The Conway Art Walk commenced its 2023 season March 3 with a diverse lineup of artists, along with the premiere of several updates to the event structure.
Starting this year, instead of the Studio Downtown beverage bar carrying wine, it will now carry non alcoholic craft soda and kombucha provided by The Rogue Roundabout, a craft restaurant coming to 804 Chestnut St.
At Friday’s event, Rogue Roundabout brewmaster, Chris Smith, served free samples of several homemade brews including the Loblolly Pine Hopped Tea, Lemon Coriander Lacto Soda, Lacto Berry Lemonade, Black Lychee Jun and their Grape Nut Soda.
Smith said that Rogue Roundabout started collaborating with the Conway Art Walk because they saw it as a way to expose Conway residents to their nonalcoholic options and show them the capabilities of a craft restaurant.
Smith said the partnership has been beneficial to them as a business and that it has also allowed them to educate customers on their process for making their drinks.
With the three core pillars of the Rogue Roundabout being “craft, community, and culture,” Smith said the company aims to offer people “craft experiences” while also exposing locals to the brewing methods of other cultures.
The Rogue Roundabout has collaborated with several local artists for their graphic designs and murals and Smith said that he looks forward to getting artists as future customers
This new Conway Art Walk season also premiered the new “Maker’s Market.”
“Hand-made makers” can now join in the assembly of exhibiting artists.
Haley McKnight, owner of Meep Morps Art, is now able to participate in the walk.
McKnight sells jewelry, keychains, Ouija planchettes, coffin trinket boxes and more all made out of resin.
McKnight said, “I’ve always wanted to do Conway’s markets, but I never found one I could break into successfully or one that felt inclusive enough for my weird niche art.”
McKnight said her experience working with those at the Conway Art Walk was fantastic because of how communicative, nice and inclusive they had been with her.
“The artist space is so great, because anytime you’re around other artists, you’re around so much inclusivity and diversity, and so you can be as weird as you want,” McKnight said.
McKnight said that she thinks the art walk is beneficial to the community because “It brings people together and it gets people outside that might not normally be stopping into a lot of these places.” McKnight also added that she hopes that the Art Walk may open itself up to partnerships with the local food trucks.
For the 2023 season, the Conway Artwalk is planning to make more opportunities for demo artists this season.
This month’s demonstrating artist was Faye Hedera, a portrait artist currently working on a project titled “100 faces of Conway” for which she has been painting portraits of Conway locals who are making a difference in the community.
The Conway Art Walk used Friday to debut their new “Make and Take” option. In addition to the craftspeople now able to join as artists, they have now begun to allow artists to host collaborative crafting activities to allow locals to make their own art with the artist and then take it home after paying a fee to the artist.
Two craft hosts participated in Friday’s walk: Lakey Goff, a collage artist and painter inspired by God, natural pigments and organic materials, and Paula Rogers, who makes hand-torn leather journals.
Goff said it was her first time getting to participate in the Art Walk and that she learned about it by journeying downtown during one of her “prayer walks” where she goes to gather robin’s eggs, mud, snakeskin, flower, feathers and candy wrappers to use for her art collages.
Goff said that she went to school at Hendrix in the ‘90s but that she recently moved back to Conway and was happy to find so much more was happening in town now.
Goff said that she thinks the Conway Art Walks benefit the community because they bring life, creativity, vitality, joy and offer “new ways of seeing.”
Mattie Neighbors, a biology student at UCA, was another artist who was able to participate in March’s Art Walk. Neighbors runs an online store called “Darling Drawings Shop” via Etsy, Instagram and various other platforms.
While not from Conway originally, Neighbors said that she could tell Conway put an emphasis into the arts when she drove through downtown for the first time and saw all of the murals. Neighbors was an influencer last season but this was her first time getting to display her own art. She said she has felt very welcomed and she has enjoyed getting to talk to different people at the art walk.
“I think that local art is so important and it’s something to be treasured because you can go to a big store and buy art but you can also contribute the same amount of money if not less by supporting local art, so I think it’s really important to kind of showcase that,” Neighbors said.
Neighbors is excited to see the implementation of the “Make and Take” option this season and is also looking forward to exposing children to art and encouraging creativity.
This season the Conway Art Walk also added the STEAM zone for kids. Available to grades K-12, kids are invited to participate in hands-on crafts and even join in on the musical entertainment. March 3, kids were able to drum in the collaborative drum circle, add to the chalk art on the sidewalk, and make their own dyed cotton ball art.
For those needing a break from the action, the VIP lounge at the Cross Creek Sandwich Show offered a destination to stop for a bite to eat and some live musical performances.
This season is set to run from March to October and recurs every first Friday of the month from 5:00-8:00 p.m. The next Art Walk will be held April 7.