Walton Arts Center starts summer projects

The Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville has begun about $1.55 million in renovation work. The center will renovate the Porter Warehouse interior at West Avenue and Spring Street after the city completed repairs to the building’s exterior.

The $950,000 investment in the historic warehouse includes creating the Alexander Gallery — the first new public gallery in the Upper Ramble, the second phase of the city’s cultural arts corridor that opened last year.

The gallery will have more than 2,500 square feet of exhibit space with movable walls, allowing for flexible exhibition spaces, and Americans with Disabilities Act access. The project is being led by Little Rock-based Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects with construction by Rogers-based Sargent Contracting.

After the project is completed this fall, the building will be renamed The Porter Art Warehouse. The Walton Arts Center leases the building and will provide its programming. The opening exhibition will be “Our Art, Our Region, Our Time.”

The Walton Arts Center at 495 W. Dickson St. will also renovate its Sudduth Garden Room and expand the Friends of the Walton Arts Center Lounge into the former Joy Pratt Markham Gallery space. Work is scheduled to start in June and be completed before the 2025-26 season.

The $600,000 renovation includes new finishes, furniture, and lighting for the two spaces and was designed by Melissa Hall Simmons of MH Studios in Fayetteville. A new entrance for Friends of the Walton Arts Center will be added through the Bradberry Rose Garden and Amphitheater.