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108 East Madison Avenue Berryville, Arkansas 72616 |
Ozarts and the Grand View |
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Grand View Hotel Ozarts News, Columns, and Writing Pictures |
By Alexander Virden
Ozarts is Coming Home to the Grand View I have gotten a lot of feedback over my last column and the story in the Carroll County News. I would like to say thank you for all the supportive response. There were also comments of the other persuasion and I feel the need to discuss this as it leads into what’s happening next. This has been a very public project from the very beginning and the changes, we are making, are of such an extreme level, I felt I owed the county an explanation. Instead of having everyone trying to guess what was happening, I decided to just tell the truth about what was going on, and how we got to where we are now. I was not trying to make excuses and I did not mean to imply that anyone, other than myself, was responsible for our position. I want to set the record straight. If I had waited until my investment properties sold, to purchase the Ozarts Building, we would have been fine. Because when the properties failed to close, I wouldn’t have bought the building, and that purchase is why we’re in our present pickle. With all the interest in the revitalization of Berryville Square, I was afraid we would lose the building if we didn’t act. My mistake. To correct this, we have decided to move Ozarts into the Grand View Hotel and sell the Ozarts Building. Ozarts will become more integrated with the coffee shop. The artist gallery will move into the lobby and dinning room. This will also make it convenient to have openings and shows for artists and musicians. We will use the dining room as a recording studio for live performances and after hours recording sessions. The classroom couches and monitor are moving into a room in the lobby. This space will also be open to the coffee shop during regular hours and available for reservation. The new Ozarts space will be the commercial space next to the post office and this is where the computer animation and post production lab will be located. Once we have the ground floor open, Ozarts will begin to have regular meetings in the coffee shop. Sandra and I struggled long and hard over this decision. We had not come to grips with it yet, as of the last column, but it came down to the fact that we have a space in the Grand View that will work for Ozarts and we can’t make that same space, pay for the Ozarts Building. By doing this we cut the loan, on the hotel, by a third, dropping our costs considerably. It’s also one less insurance bill, property tax, utilities, phone, and one less business we have to run to support Ozarts, which is a community project. If you want to know how I feel about this, it makes me sick, but it comes down to economics and the health of the overall project. It strafes me, on another level, as well, because of all the work, and the money, we put into the Ozarts Building could have gone into the hotel. That just makes me groan and hold my stomach. But when you make a mistake it’s better to accept it and move on; if you spend all your time looking back, you’ll trip over what’s in front of you. The Ozarts Building is a great space. Location, size, flexibility, made it perfect, but with a little adaptation to the plan, Ozarts can do well in its new environs. The building did give birth to Ozarts and that will always make it special. Ozarts will be fine, it’s just moving down the street. We will continue to operate out of the Ozarts Building until it sells. If you are interested in purchasing the building, please contact me through Ozarts. It would be a great building for an artist who wanted to have a studio and a gallery, or someone interested in an antique mall could make a hefty sum at current area rates for mall space. Calling all Disk Jockeys and Bands! We are looking for disk jockeys for Friday and Saturday night dance parties and to be available for private events. Contact us and let us know what you’ve got. We want to have a lot of live music in the Grand View, so bands let us know your available. Artists: If you are an artist and you want to be considered for the Grand View opening, please contact us. OZARTS Ozarts is still looking for: Artists, Independent Publishers, Bands, musicians, potters. Please feel free to send me your questions by mail, or email.
Ozarts Center for the Arts 108 East Madison Avenue, Berryville. (Across from the post office.) Ozarts.org (870) 654-3231 Alexander@Ozarts.org Open by Appointment.
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