Main Street Texarkana Annual Meeting
The MainStreet Texarkana 2010 Annual Membership meeting
will be Friday, February 5th
beginning @ 5pm at the downtown home of Harvey Woods & Gwen Osborne. This meeting
is for current and prospective members. The
event will feature an introduction to the 2010
board, update on MST activity going forward, and opportunities for involvement. Contact
Scott Lawrence at 870) 774-2120 or slawrence@mainstreettexarkana.org.
Four States Arts Club
Four-States Regional Art Club has made
individual visual art pieces available for display in
downtown windows. Various artists in the club
have placed their work in the windows of the
MainStreet building on State Line Avenue and in the window of 104 E. Broad Street, what
used
to be the Collins-and-Williams building. The
displays are rotated regularly and the displayed
works are for sale. For information on the
works on view contact Lena Hall at 903 293 2359.
In addition, the Art Club have held a
Plein-Air Saturday downtown where individual artists set
up their easels and create new artistic works on the sidewalk while interacting with the
public
passing by. One young lady and her father
noticed them and stopped. The young lady was
equipped with paint, brush, and paper and created her own art on the spot. A new artist and
a new artwork were created simultaneously.
The 2009 Christmas parade brought many
together for a great success. Ninety-two
separate
entrants participated including twenty-three bustling businesses, eighteen separate school
groups, ten chiming churches, seven bustling beauty queens, and three praying politicians.
If that doesn’t beat a partridge in a pear tree, I don’t know what does.
Thank you, city governments, Public
Works, and Parks and Rec. for enabling this event to occur
by your work with the lights, barricades, and Christmas tree. Also, a hearty thanks goes to our
volunteers lead by Rusty and Sharon Phelps as well as our judges, Wendy Coltharp
Michelle Miller, James Pride, Dwayne and Aggie Butler.
Jason and Amanda Horton graciously
handledd the announcing duties for the KFLI Broadcast. A special thanks also to Gary
at CSR
for working with us on lighting and equipment. It is people that make a community.
The TRAHCies
The
board of MainStreet Texarkana was approached by a unique and wonderful group from
TRAHC who want to flex their creative muscle downtown.
Traci Pittman shares about the
group and their idea, “The TRAHCies is dedicated to the mission of growing people and
community through the arts by creating public art pieces in unexpected
places. Museums
are wonderful, but we want to show people that art can also exist outside of the museum
setting.
To kick off our series of public art projects, we partnered with Main Street Texarkana to
create
a window display for one of downtown Texarkana’s empty buildings. We will construct a
cityscape in the window display which we hope to finish installing in late January/early
February.
After we take the installation down, we will donate all intact books to the library book
sale. We’re
excited about this partnership with Main Street Texarkana, and we’re excited about
making art
for the people of Texarkana!”
The first project is underway in the front windows of NE Tex Printing, AKA the Snap
Printing
building at 120 W. Broad Street. Nita Fran Hutcheson states, “You have no idea the
interest
this is generating!!! Going to be truly unique—LIGHTED; one cityscape will be
daytime and one
will be nighttime! They’re all just a
delightful group of under 40s (mostly!) who are creative in
their respective business fields and wanted to do a quirky project. More than 1,000
books have
been collected, but they can use more! Noria and Mike Ruth (NeTEX Printing) are to
be highly
commended for lending their building to the project.”
Main Street
What do we do?
Over the last months, but particularly the last few weeks, the question, “What
does
MainStreet Texarkana do?” has been put to us from every side. It is a fair question and a
difficult one to completely answer, but here is a try.
encouraged business development. This is the
most visual effect of MST.
We organize and direct the Christmas Parade with the lights, Christmas Tree, and Santa,
as well as arrange for judges who assess the floats.
We oversee the use of the Pocket Park for small-venue community events; from
birthdays to
Cinco de Mayo, music events featuring Gospel, Folk, and Goth. Anyone can reserve the
Pocket Park by calling our office.
We work to create new downtown events each year.
Last June, the Dachsund Derby
became an event of its own after we scuttled the Blues and BarBQue.
We make a water tank and trailer available to maintain the street greenery through
our
hot summers.
Much, if not most, of what we do is not
visible on the surface. It amounts to people
working
together to form community.
In particular, our committees have:
inventoried buildings downtown—which leads
to providing info to potential
investors/purchasers/tenants;
considered how to promote current businesses
and how to attract others
we have an excellent and active website;
coordinated events and worked to build
coalitions with other organizations;
made steps to improve the look of window
displays, see the beautiful streetscape
in the window of our building;
worked to preserve and restore classic
murals—watch Curly’s on
We harness professional consultants via
our Mainstreet state offices and make their services
available to individuals and groups working downtown.
us all to look beyond ourselves toward becoming a healthy community. I maintain this is our
most important contribution. The community
represents our life together. It will not just
happen.
It requires work by committed individuals. Community
is hard to point to, but you know it when it
is absent. If an abundance of money creates
community, then Wells Fargo, Wall Street or
museums represent the pinnacle. If smart
presentation and promotion equal community, then
Disneyland
to create the unique community of
continue, God willing. Community will occur to some measure without MST, but I am
certain it
will be better with MST working toward enhancing whatever we have.