Arts and Entertainment

Walton Arts Center

To the delight of local residents, the Walton Arts Center is the cultural centerpiece of Northwest Arkansas - a beautiful arts and entertainment complex located in Fayetteville. A most unique aspect of the Walton Arts Center is the way that it was built - through an unusual partnership between public and private sectors, negotiations, compromise and a vision that produced a facility that enriches the cultural life of Northwest Arkansas.

Walton Arts Theater

Offering a year-round schedule for all ages, The Walton Arts Center attracts nationally prominent theater, concerts, ballets, dance troupes and other events. Recent performers include Slow Dancing, Riverdance, Michael Bouble, Bill Cosby, B. B. King, and touring companies of "CATS", "Les Miserables", "42nd Street", "The Producers", "The Graduate", "Evita," "A Chorus Line," and "Chicago."

It is also home to the respected North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra which recently celebrated their 50th season. The adjacent Nadine Baum Learning Center provides studio art and drama workshop experiences for all ages, including Theatre Squared.

University of Arkansas Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences

When the Fine Arts Center at the University of Arkansas opened in 1951, the Arkansas Gazette hailed it as "the most handsome building in the South." Under one roof were dance, music, art, drama, and architecture, a series of connected spaces in which the arts could flourish. Designed by Edward D. Stone, a major figure in 20th-century architecture, the Fine Arts Center today continues this tradition, hosting hundreds of concerts, University Theatre productions, and art exhibitions each year. Included in the art gallery's permanent collection are prints by Salvador Dali and mobiles by Alexander Calder. Each year, the gallery features lectures and traveling exhibits by noted artists. In the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, patrons enjoy concerts by talented faculty groups such as the Lyrique Quintet and the Fulbright Trio, as well as by renowned guest artists and faculty members such as Jura Margulis. In the recently renovated University Theatre, audiences are treated to several main stage productions each year, from Shakespearian tragedies to Broadway comedies and musicals. Enjoy performances in this historic building, built as a tribute to the lasting power of the arts to enrich our lives.

North Arkansas Symphony

Dickson Street Entertainment District in Downtown Fayetteville

A vibrant downtown is a confluence of a city's culture and people. It speaks of history, a sense of art and a philosophy of creativity, and abounds with viable businesses and residential neighborhoods. We believe the viability of a community's downtown district is a direct reflection of its health and well being. Fayetteville is alive and well and getting better all the time.

Fayetteville's Downtown Master Plan, a plan that further strengthens Fayetteville's place as one of the most livable cities in the country, is dedicated to ensuring the continuing vitality of the downtown district.

• Develop and apply a cohesive strategy to establish the district as the premier cultural and entertainment destination in Northwest Arkansas
• Encourage mixed-use development and adaptive reuse and promote historic preservation
• Support a healthy and diverse mix of businesses within the district
• Promote healthy and unique downtown living
• Encourage and foster the unique atmosphere of the district

Farmers Market

The Farmers Market on the Fayetteville Square

Terra Studios

Arkansas Air Museum

The historic aircraft in the Arkansas Air Museum are unusual among museum exhibits because most of them still fly. There are few "stuffed birds" in this collection. From world-famous racing planes of the 1920s and 1930s to an early airliner, the planes are maintained in flying condition.

The museum is located at the Fayetteville Airport, Highway 71 on the south end of town.

Even the vast, all-wood white hangar which houses the bright colored old airplanes and static displays is a part of American history. Former headquarters for one of the United States' many aviator-training posts during the Second World War, it is one of the few remaining examples of 1940s era aircraft hangars. Static displays range from the golden age of aviation to the jet age, including Vietnam-era Army helicopters and a Navy carrier fighter.