Getting arts co-op up, running is tough work
‘Blood, sweat, tears’ go into summer classes

By Casey Munck
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Monday, July 12th, 2004

Organizers of the Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative’s free school have learned to live with a few quirks while working to bring art to the masses.

Three flights of creaky stairs lead up to the sewing workshop classroom, where electrical outlets line just one side of the room.

The break-dancing class — which found a practice space the day of the first workshop — meets in a steamy room without air conditioning.

And the cooperative’s free school fund-raising events were yard sales, a rock-and-roll bingo and punk rock shows at a pizza parlor.

"We’re just artists and musicians, regular people," said one of the cooperative’s board members, Andy Burns, 27, of Little Rock. "We don’t have any high-paid executives. Inviting Arkansas hasn’t come to any of our [fund-raising] events."

But to the cooperative members, the ragged beauty of the group’s first series of community skills workshops in Little Rock this summer is laying the groundwork for bigger things.

And for those attending the workshops, the free classes provide an opportunity to indulge in the arts without the cost of instruction fees.

Organized by a board of 15 ex-punk rockers and more than 100 members, the cooperative began in 2001 with a goal of making art and music accessible to the community.

Class offerings include break dancing, beginning sewing, watercolor painting, creative writing, spoken word and music production.

"They filled up within a week," Burns said. "We really didn’t know what to expect."
So far, the group has scraped by on "blood, sweat and tears," to survive, Burns said. The instructors teaching workshops this summer are not paid.

Dillard’s fashion sketch artist Corri Bristow and fashion designer Amy McClain offered their time and sewing expertise for the co-op’s beginning sewing class, which meets Wednesday nights in July.

The Little Rock women lugged several heavy sewing machines up three flights of stairs at First Presbyterian Church at 800 Scott St. for the class.

McClain and Bristow laid out their arsenal of dress patterns, stitched fabric scraps and bright red pin cushions on a table filled with sewing machines for students to pick through and inspect.

"What you’ll probably be making is a simple top, a simple skirt, something fairly basic," McClain said.

Sewing class participants Sharee Brown and Tanya Parker, friends and fellow tax auditors, were thinking of stitching up something a little more elegant.

"Fashions by Sharee, we want to make a nice evening gown," Brown said.

"Something we can wear out on the town, Something kind of shiny, like satin — fancy," Parker said.

"With a little clingy in it," Brown said with a laugh.

For many of the cooperative members, the collaborative effort feels like deja vu, but without the fire-code violations in the former space they frequented called "Das Yutes A GoGo," a co-op housed in the old Malco Theater on Main Street in the mid 1990s.

"It was totally grass-roots and slightly disorganized but a beautiful endeavor," Burns said. "The fire marshal basically shut it down. It took five years for people to think we should try to do it again."

Besides the free workshops, the cooperative has started doing more community service and "random artsy stuff," Burns said. Recently, the group painted a mural on a North Little Rock wall and held a mosaic making workshop for children in the Central High School neighborhood.

At the "B-Boy 101: Breakdancing" class, about 30 hopeful dancers sweated inside the Kramer Art School’s auditorium to see and learn some dance moves from instructor Kid Stress, aka Emmit Elliott.

Three-year-olds, 20-somethings and 47-year-old housewives warmed up with stretches before "breakin" to hip-hop music spun by D.J. Max ‘J’, aka 33-year-old Dan Carter.

"I want to move," said Ginny Sims, a 26-year-old Little Rock artist and waitress.

Sims hopped right in the middle of class and began emulating Kid Stress’ robotic pops, locks and backspins across the shiny auditorium floor.

After spinning on their backs, head and legs for over an hour, the class left the hot auditorium sweaty, tired and happy.

Co-op directors hope to one day house a real working organization with practice space, a gallery and classrooms. The group received nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service in 2002. The group meets in the third floor room at the church on Scott Street, Burns said.

Their dream of having a coop building is closer, he said.

"We’re shooting for at least being at the point where we could make a leap of faith and take out an investment for a building within a year," Burns said.

"Getting people to know about us is good. Encouraging more people to know how to do creative stuff is better," Burns said. "It’s not going to change the world, but it’s something."