U of A Projects Funded by Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council

Photo by Russell Cothren

Old Main portico to be restored

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council approved three University of Arkansas grant requests of over $1 million. The funds will be available to on July 1, the start of the 2016 fiscal year.

The council approved a $700,000 grant to repair and renovate the east side entrance to Old Main – the building’s historic “front door.” 

A $200,000 grant will be used to resurface the trails in the Garden of the Pine Winds at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs. Plans also call for construction of a deck over the Koi pond. The Garden of the Pine Winds was voted eighth-best Asian garden in North America by the Journal of Japanese Gardening.

An additional $142,000 grant was approved to the U of A Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies to expand its 3D interactive website devoted to the vanished Arkansas town of Davidsonville. The once flourishing town was founded on the banks of the Black River in 1815, but began to decline in 1830; almost nothing remains of it above ground. CAST designers have worked with the Arkansas Archeological Survey to create a virtual Davidsonville, online. The grant will enable designers to add buildings to the website, providing visitors with a virtual tour of the town as it may have been on a summer day in 1824.

“We greatly appreciate the council’s generosity in funding these – and many other projects at the U of A over the years,” said Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor for facilities. “They have limited resources, and a great many worthy projects to choose from. Since their beginning in the early 1990s they have provided a number of these grants, making it possible for the university to continue our mutual efforts to preserve the history and beauty of this uniquely Arkansas resource.”

“I also greatly appreciate the work done by our own university teams led by Jay Huneycutt with campus planning, Jack Cothren from CAST and Bob Bledsoe at Garvan Woodland Gardens as well as Scott Leonard, Steelman Connell & Moseley in preparing and presenting these grant proposals.”

The Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council was created by the state legislature to manage and supervise a grants and trust fund for projects that protect and maintain state-owned natural areas, historic sites, and outdoor recreation. The grants are funded through the state's real estate transfer tax.