Who are The Muses?

For more than five years, the Muses Creative Artistry Project has been entertaining, inspiring and educating audiences in Hot Springs, enticing us all to embrace the arts. Still, there are some who ask who the Muses are or what they represent.  Looking back to Greek mythology, we are told that there were nine Muses, whose mission was to gift mortals with the inspiration to creatively express art, music, writing, theater, and science. In 2007, when Deleen Davidson founded this certified 501(c)3 non-profit performing, creativity, and healing arts company, the name the Muses Creative Artistry Project was chosen because the historical reference to its very relevant and necessary modern application, to inspire us to be like the Muses.

The Arts

The goal of The Muses is to inspire, entertain, and educate its audience about the value art, creativity and music have to one’s overall wellbeing, within three areas of influence:

PERFORMING ARTS - continuing dedication to excellence in classical music and live performance, poetry, drama, and dance.

CREATIVE ARTS - exploring and encouraging each individual’s creative potential, offering seminars, workshops and an arts integration program in collaboration with public and private schools, colleges and universities in Central Arkansas that blend elements of visual art, music education, creative writing, personal expression, and peak performance life coaching.

HEALING ARTS - collaborating with physicians, research scientists and therapists to explore the connection between music, creativity, and wellness, including promotion of the healing power of art, music, creativity and musical sound therapeutic massage.

The Muses exists to inspire, entertain, and enrich the lives of individuals of all ages and economic means by offering top-quality professional performances, workshops, seminars and lectures, centered on a recurring four-season cycle. The Muses brings together highly skilled local, national, and international professional musicians, singers, visual artists, and dancers in performances that are typically described as transformative, ethereal adventures into beautiful music and artistry. The Muses also combines lectures and seminars with hands-on workshops designed to inspire and encourage participants to discover, unleash, nurture, and express their own inherent creativity. A primary tenet of the Muses is that everyone has the power to create and the ability to express that creativity in uniquely individual ways.

 The Muses Creative Artistry Project employs professional artists, musicians, and teachers from within the state, and across the country, to create diverse performance opportunities, and presentations in all genres of highest quality artistic collaboration: instrumental and vocal music, fine art, literature, poetry, drama, and dance.

Upcoming offerings from the Muses include their Fourth Annual Opera Gala, The Magic Flute, to be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 23, 2011 in the Crystal Ballroom of the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa in Hot Springs.  More than 20 singers, instrumentalists, actors, and dancers from across the country will tell Mozart’s tale of myth, magic, and music to deliver the life-affirming message: love conquers all.  Ticket holders for the gala are invited to begin their enchanting evening at 6 p.m. with a wine reception at the new 3 Arts Café, the downtown home of the Muses, located in the lobby of the Hale Bathhouse on beautiful Bathhouse Row.  A limited number of tickets are available at a price of $75 each which includes the wine reception and heavy hors d’oeuvres at the Arlington, in addition to the performance.

On Sunday afternoon, September 18, at 3:00 p.m., just days before the Opera Gala, eight of these talented performers will present “Magic Flute Cocktail," an “appetizer” for the upcoming week's presentation.  This concert will be the third in the Muses' concert series, “The Four Seasons in Art and Song,” held in Anthony Chapel at Garvan Woodland Gardens.  The seasonal series will conclude with the sixth annual presentation of the "Voices of Angels" sacred Christmas concert on December 18. Tickets for these seasonal performances are available at $25 each.

For more information about The Muses or to reserve tickets, contact the Muses at 501-463-4514 or www.themusesproject.org.  Tickets for all performances can also be picked up at The Three Arts Café and Bookstore.