Summer Children's Theatre opens 2010 season June 23
The Arkansas State University Theatre will open the 2010 ASU Summer Children’s Theatre season with “The Absolutely Awesome Giant” by Bruce Shearer. The giant family had a new child, but he is short—so is he a giant, or isn’t he? The audience will travel down the road with the Absolutely Awesome Giant to meet singing snails, a boxing beetle, and maybe even a monster or two, with plenty of fun to be had and plenty of audience participation in store. All performances will be held at Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro. Performance dates are Wednesday, June 23, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Thursday, June 24, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; and Friday, June 25, at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. For details, see the NewsPage release.

Shoults awarded Phi Kappa Phi literacy grant
Lenore Shoults, assistant director, ASU Museum, was awarded a 2010 literacy grant by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She is one of 12 recipients nationwide to receive such an award. Through this literacy grant, a Family Reading Castle area designed to encourage literacy through parent and child reading time will be established in the museum and online. A read-along version of nursery rhymes, based on a collection of handmade Mother Goose dolls in the museum’s collection, will be displayed in a castle tower window. Additional imagination triggers in the interactive area include a tuffet and a drop-down spider, puppets, and books. Members of Phi Kappa Phi’s ASU chapter will conduct a media campaign to promote the literacy initiative. The Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grants program was initiated in 2003 to provide an opportunity for campus chapters and individual members to reach out to local communities to share with them the love of learning. Drawing from a multi-disciplinary society of students and scholars from large and small institutions located in both urban and rural communities, applicants are encouraged to consider literacy projects that have creative relevance to their disciplines and to the needs of their communities. Phi Kappa Phi has awarded more than $150,000 in literacy grants. For more information on Phi Kappa Phi, call 1-(800) 804-9880, or visit www.PhiKappaPhi.org, or see the NewsPage release.

Moffitt new contact for building liaisons
Philip Moffitt will assume the duties of the Facilities Management coordinator for university building liaisons and customer service representative since the retirement of Lanny Tinker on June 2. Building liaisons can contact Philip Moffitt with any questions or concerns at ext. 4692 or by e-mail (pmoffitt@astate.edu). Contact Moffitt for any building that will have a liaison transferring to another department or terminating employment with the university to make sure another liaison is appointed for creating service requests online.

ASU, Dyess, co-host town meeting June 24
ASU and the city of Dyess will co-host a town meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 24, to discuss a proposed Dyess Colony master redevelopment plan. The meeting will be held in the Dyess Community Center Auditorium, Arkansas Highway 297, in Dyess. The university was directed by the 2009 Arkansas General Assembly to work with the city of Dyess to examine the feasibility of developing the heritage tourism potential of the community, one of the earliest cooperative agricultural resettlement projects during the Great Depression. National attention was focused on the Dyess Colony when Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1936, but more recently it has attracted attention as the boyhood home of Johnny Cash. Results of the year-long study, conducted for Arkansas State University by John Milner Associates of West Chester, Pa., will be presented for comments and questions from anyone with an interest in the former Dyess Colony or the community’s association with Johnny Cash. As a first step toward implementing the plan, Arkansas State University has recently received a $337,888 grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council for Phase One of the restoration of the historic federal Administration Building and adjacent theatre façade in the Dyess Colony circle. Upon completion of restoration, the building will house Dyess municipal offices, along with exhibits developed in conjunction with the Heritage Studies PhD program at Arkansas State University. For details, contact Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director, Arkansas Heritage SITES, at ext. 2803, or see the NewsPage release.

Back to the top