Arts & Entertainment
The cultural centerpiece of Northwest Arkansas is the Walton Arts Center, a beautiful arts and entertainment complex in Fayetteville, which attracts nationally prominent theater, concerts, dance troupes and other events. Recent performers include Bill Cosby, B. B. King, and touring companies of "Evita," "A Chorus Line," and "Chicago." It's also home base for the respected North Arkansas Symphony. And the adjacent Nadine Baum Learning Center provides studio art and drama workshop experiences for all ages.
The area is also alive with local theater, from student productions at the University of Arkansas to community and dinner theater at the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale, Rogers Little Theater, Bella Vista Village Players, or Sager Creek Arts Center in Siloam Springs. There's a summer playwright's workshop with performances on Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville; a month-long Opera in the Ozarks schedule at Inspiration Point; and local writers frequently do public readings at area coffeehouses.
Springdale's Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, the Rogers Historical Museum, the Siloam Springs Museum and the Peel House Museum and Historical Garden in Bentonville preserve the heritage of the region. The Wal-Mart Visitors Center is situated within Sam Walton's original 5 and 10¢ store in Bentonville. And south of Fayetteville, the Arkansas Air Museum houses beautifully-restored vintage aircraft at the state's largest aircraft museum. The Daisy Airgun Museum brings a shine to the eye of every childhood BB gun owner.
After all of that cultural enlightenment, it's nice to let go at one of the many gathering places on Fayetteville's Dickson Street, or in Pinnacle, or on the Rogers-Bentonville strip. Northwest Arkansas has a vibrant music scene, with local acts that have followings well beyond our borders, from the venerable Cate Brothers band, to the Grammy-nominated duo, Trout Fishing in America.
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