NWA Arts Foundation Aims to Open Facility in Early 2015

Northwest Arkansas Arts Foundation founder Kat Barlow says she has been running her nonprofit from a P.O. Box for the last three years, but that will soon change.

If all goes as planned, the foundation — aimed at providing access to performance art education — will open a facility at Ozark Center Point Place on West Sunset Avenue in Springdale this January, Barlow said.

The classically trained ballerina started NWAAF with the intention of providing practice space for dancers, but through time and after a lot of feedback from the community and also the arts education world, the foundation’s scope grew to include providing learning space for music performance, theater, film, fashion and culinary arts.

“We realized it was much bigger and much more needed than we ever thought,” she said.

Barlow stresses that the venue will provide rentable practice space and is not a studio. “We want to enhance, not take away from what organizations that are more focused on performance are doing.”

“It’s like a performing arts convention center,” she said. “It will be truly neutral and available on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Without a brick-and-mortar home base, NWAAF has managed to produce “Talent Wars” each spring, a fundraiser that Barlow deems the region’s version of the NBC series “America’s Got Talent,” and to put out annual productions of “The Nutcracker.” The 2014 performance is set for Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Fayetteville High School. Tickets are available at NWAAF.org.

However, the new facility will allow NWAAF to expand offerings significantly. It will offer regular, open classes and one-time, master classes, and participants will only be charged when they attend. 

Special events are also in the works through partnerships with local organizations, Barlow said. A tasting with Fayetteville-based chocolatier Hello Cocoa is an upcoming highlight.

Barlow, a parent herself, brings a unique, family-inclusive approach to the program.

For example, a planned murder mystery night on April 25 will have two installments, one family friendly one in the afternoon and an adult event in the evening, and Barlow is working with nearby Fun City to arrange child-care.

Barlow considers the space that will open in January to be “an incubator” for the idea, which she intends ultimately to become a much larger facility, with many more amenities, including a rent-by-the-hour commercial kitchen.

The space will also house Dance & More, Barlow’s dance wear store, currently located at 3801 Johnson Mill Blvd. in Fayetteville.