Bobbie Bateman talks arts at POA board retreat

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week was the POA board retreat. Bobbie Bateman, president of the Arts Council, gave this presentation to the board members regarding the future of the arts in the Village.
"I am the President of the Hot Springs Village Arts Council formed in January 2008 through the initiative of the HSV Community Foundation. Since that time we have developed this Mission Statement, ‘To promote and support Visual and Performing Arts of Hot Springs Village and its neighborhood.’ We now have a set of By-Laws, have begun a website, have become a 501(C)-3 and are in the process of having a brochure printed. We have 18 member organizations representing over 3800 HSV residents. Some of the members are in more than one organization but after some discussion we decided that they should be counted in each organization. In addition, the members provide Cultural Arts to several thousand Village residents; more than 2800 Village residents are members of the Concert Series. Painting, quilting, photography ,and woodworking clubs rotate putting on exhibits displaying their work. Plays are produced by the Village Players four times a year, and there are musical presentations by several vocal groups and bands and professional performing artists. There are over 100 events on the Woodlands stage a year. In addition to productions there are other uses of the Woodlands stage such as rehearsals, meetings and receptions.
The Arts Council has helped to support two Fund Raising events to add to Arts related Endowments managed by the HSV Community Foundation and the Arkansas Community Foundation.
There is no question that golf is still a draw but when I visited with several new residents at the Newcomer’s Coffees they talked of other things that drew them to the Village. Many of the newcomers were the beginning of the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation and they mentioned being impressed with the cultural facilities available, especially the Woodlands Auditorium, the Card Club, and the many art related clubs. They also talked of the trails, loved the water activities available, but asked if we had a park, facilities for big family reunions, a place where they could come to draw and paint because they weren’t buying a big enough home to set a room aside for a studio or to have space for wood working equipment.
Two of the pieces of land are adjacent to the Ponce de Leon Center and would be ideal to expand the Center to take care of the future growth in the Village. It just makes sense to have all of the Arts related activities on contiguous land rather than have one site at the present location and an addition somewhere else in the Village which would require duplicate facilities and duplicate equipment. The Woodlands Auditorium operates at about 80% -85% of capacity now, the Ouachita Activity Center operates at about 65% and the Card Club at almost 95%. As an example the Concert Series now has each show performing four nights and has a waiting list of about 300 people. As people renew their subscriptions each year some drop out for one reason or another, health, can’t drive at night, or they move back to family because of age. The Concert Series is able to re-fill the four nights with the waiting list but with new growth they may not be able to continue to do so. Adding another night to make them five night performances would be more expensive because we would be getting into week-end overtime work for the performers, crew, bus drivers and local technicians. It is getting more and more difficult to schedule all the groups who want to use the Woodlands because of overlapping times for rehearsals, set ups and the productions themselves.
There have been requests for a place for larger events such as family reunions, receptions, weddings but neither the Woodlands Lobby nor the Ouachita Center can accommodate such large events.
The Casa de Carta (card house) is operating 7 days a week and almost 16 hours a day. They would like to have large Bridge Tournaments there and they do have some events by utilizing the Ouachita Center and the Woodlands Lobby, but for bigger tournaments they have to go outside the Village. With Village growth they will have to begin restricting the size of their membership.
With growth of the Village will come a need for additional space for the Cultural activities that now go on at the Ponce de Leon Center and it would make sense to have it expand to the west on the 6.4 acres that now belong to us. Expansion will be necessary in the future and to have part of the Arts Campus at the current Ponce de Leon Center and then to have to have a part of it somewhere else in the Village would mean more expense for duplicate equipment at a separate location.
The Draft of the Strategic Plan has included the need for an enlarged Arts Campus and that the 6.4 acres to the west of the Ponce de Leon Center would be the logical site for the expansion.
In conclusion I know the money to do any additions and renovations is not sitting in a golden pot waiting for us to start tomorrow or even next week but I would hope when the time comes, that land will be available for the expansion of the Ponce de Leon Center. The Villagers stepped up to the plate once before to find the money to build the current facility and as the economy improves I have faith in us that it can be done again. The need is there and to make the Arts Campus on one contiguous piece of property would be the most economical plan and would become the ‘go to’ site for most of the Village’s cultural activities.
Thank you for letting me, as the representative of over 3800 Arts Council members and of over the thousands of Villagers who enjoy the arts related activities we now have, to tell you about the need for expansion for those who will be coming in the future. If you have any questions I will be happy to try to answer them for you."
This entire presentation was presented to the POA board so they will keep in mind the place of the arts in the current strategic plan looking at the Village ten years from now. Bateman and many art supporters in the Village see the need for an arts campus in one general location.