Steady rain on a recent Sunday afternoon drew a sizable audience to the cool confines of the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock's MacArthur Park. On display was the conversation-starting Delta Exhibition, along with the charming Young Arkansas Artist Exhibition (especially the work of kindergartners) and the National Drawing Invitational.
It was also an opportunity to consider issues that--according to the project design team of Studio Gang, the national architectural firm in charge of a coming $60-million-plus makeover for the museum--complicate visits.
After the proper amount of homegrown umbrage was taken, a pair of visitors decided to investigate these so-called issues. Here are some of the egregious elements identified by the team, and our visitors' reactions:
• Two entrances that don't connect well: There's the grand front entrance near a circular fountain (a lengthy walk from the parking lot in the rain) and an undistinguished rear entrance by the AAC Children's Theatre. Not only do they not connect well; they don't connect at all except for a rambling route through a maze of galleries. But nearly everybody accommodates some sort of design oddity in their homes or places of business--cramped closets, hallways that go nowhere, dark stairwells, too-complicated rooflines. Why not at their arts center? We're all used to it by now and hardly notice.
• Lighting in the lobby is inadequate: Not really. The Young Artists' Exhibition, most of which is hung in the high-ceilinged lobby, is clearly visible. Maybe because it contains so many bright colors.
• The library is hidden: What library?
• A loading dock obstructs what should be the primary approach: Is that what that is? If so, it's definitely in an awkward place.
• Pathways through the museum are so confusing that sometimes visitors unknowingly bypass galleries: Can't argue with this one. An entire room full of Young Artists' works is shunted off into a walled space that's entered through a plain wood door. There's a small sign near the door identifying the room's contents, but it's easy to overlook the space loaded with treasures by ninth-graders through high school seniors.
• A patchwork heating and AC system treats specific rooms rather than the building as a whole: Arkansans, particularly travelers passing through bizarrely heated/cooled airports along with movie theater goers, are accustomed to this; many cope by dressing for 90-degree temperatures and bringing a sweater everywhere they go.
The design team's critiques, delivered with apologies by Studio Gang principal Juliane Wolf recently, don't seem to bother AAC executive director Todd Herman. "Before it goes to the beauty shop, it has to go to the doctor," he said. "We're going to fix what ails it. Then we're going to overlay on that some aesthetics that are going to make it even better."
The above-mentioned makeover, which will start with a year-plus process to design and gain approval by museum officials for renovation and expansion, should do the trick.
Editorial on 06/21/2017