The Eureka Springs Street Art Program is transforming underutilized spaces into public activity spaces, encouraging development while making a walk, drive or bike ride through town more fun, colorful and friendly.
In 2013, the Arts Council established street art as a priority for economic development through arts and tourism. The goal was to source, fund and install a minimum of one major permanent street art project each year, as well as a minimum of one, annual, temporary project.
Street art underscores the eclectic “art colony” brand of Eureka Springs and can be helpful guiding people through town, getting them to visit places they may not have considered, and put history in a contemporary context.
Several Art Program concepts are the first of their kind in northwest Arkansas and the state, with the added twist of multimedia interactivity. In this digital age tourists enjoy snapping themselves with the art, resulting in viral promotion for Eureka Springs.
The Eureka Springs Interactive Music Park converted a city park into an experience using four unique instruments made of local woods and recycled materials. The chime arbor knows as GPAC plays the refrain from “Give Peace a Chance.”
The Interactive Augmented Reality Art Wall is a series of static image panels programmed with an augmented reality code hidden within the images. A downloaded, free app transforms images into videos, animation or a video-animation-music combination like the depiction of the construction of the Basin Park Hotel from the early 1900s to the present.
In July, a professor at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia contacted the Arts Council as part of a research project centered on the viability of interactive media and technology in tourism marketing.
Every year since 2013 the Arts Council announces the November call for artists for installations to be revealed in the May Festival of the Arts. The applications follow guidelines established in 2013, with an Arts Council jury review and final approval granted by the mayor, the city’s advertising and promotions commission, the Arts Council and, if necessary, the Historic District Commission.
The program collaborates with the Eureka Springs High School Arts Club on a primary or secondary project encouraging and featuring emerging artists. The project pairs a student with professional artists, as in the Rainbow Stairs project that merged two student designs in a collaboration with Master Muralist Doug Myerscough.
The program is funded through the Arts Council and the Eureka Springs Advertising and Promotions Commission, with the bulk of the money coming through tourism tax collections as a reinvestment into creating new attractions.
As Eureka Springs strategically adds new street art throughout town and becomes more innovative in the arts expressed, it is able to transform underutilized spaces into public activity spaces encouraging more development.
The city benefits in ways that include beautification, arts and culture enhancement, community involvement and pride, multimedia artist engagement, expressed historical context, no art taxes, increased tourism and revenue, publicity and promotion opportunities for local retailers.
Local tourism tax collections have increased from 3% to 25% since 2013, and while the city can’t give the street art program all the credit, it is clear the increases have taken place within the program’s time frame.
Creating street art develops social, cultural and economic value for Eureka Springs.
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