Second Street Live!

guest commentary by Dick Renko, executive director, Second Street Live

As we prepared for our March 7 Open House and our Grand Opening events on March 11 and 25, we at Second Street Live Performing and Visual Arts Center (located at 101 N. Second St. in downtown Fort Smith) begin to reflect on how and why this project has grown and what it means.

We began nearly 10 years ago with the modest intention of bringing world class musical artists to a small private concert series. And we are now opening the doors to the public with a 250-seat theater loaded with state of the art sound and lighting, a spacious lobby gallery and a second smaller 100-seat performance and visual arts gallery. This vision is being realized by the efforts of many people driven by our mission to serve Artist, Audience and Community. The adoption of this simple, straightforward mission is the key to our focus and guides our actions in everything we do.

We serve the Artist by providing a great place for them to display their performing and visual art to appreciative patrons.

We serve the Audience by providing an intimate theater and gallery space where listening and viewing art is a pleasure.

And we serve the Community by reaching beyond our stage to bring world class artists into the public schools and to organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Smith.

Everyone who walks into our new facility has the same reaction: “WOW! This is Cool.” We anticipated that WOW and are proud of that reaction. However, the biggest WOW comes from our outreach into the community. The sharing of visual art, music and poetry has impacted us in ways that have more than exceeded our expectations.

Whether it is a Grammy Award winning musical artists like Zydeco master Terrance Simien and Storyteller/ Songwriter Bill Harley, or renowned visual artist and actor Kevin Reece, or a Trio of Poets residency, the response from the students and teachers in our public schools has indeed been profound. Seeing that moment of illumination as students make a historical and cultural connection with Zydeco music for the first time, or learn the significance of American artist Alexander Calder by building mobiles, or realize the personal discovery that poetry can be the portal to individual expression, gives us a satisfaction far beyond what we had hoped. This community outreach element of our mission has become the centerpiece of Second Street Live.

Music stimulates the brain in ways that increase the ability for creative thinking in math and science and verbal skills. Through song and art we connect to our own history and culture as well as other cultures. We sing when we gather communally at ballgames, at birthdays, at church, at protests. The great civil rights movements throughout history have been documented by song and poetry and visual art. Through art we begin to grasp our humanity and pass it on to the next generation. We celebrate the important moments of our lives with song. We decorate our homes, our schools, and our bodies with art. The level of art that a culture achieves is a significant way in which we judge the human condition. We firmly believe that we can not place enough emphasis on the Arts in education or in our community.

By serving Artist, Audience and Community, Second Street Live is dedicated to being part of the thread that binds our community together, making the fabric of life in Fort Smith as rich as it can be through the arts.

Please come out and join us in this worthy endeavor.