Jane Chu: Main Street Revitalization Awakens a Cultural District

Jane Chu

Jane Chu, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, said the revitalization of downtown Little Rock’s Main Street has awakened a cultural district.

Chu, a Ouachita Baptist University graduate who was approved as the 11th chairman by the U.S. Senate in June, said the Creative Corridor is now becoming a destination point of downtown and will bolster the economy through the arts.

Chu is in town to meet with the arts community in Little Rock and North Little Rock. Chu made remarks about the Creative Corridor, which was the beneficiary of an NEA Our Town grant in 2011, at an event Tuesday hosted by the City of Little Rock to update the community on the progress.

Chu said the Our Town program has injected $21 million into communities across the country in the past three years. 

“[The communities] all have this one common thread, which is a commitment to enhance the quality of life in their community by placing the arts at their core,” she said. “This is exactly what Little Rock has done.”

Mayor Mark Stodola and Stephen Luoni, of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, also addressed the audience.

Luoni provided an update on the current construction and the stages yet to come. Luoni said the corridor project has been divided into three stages, establishing gateways at Third and Seventh streets, establishing a center point at Capitol Avenue and Main Street, and finally, filling in the the areas between with restaurants, the arts and business. 

Chu will be in North Little Rock tomorrow for a discussion at 9 a.m., which will follow her tour of the Argenta District.