Downtown Springdale Alliance is collaborating with property owners, curator Dayton Castleman, and local artists to activate the windows at the Famous Hardware building located at 113 West Emma in Downtown Springdale.
The art installations will take place throughout the year and are intended to make art accessible to our community. Each installation will be overseen by Dayton Castleman and feature a different artist.
Dayton Castleman, a conceptual artist based in Northwest Arkansas and Director of Visual Thinking at Verdant Studio, a Rogers-based firm focused on art and architecture, is a natural fit for this collaboration. His work has been largely focused on site-specific installations in architectural and public space for the past 16 years, most recently as Museum Manager at 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville.
“The sidewalk window galleries of Famous Hardware provide rotating access to new art and artists in downtown Springdale amid the pandemic. They create a community cultural space by moving the social realm of the gallery outside,” says Dayton Castleman. “The limited vantage point of the storefront spaces resembles little ‘theaters’ for visual art.”
The first artists to be featured are Dawn Holder of 
Clarksville, Arkansas and Bethany Springer of Fayetteville, AR. Holder is a sculptor and installation artist who investigates elements of landscape and their socio-cultural significance. Springer’s sculptures focus on humanity and our relationships with the self.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Dayton and to showcase these high-quality, thought-provoking artists and their artwork in our downtown public spaces,” says Jill Dabbs, Executive Director of Downtown Springdale. “We love providing our community with access to unique and memorable experiences.”
The art installations will be translated in Spanish and Marshallese. They will be in place mid-February through early May.
ABOUT DOWNTOWN SPRINGDALE ALLIANCE: Downtown Springdale Alliance is a nonprofit that was formed in 2011 with a mission to create vibrancy in our dynamic downtown. For more information, visit www.downtownspringdale.org.
