A day wasn't enough
Monday is Louis and Elsie Freund Day, but Eureka Springs loves them so much that it’s a month long.
The Freunds were the heart of a group of 20th-century artists and writers who made the city into an arts destination. The city proclaimed July 6 as their day because it was their wedding anniversary.
However, events will be held in their honor all month.
Both the Eureka Springs Historical Museum and the Museum of Eureka Springs Art have special exhibits up. This is a rare chance to see works by the Freunds that have never been publicly displayed before.
The historical museum found a 1987 audio cassette recording of Louis in their archives. In it, he discusses American Scene Painting, the style he used in his Depression-era murals. He revisited that style when he designed the city’s iconic 1979 centennial mural on Main Street.
The museum will present the digitized and restored audio at 6PM Monday at the Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library, with a photo slideshow.
At 4PM Thursdays all month, Main Street Eureka Springs offers free downtown walking tours for locals with a 72631 or 72632 ZIP code. Show up at Basin Park for a fun escape to the past.
Prolific cookbook and children’s author Crescent Dragonwagon, who was close to the Freunds, will give two talks on Sunday, July 12.
The first, on what the Freunds taught her about mentorship, will be part of the 11AM service at the Eureka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Starr Mitchell and George West will perform “As Time Goes By,” the Freunds’ song, on dulcimer and fiddle. A buffet lunch will be provided afterward, featuring some of Elsie’s recipes.
Head to the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow for Crescent’s second talk, “Don’t Piss It Away and Other Lessons in Life, Love, Art-Making & Community from Louis & Elsie Freund,” at 4PM. Mitchell and West again perform first. Tea and gingerbread will be served–Elsie’s recipe, of course.
My upcoming book, Welcome to Eureka Springs: The I-Sh*t-You-Not History of America’s Quirkiest Town, has a chapter about the Freunds. An excerpt from that chapter will be available as a pamphlet at the Writers’ Colony and both museums.
I also plan to read that chapter at this month’s Poetluck, which starts at 6PM Thursday, July 16, at the Writers’ Colony.
By then, I’ll have announced the book’s launch date.