The sights and sounds of the arts filled the marbled halls of NorthPark Center on Saturday, transforming NorthPark into ARTsPARK.
Dancers graced the concourse, music filled the air, booths lined the corridors and a giant Clifford greeted children. SMU Meadows School of the Arts was there to showcase all its wares.
Laura Trujillo, a freshman voice major at Meadows, worked the Meadows booth throughout the day.
“It’s interesting,” she said, “people know we have a school but they don’t realize how many events we have to offer to the community.”
Trujillo, with help from SMU freshman Jana Beeson and sophomore Amelia Krueger, spent the day meeting people, talking about upcoming events and handing out brochures. Many who stopped by were alumni from the school or parents of current students. Others were meeting Meadows for the first time.
“If we can pick up one new patron, the day is worth it,” said Steven Jones, the founding producer of Lyric Stage in Irving. “People are excited to discover us.”
The Lyric Stage features musicals with full orchestras playing original Broadway orchestrations. It has a partnership with SMU’s business and arts administration program.
“The graduate students are using our theater as a case study,” Jones said.
Lyric Stage and Meadows were just two of 100 arts and cultural organizations participating in ARTsPARK. Other organizations included the Dallas Zoo, the Dallas Aquarium, the Mahogany Dance Theatre, KERA and WRR Classical 101.1 FM.
The booths were strategically placed in corridors near related stores and many were grouped together by common themes. WRR was situated in the center of all the action, hosting live broadcasts throughout the event from noon to 6 p.m.
“Dallas is becoming a hub for the arts,” Paul Adams, marketing coordinator for WRR, said. “Nancy Nasher opened up her space to spread that message.”
Nancy Nasher is the force behind ARTsPARK and plans to make it an annual event each March.
Nasher, a co-owner of NorthPark Center, said, “This is a space that is used to give back to the community and (ARTsPARK) is just going to get better and better.”
In partnership with the Business Council for the Arts, Nasher hopes to increase awareness of all the arts organizations out there and was surprised to realize how many there are.
“NorthPark Center was the first shopping center to introduce museum-quality artwork in a public mall space,” Vail Tolbert, NorthPark public relations manager, said.
Built in 1965, Ray Nasher designed the entire space artistically. He carefully chose the white brick throughout the center. There are no signs anywhere inside or outside the mall that say NorthPark. Works of art and sculpture from Andy Warhol, Jonathan Borofsky, Roy Lichtenstein and others grace the walls and the walkways.
The third annual ARTsPARK is scheduled to take place March 2012.
