The awards keep racking up for the Murphy Arts District.
Since its grand opening in 2017, the arts and entertainment district has won the Natural State Award, which was presented last year during the annual Henry Awards ceremony at the Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Tourism.
The Natural State Award is presented each year to a community, organization, special event or attraction that “stands out in the crowd” because of its unique appeal, media coverage, creative approach and/or enhancement of community pride, thus benefiting the state’s quality of life.
The multi-day grand opening, which was held in conjunction with MusicFest XXX, was also named the 2017 Event of the Year and Outstanding New Idea by the ALFiE (Arkansans Love Festivals and Events) awards last year.
The ALFiEs are presented each year by the Arkansas Festivals and Events Association. MAD and MusicFest took home the gold in the Event of the Year and Outstanding New Idea categories, respectively.
Main Street El Dorado launched MusicFest more than three decades ago, and in 2017, Main Street partnered with MAD to present the festival.
MAD focused on the musical headliners and Main Street beefed up the festival portion of the event.
The criteria for the Event of the Year award is the same as the criteria for the Natural State Award.
Outstanding New Idea awards recognize festivals that have developed a new idea, logo, event, festival, or publication that added significantly to the success or popularity of the festival.
Now, state historic preservation officials have taken notice of the work MAD is doing in South Arkansas.
Preserve Arkansas, the statewide nonprofit advocate for historic preservation, will honor the recipients of the 2018 Arkansas Preservation Awards Friday in Little Rock.
One of those honorees is the Griffin Restaurant/First Financial Music Hall, the recipient of the 2018 Excellence in Preservation through Rehabilitation award.
Historically known as the Griffin Auto Building, the building opened in October 1928 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Over the years, the building has served as a gas station, auto dealership and glass and mirror business.
Now, the building functions as a restaurant with a cabaret stage and a performance hall. The Griffin facility is a key cog in the transformative project to help make El Dorado a destination for arts and entertainment.
The Griffin is the focal point of an entertainment complex that includes an amphitheater, a children’s playscape, open-air market, Oil Heritage Park and in the future, a revamped Rialto Theater and an art gallery in the McWilliams building on the corner of Washington and Locust.
Vision
Terry Stewart, chairman and chief executive officer of MAD, said the Preserve Arkansas Excellence in Preservation through Rehabilitation award is a nod to MAD’s construction crew — Nabholz Construction — and architectural team — Westlake Reed and Leskosky — whose managing principal and lead designer envisioned the layout of the district and its potential to benefit El Dorado.
Paul E. Westlake Jr. is an award-winning architect who has worked on scores of restoration and rehabilitation projects across the country — many of which involve cultural and performing/fine arts facilities, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is where Stewart, who formerly served as president and CEO, first worked with Westlake Reed and Leskosky.
When Stewart was tapped by El Dorado Festivals and Events, Inc., to be one of the leads in developing MAD, he knew just the right architectural firm to take on the job.
Stewart said Westlake, who has local ties to El Dorado through marriage, was at first skeptical.
“When I told him where it was, it was crickets,” Stewart said with a laugh.
However, upon his first survey of what is now the MAD site, Westlake came up with ideas that would combine arts and entertainment with historic preservation in a $100-plus million project.
“El Dorado Festivals and Events had purchased all these historical properties. We weren’t sure what we were going to do with them, but we thought they would be an integral part of what we wanted to do,” Stewart said.
Early discussions for EFE included new construction to add on to the Rialto Theater, but Westlake had a different concept that would utilize existing, historic buildings.
“He said you’ve got so many great buildings here and that would have been contrary to the historic nature of Downtown El Dorado, and he didn’t want a new building to stick out like a sore thumb,” Stewart said.
MAD presented the WRL firm with a survey that outlined what locals would like to see in an arts and entertainment district. The top two results were music and activities for families with children, Stewart said.
“We have a goal of raising the bar for the quality of life in El Dorado through arts, music and entertainment,” he stressed.
WRL actualized that goal, reconfiguring the Griffin from a building with open space out front into a multi-purpose facility with a glass-enclosed restaurant in the front and a music hall in the rear.
“He had the vision to manifest it all in that building, with the dressing rooms and technical rooms to support the things that we needed in the building and in the amphitheater,” Stewart said.
Stewart said MAD will travel to Little Rock on Friday to celebrate the Preserve Arkansas win and the work that has gone into the development of arts and entertainment district.
The El Dorado contingent will include the El Dorado Historic District Commission, who signed off on the Certificate of Appropriateness requests that helped make MAD possible.
“I think it’s fabulous because it doesn’t happen like it once did, but historic buildings would get torn down without purpose. They would sit there and become dilapidated,” Stewart said.
He pointed to nationwide press MAD has received since its launch in 2017, saying, “I think when you’re recognized in your own state and people see what you’re doing, that is the cherry on the milkshake. And not only that, we hope it serves as a template for other cities.”
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].