The Muses Creative Artistry Project operates out of Hot Springs, but you'd hardly know it to look at the number of performances set at the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock. The group was just there June 16 for a full set of Broadway standards. A year ago artistic director Deleen Davidson serenaded the governor with an operatic rendition of "Memory" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats.
So it was only fitting that the project bestow its annual Kindred Spirit award upon Gov. Mike Beebe on Tuesday night. Beebe is the only governor the Muses have known, and a supportive and interested one at that.
He's just the second award winner, or fourth, depending. Before the inaugural Kindred Spirit glass wings trophy was presented to Walter E. Hussman Jr., Don Munro and Dorothy Morris were celebrated by the project, and "we think of Dorothy and Don as past recipients" and intend to get them their wings, Davidson said.
The night was marked by a number of performances, from ballet to the "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" duet from Guiseppe Verdi's La Traviata.
The players ranged from students of Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts and Henderson State University undergraduates to professional performers from New York.
-- Photos and story by Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 09/21/2014