, and the ability to screen their work in the best possible light, will be such a wonderful honor. … Art is the heart of every thriving community, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. It’s a dream come true.”

Ballet Arkansas has been around 44 years. Its roots can be traced back to the Arkansas Arts Center.

“We look forward to pushing the boundaries … as we make innovative, accessible programming available to the public through our residency at AMFA,” says Michael Fothergill, the organization’s executive and artistic director. “The arts and culture landscape of Arkansas is advanced through partnerships.”

As I’ve often noted in this column, Arkansas won’t achieve its potential until its largest city prospers. The booming northwest Arkansas economy can’t carry an entire state. Some Little Rock residents feel their city is falling far short of its potential. They look at record murder rates, the large number of people who blatantly ignore traffic laws, the graffiti epidemic that has scarred the city, the trash along roadways that isn’t picked up, and the grass that isn’t mowed.

They might feel a bit better were they to look at investments for the arts. AMFA has raised more than $150 million for its project. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is planning to build the $9 million Stella Boyle Smith Music Center between the Clinton Presidential Center and Heifer International campuses. That facility will cover 20,000 square feet.

Throw in the $71 million renovation of downtown’s Robinson Center from 2014-16, and that adds up to more than $225 million in capital investment for the arts. That’s impressive for a city of 200,000 people.

The huge amount of money being spent on the arts is among several factors leading to renewed interest in downtown Little Rock. Other factors include the nascent recovery of Capitol Avenue (new owners for Regions Center and Bank of America Plaza along with a committee appointed by the mayor to spur the revival of that corridor), plans by Lyon College to open dental and veterinary schools in the Heifer International building, and an urban greenspace with tremendous potential that’s being opened up by the 30 Crossing project.

“It’s about more than the arts,” Ramirez says. “It’s about economic development.”

Senior Editor Rex Nelson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.