PAST PROJECTS

CACHE Studios was a multifunctional third space for creatives, performers, and neighbors alike. The venue served as a dynamic setting for countless cultural and arts events. CACHE Studios demonstrated the infinite possibilities that artists and organizations can realize in Bentonville.

The Municipal Arts Alliance convened five municipal leaders from Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Siloam Springs, and Springdale to address a need: as public spaces, cultural venues, and civic life are transforming across Northwest Arkansas, cities are seeking to foster an inclusive creative ecosystem and to invest in character of place.

The Municipal Arts Alliance was an initiative of CACHE, with support from the Walmart Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and participating municipalities. It is designed and facilitated by F. Philip Barash, a recognized leader in place-based learning. Bringing the RedBall Project—the world’s longest running street art work—to Northwest Arkansas was the Municipal Arts Alliance’s culminating project.

OZCast explored the relationship between our fundamentally creative human nature and the resilience that affords us, as individuals and communities. Our narrative arc unfolded in five acts: Inhabit, Gather, Exchange, Conflict, and Balance.

Developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, we discovered new artistic, personal and social processes as we lived with isolation and turbulence, re-entered and reengaged our wider communities in new ways, and eventually re-imagined a new world of challenges, opportunities, heartbreaks and connections.

CommsCon 2024 convened creatives, and arts and culture nonprofit organizations for two days of community building and communications skill development. CommsCon was hosted in partnership with the Fayetteville Public Library, the University of Arkansas Office of Career Connections, Fulbright College, and School of Art, KUAF, and the Walton Arts Center.

NWA Coda brought together a coalition of eight music Northwest Arkansas nonprofits, including the House of Songs, City Sessions, Black Fret, the Music Education Initiative, NWA Jazz Society, Music Moves Arkansas, the Teen Action and Support Center (TASC), and Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation dedicated to strengthening core competencies for nonprofit organizations and common areas of need such as DEIA, board and leadership development, financial sustainability, and communications and storytelling. 

Since 2021, Groundwaves has gathered MCs from across the region with legendary West Coast rapper Murs for six-month seasons of community, creative collaboration, and career development. Open mics and cyphers, one-on-one mentorship with Murs, “best of” regional showcases, and national festival performance opportunities – all have combined to help Northwest Arkansas artists up their game via regular collaboration and constructive critique.

Through this partnership, CACHE—led by independent curators Leah Grant and Mac Murphy—and the team at Ledger selected 35 regional artists who each outfitted a designated area of the building including common spaces, nooks, and meeting rooms. This living art collaboration is a true reflection of downtown Bentonville and the opportunity for Ledger to be a creative landscape for the community.

Famous Hardware art installations made art accessible to the Springdale community and created new experiences for people visiting the city’s downtown. Over the course of one year, four artists—Nicole Banowetz, Amelia Briggs, Risa Puno, and Balnka Amezkua—installed works that were visible from the sidewalk in front of the building were a partnership between CACHE and the Downtown Springdale Alliance, with support from the Tyson Family Foundation.

FORMAT Festival is a three-day multidisciplinary festival combining music, art, and technology. In 2022, CACHE connected festival organizers with Northwest Arkansas performing and visual artists, assisted with the RFP for the festival’s entryway gate, and hosted an afterparty at CACHE Studios in Bentonville.

CACHE, the Arkansas Arts Council, and Arkansans for the Arts partnered to conduct the sixth Art and Economic Prosperity study on behalf of the state of Arkansas. This study, led by Americans for the Arts, demonstrates the significant economic and social benefits that arts and culture bring to their communities, states, and the nation. By measuring arts and culture’s wide-ranging impact, public and private sector leaders can work together to secure funding and arts-friendly policies that shape more vibrant and equitable communities.

This week-long virtual series focused on key techniques for small to midsize nonprofits with little to no development and fundraising staff. Topics included Grantwriting, supporting BIPOC-identified fundraising professionals, and collaboration and mentorships.

What do you get when you bring together eight different artists, each a master of their own practice, and let their visions combine in a night of never-before-seen performances?

COLLISION—and it is spectacular.

Collisions was an exploration of process, exchange, and play. This collaborative performance experience invited eight local artists to create and perform together for one night only. Presented in collaboration between the Momentary and CACHE, artists were paired together based on their individual practices and interests, as well as how they might complement or challenge one another. The outcome? Together, the artists’ practices merged into a 15-minute set, performed three times over the course of the night and across the Momentary.

Plains Exchanges was a platform created by Tulsa-based artist Shane Darwent to foster creativity, collaboration, and audience sharing between Southern Plains and Western Ozark artists. Plains Exchange’s inaugural Summer 2023 programming facilitated a one-to-one artist exchange between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Northwest Arkansas.

Antonio Andrews of No Parking Studios brought his Tulsa-based creative practice to Springdale, Arkansas for a two-week residency at The Medium.

The Tulsa Artist Fellowship hosted Fayetteville-based photographer and educator Aaron Turner, providing him with housing and a studio in the Fellowship’s Archer building in downtown Tulsa. Both artists were connected to their respective communities through coordinated studio visits, museum tours, and local field excursions.