Christian H. Cutler is director of the Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College. The Windgate Museum of Art is housed in the Miller Creative Quad, which opened in 2019. The museum serves as a pedagogical resource for Hendrix College and is free and open to the public.
Everywhere Windgate Foundation goes a particular word seems to follow: transformative.
If anything can bring a community together, it’s food. Jessica Gomez, a self-described food enthusiast, is combining her love for food and community as a local social media influencer, highlighting restaurants and food trucks across central Arkansas through her Instagram account, @eating_with_jess_.
Every decision made at Conway Christian School focuses on quality, never quantity. For that reason, decisions are never made on how big Conway Christian wants to become, but how well it can provide for its students, said school president Jason Carson.
There is more to MLK Square in downtown Conway than meets the eye. At first glance, it seems like an ordinary, everyday downtown park with green space, walking and a playground for kids. But MLK Square recognizes a rich history in the area, and provides an important service to businesses in the area, too.
Bell Urban Farm has blossomed into a jewel of the local Conway food scene. It offers a grocery store, an urban backyard garden, a chicken house, a couple of greenhouses and honeybees, to boot.
By the time a child reaches kindergarten, 85% of his or her brain has developed. That makes the first five years of a child’s life important to learning outcomes and school success, and it’s a time period the Arkansas Imagination Library strives to impact. The Arkansas Imagination Library is an extension of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which sends free books to children, aged 0 to 5, each month. Arkansas communities started county affiliates in 2002 and grew to deliver more than 16,000 books a month across 54 counties. In 2017, then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson provided funds to establish a statewide program, the Arkansas Imagination Library. Since then, the library’s reach has grown to all 75 counties and more than 74,000 books a month.
When Jessica Crum participated in the Conway2035 strategic planning process, she had a goal in mind to help attract and retain young, creative talent. As founder and creative director of Silverlake Design Studio and executive director of the Creative Institute of Central Arkansas, she had a need for young professionals with skills in marketing, photography, videography, and design, but Crum also saw the impact that type of talent has on a community.
The Conway Station was a centralized place in downtown Conway from which the city developed in the 19th century. Now, another breeding ground for advancement has taken root just down the block at the Arnold Innovation Center, powered by Conway Corp, specifically for entrepreneurs and startups. AIC opened in late 2021 and has already become a game-changer for small business owners of Central Arkansas.
A state like Arkansas brings a diversity of activities from border of the Natural State to the next, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission strives to educate and expose Arkansans to all that is available through its nature centers nestled throughout the state. Each of the nine centers focuses the area and the activities and wildlife available. As the Arkansas Game and Fish says, it’s part classroom, part museum and part playground.