The Arkansas Arts Center has found a new temporary home in the Riverdale Shopping Center.

The AAC will be moving and reopening in September in order to allow construction to begin on a massive renovation and expansion project in their current space. Their new home, through early 2022, will be at 2510 Cantrell Road, a former Walmart Neighborhood Market. 

The temporary location is approximately three miles from the AAC’s MacArthur Park site. It will include studio space for Museum School classes, design and rehearsal space for the Children’s Theatre, and additional flexible spaces for offices, retail, facilities storage and educational programs.

In the Children’s Theatre’s 14,200 square-foot workshop, theatre staff will create sets, sew costumes, and build props for the AAC’s productions, including touring programs.

“The work of the Children’s Theatre team doesn’t stop when the stage lights go down in MacArthur Park,” Bradley Anderson, Artistic Director in the Children’s Theatre, said in a press release. “We create theatre productions each season that travel the state, in addition to our local summer theatre academies, theatre classes and performances at the AAC. This move will allow those programs to continue – and possibly even expand.”

The Museum School will also continue to offer a full program of classes and workshops, including drawing, painting, ceramics, jewelry, glass, small metals, woodworking and printmaking. Fall quarter classes are projected to begin in the new location in September.

“We’ve been working diligently for more than a year to ensure that our students have a creative space with the equipment needed to continue to engage in our classes in a temporary location,” Rana Edgar, Director of Education and Programs, said in a press release.

Approximately 127,000 SF of expansions and renovations await the AAC after the remodel, including a new entrance exposing the original 1937 Museum of Fine Arts entryway, expanded studios and education spaces, a black box theater, a "family art adventure space" and an indoor/outdoor restaurant overlooking the park. See more details about the renovations in this article from our sister publication, Little Rock Soirée.