Second Street Live! ready to launch 2010 season (corrected)

feature story by Amanda Carson
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Art and music are at the heart of all culture, but sadly they are an aspect that is slowly being pushed aside throughout society. To keep this aspect of culture alive it needs to be upfront and present in the community.

One new facility expected to help bring culture and quality to downtown Fort Smith is Second Street Live. Some have heard about this new center being built on the corner of  Second and A streets in downtown Fort Smith, and may be curious to learn more about it. Although this is Second Street Live’s third season, it will be the first season to open the doors of a quality space of their own. The new Second Street Live facility is likely to be a wonderful cultural asset for the community based on a review of the overall program plans and physical work in progress.

RENOVATION, FUNDRAISING
Renovations to the new building began in November of last year and have made tremendous headway for their March 2010 Grand Opening.  The center will be equipped to comfortably house between 200 and 300 spectators and has a flexible stage that can be adjusted for capacity and performance benefits.  The new center also encompasses an art gallery that will play host to various visual art exhibits. As a bonus, the facility will be open to rent for meetings, receptions and other gatherings.

Second Street Live is a nonprofit corporation, and like all nonprofits they thrive off fundraising; their goal is to raise $2 million for this project, of which they have raised $700,000.

This year’s season is set to kick off Jan. 28 with a performance by Red Molly, with the Grand Opening of the new center to be March 11th. (Link here for more information, including ticket prices, about the 2010 concert season.)

SECOND STREET MISSIONS
Second Street Live is a performing and visual arts center with a very simple mission; to serve artist, audience and community.

To serve artists, the center has anticipated the artists’ needs and plans to provide them with a comfortable and professional facility. The audience will be served by providing an atmosphere conducive for a great performance; which will be accomplished through a facility with an intimate feeling. And to serve community, Second Street Live members and performers will reach (and have reached) beyond the stage and interact directly those with the least access to the arts, like the youth and seniors.

Second Street Live has gone to great lengths before their “new” doors open to provide outreach programs that bring in artists to educate area school children and to entertain the elderly, with absolutely no cost to the participants. Furthermore, Second Street Live has set out to fill a niche in the community of providing high quality music, visual arts, education and participation in the arts, without having to travel to a larger city to find it.

CULTURE SUPPORT
Second Street Live has also put Fort Smith at the forefront of a trend of having intimate performing arts centers in towns across the country.

The supporters say their programs and efforts will NOT compete with the Fort Smith Arts Center or the Fort Smith Symphony. Second Street Live wishes to compliment what the Arts Center and Symphony do not offer and even collaborate to provide citizens with a greater variety of art and cultural selection.

A report from the National for Arts notes: “Relatively fewer adults attended performing arts events in 2008 than in previous years. The percentage of adults attending at least one benchmark arts activity declined from 39% in 2002 to less than 35% in 2008.” This shows the decline of art and culture in today’s society, and Second Street Live will work hard to fight this sad reality and make the Fort Smith region culturally richer.