ddp Gallery Transition

The Kruth Talks

By Amber Kruth

Gallery Transition

The ddp gallery in downtown Fayetteville will no longer have regular gallery hours, but will host select exhibitions and events. Gallery owner Dede Peters said she will focus on working with artists, collectors and design professionals and producing art events. Already scheduled are an exhibit by sculptor Chris Weaver this spring and an exhibit by photographer Amjad Faur this fall. ddp gallery represents about 20 artists and will continue to represent the majority of those artists.

Hogs For Haiti

The SEC has challenged its schools to raise $500,000 to aid recovery efforts in Haiti. Several University of Arkansas organizations have banned together as “The Haiti Fundraising Campaign” and are coordinating a number of fundraising events, like bake sales, dances and ribbon sales. There is also a group named Hogs for Haiti — complete with facebook page — selling a T-shirt emblazoned with the image of a Razorback, a ribbon and seismic circles around Haiti. The shirts are available at www.b-unlimitedonline.com/hogsforhaiti.

Blue Bins

Have you noticed those bright blue recycling bins when dropping off your kid at school? The city of Fayetteville is supplying area schools with 4-cubic-yard trash bins to recycle paper products. The first day of collection gathered a half-ton of paper, which would preserve about nine trees. These blue bins are available to any business within the city limits for a monthly fee of about $47.

Construction Halted

The construction of the parking deck at the Washington County Courthouse is at a standstill until the contractor and county can agree on adjusted costs. The quality of the ground is proving to be different than the study upon which estimates were made, slowing drilling by nearly 90 percent. The contractor is advising encasing the piers to improve support. As of Feb. 1, the county has spent $1.48 million of the $6 million allocated for the project.

Henry Campaign

Judge Courtney Henry collected more than 14,000 signatures for a petition to have her name placed on the ballot for Arkansas Supreme Court. Judge Henry chose a novel path of grass-root campaigning, as opposed to paying a filing fee, the traditional method taken by every other candidate. Judge Henry currently presides over the Court of Appeals and will run for the Position 3 seat of the State Supreme Court in the May election.

Farmington Redesign

Farmington, one of the 96 percent of Arkansas’ towns of 15,000 or less, will become a model for developing a “sense of place” in rural town America. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded $20,000 to the University of Arkansas Community Design Center to improve and beautify a town that is oriented around automobile traffic. U.S. 62 is essentially Farmington’s Main Street and lacks the lure of entertainment and economy of most downtowns. The funding will be used to create parking, landscaping, building frontage, sidewalks and other pedestrian-oriented designs.