A collaboration between Eureka Springs' Opera in the Ozarks and the Mullins Library at the University of Arkansas has resulted in a special collection, housed at the library, that gives a comprehensive look at the history of the performing arts organization over its 68 years in existence.
Special Collections librarian Janet Parsch was primarily responsible for processing the materials which came to the library in approximately 80 boxes and included photographs, programs, correspondence and recordings from 1950 to the present day. She completed the task, which she juggled along with other various responsibilities, in around two years.
FAQ
Opening Celebration:
Opera in the Ozarks Archives
WHAT — Master voice class led by Joel Burcham
WHEN — 2-4 p.m. Feb. 28
WHERE — Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville
COST — Free
INFO — 575-5577
WHAT — Concert featuring Joel Burcham
WHEN — 1 p.m. March 1
WHERE — Faulkner Performing Arts Center at the UA
COST — Free
INFO — 575-5577
FYI
How To Access Special Collections
Special Collections librarian Janet Parsch says starting your Special Collections research online — before coming to the library — is key, because some of the collection is stored at an off-site facility, and the library staff will need time to transport those materials. For an exhibit as large as the Opera in the Ozarks archives — 71 boxes of materials — starting online helps you narrow down what boxes you want to start your research with.
Parsch says these links will help you access the UA special collections in the most efficient way possible:
Doing Research: https://libraries.u…
Manuscript Collections by Name of Collection and Subject https://libraries.u…
Manuscript Collections List by Name https://libraries.u…
Manuscript Collections – List of Subjects : https://libraries.u…
Opera in the Ozarks Archives (MC 1949) “finding aid” or “index” of file folder titles
For information about services or help with a research project, contact the Special Collections Research Services desk at specoll@uark.edu or 575-8444 .
"Sometimes there were years that the general director's office kept really good files, with good names, and then there were other years when materials were just put in the box at the end of the season with no real organization," says Parsch. "As a processor, my job was to look through them and figure out how to categorize the materials. If they're well organized to start out with, we use that process. If there's not a process in place, we devise one based on our professional standards and training. You want to get them organized to the degree that people can come in and use them."
"This is a huge milestone in our organization," says Opera in the Ozarks artistic director Tom Cockrell. "We've been around for 68 years, and the people who have passed through the Ozarks and Inspiration Point include some of the greatest artists in the opera world, who have sung on stage at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. That we're able to document this and let people relive some of these memories and look at the broad trajectory of the organization is an important landmark for the organization."
Jim Swiggart, one of the forces behind the collaboration, served as general director of Opera in the Ozarks for 25 years, retiring in 2013. He says that as his retirement approached, he began to feel a need to make sure the plethora of historical materials collected over the years was left in good hands. When the University of Arkansas Libraries approached him about the possibility of housing the materials, he was receptive.
"I said to our governing board, 'We have an awful lot of things that need to be saved,'" he remembers. "A lot of those years were things that I had personally seen, and I knew that there were important documents there."
Swiggart had a front-row seat for the earliest days of the organization. He attended the program for four summers starting in 1955 as an opera artist. He says he remembers well the pre-air conditioning days, when audience members sat on wooden benches that were like "teeter totters" as they rested on the uneven dirt floor.
"So many people came through that training program, and they're getting information they didn't get in college," he says. "But they get something that you have to have. Even if they don't make it as a professional, it certainly puts you at a level of being successful as an educator or doing something important in the arts. We're internationally and nationally known because of all of the people who have come through there. We have touched so many people."
Swiggart says that Parsch was a good choice for caretaker of the Opera in the Ozarks documents.
"She realizes that we're a very special organization and appreciates the impact that we've made on the arts," he says.
Parsch -- who hasn't missed an Opera in the Ozarks season since the late 1980s -- says there's a lot of great material for fans of the organization or fans of opera in general to pore over.
"For one thing, I was able to find a program from every single year, and that's really cool, because you can look at the whole history of the different operatic productions they did as time passes, and as things become more sophisticated," she says. "There are scrapbooks from the early 1950s and a scrapbook of Mr. Hobart, the founder. He was a vocalist in Chicago, so we have his early career scrapbook from the 1920s. We also have audio and video recordings pretty much from that whole stretch of time."
NAN What's Up on 02/25/2018