Listen in MP3 format

If you live in a small Ozarks community and find yourself having to travel long distances in search of musical performances and art exhibits, this might be the summer that puts fewer miles on your car and more entertainment in your neck of the woods. KSMU’s Chasity Mayes has more.
 

Opry-style performances and art exhibits featuring everything from 1930’s rodeo photographs to more than 150 vintage aprons…you might think we’re talking about Nashville or Branson but believe it or not, small towns around the Ozarks are getting the chance to experience the arts in their own backyards.

The Mid-America Arts Alliance, through a partnership with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, will host a summer arts series in five rural communities. The series, which focuses on visual and musical arts, will also include several special performances.

“What we’re really hoping to do is provide smaller communities with the opportunity to do some things that they may not have thought they could’ve ever done.”

That’s Randy Russell. He’s a senior program officer at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, and says the summer tour is somewhat of a teaching tool for the five communities.

“With the help of an organization like Mid-America [they’ll] be able to learn how to curate an exhibit, choose which types of things they might think would best fit their community, to market that within the community, and then choose a performance, deal with some of the contractual issues that are involved in doing those kinds of things,“ he said.

The five communities included in this year’s tour are: Shell Knob, Mountain Grove, Willard, Eldon, and Houston, Missouri. Each town chose the exhibit and performances it felt would be most interesting to its community. Some of the musical performers in this year’s series are Jim and Kim Lansford and Les Gillham. Their “Opry style” performances will take place in Shell Knob, Moutain Grove, and Eldon.

For more information visit our website: KSMU.org

For KSMU News, I’m Chasity Mayes.

www.cfozarks.org

Related Items: