BIG IDEAS
USE DISTANCE LEARNING TO RAISE THE CEILING FOR HIGH SCHOOL ACHIEVERS
A PURSE MUSEUM FOR SOMA BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK
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BY CALVIN SMITH
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BRIAN CHILSON
nita Davis, creator of the Bernice Sculpture Garden (a public park on private land at 1401 S. Main St.), restorer of buildings just south of the garden and mastermind of the cornbread man mural that increases the joy factor in The Root restaurant parking lot at 1500 S. Main, can be credited with much of the new life along Main Street south of Interstate 630. It’s been a boon to the Southside Main Street (SOMA) goals, with the sculpture garden providing a stage for Arkansas artists, a home for the new Cornbread Festival and a farmer’s market in summer and the renovations attracting the Green Corner Store, StudioMain and Boulevard Bread Co. to the block. Next year, Davis will add to the mix a museum that should attract everyone who loves a handbag and history, an exhibit that reveals female identity in the 20th century — as Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” illustrated the life of a soldier, so will Davis’ purses illustrate women’s history. Davis’ purse collection — which now totals around 2,000 — has been on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum and Smith Kramer has toured an exhibition of the collection for five years all over the country, from Sacramento to Columbia, S.C. While they were on the road, Davis turned her energies to SOMA. “I thought I was over purses,” she laughed. “This [SOMA] was so much more.” “Then these huge crates of purses came back,” after the tour, Davis said. They were curated, ready for display. The one-story building occupied by Stageworks, next door to The Root (nee the Sweden Creme drive-in), became available when the business moved to North Little Rock and Davis bought it, a museum in mind. The first change to the building: the cornbread man mural, by Steven Otis and Shannon Wallace, went up on its north wall, facing The Root; “I wanted to honor the cornbread festival,” Davis said,
DAVIS: ON THE LINE, invigorating South Main.
“and thought how fun it would be to have this silly thing up on the wall,” especially for children. Second: a renovation of the building as a museum, with the help of architect Kwendeche, artist Otis and historian Sara Drew. Davis is working on the collection to freshen it up, and hopes to have the museum open in late spring 2013. The collection will be one any woman can relate to, Davis said; rather than an exhibit of Gucci bags through the ages, “mine
is more what people would remember as what their mothers or grandmothers would carry,” along with contents that will remind viewers how women’s lives have changed, from calling cards and cigarette holders to condoms. SOMA’s generous idea person says her work on Main has been “the best thing I could have ever done for myself.” You can be sure culture seekers and downtown Little Rock will find it a good thing, too.
n the last decade, Arkansas has made significant strides in giving more high school students the opportunity to pursue higher education. Adequacy funding and the implementation of Common Core standards have helped ensure that all school districts, regardless of demographic make-up, provide students with a foundation of education necessary for them to pursue higher education. But that doesn’t mean all Arkansas high school graduates are equally prepared for college. What about students with abilities beyond what their schools offer? Every school, regardless of demographics, has students who are achieving to the highest reaches of their schooling. The problem is that achievement tops out too early for many kids. It’s not logistically possibly for some lower-achieving schools to offer the variety of AP and college-level courses that higher-performing ones do. The state Department of Education should embrace distance learning to reach high school students who are reaching their ceiling too early. Imagine, for instance, a physics professor at the University of Arkansas delivering a lecture through streaming video online or through the same Interactive Video Network Units UAMS uses between its Little Rock and Fayetteville campuses to schools across the state. One professor could reach scores of students scattered across the state. The high-speed fiber optic Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network already connects most of the state’s public universities and extends to all four corners of the state. We should expand it into high schools. Meanwhile, much distance learning technology only requires a basic Internet connection, and the University of Arkansas System is on its way to becoming a leader in distance learning technology. Why not piggyback on its efforts?
Calvin Smith is director of business development at UAMS Northwest campus. 22
DECEMBER 19, 2012
ARKANSAS TIMES