It's been a bordello, a restaurant and now a visitors center...and it's one of our favorite spaces in the region. We spent an afternoon at Miss Laura's in downtown Fort Smith,
Ozarks At Large

The Arkansas Department of Human Services has released numbers that show thousands of low-income Arkansans have shown intent to sign up for the state's Private Option insurance plans. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families releases a report detailing inequality of enrichment opportunities between schools across the state. And furloughed work-study employees at Northwest Arkansas Community College returned to work this morning after a two-day suspension and before negotiations in Washington showed promise.


An effort to improve understanding in the classroom led to astonishing art.
Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers has still more Halloween events to tell us about today.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast comes back to Walton Arts Center this weekend and we talk with the set designer about what we see behind the characters.

Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, January 3, 2014
On this special edition of Ozarks at Large we listen again to some of our favorite stories from 2013, including: how to make it to age 100 in Huntsville, an odds-defying collaboration between a renown musician and Trike Theater and the creation of the Ozarks at Large quiche cup.
Fayetteville's fire department pulls out of a regional hazmat team, the University of Arkansas shuffles its offices that handle issues of intellectual property for the Fayetteville campus and for the UA System Division of Agriculture, and UAMS deals with an exposure of medical records for more than a thousand patients.
"Swimming The Blues" by Clark Terry
The purpose of public charter schools is to expand school choice, test innovation, and help raise grade-level proficiency--especially in low-performing minority districts. But as Jacqueline Froelich reports, critics say charters distress districts and segregate the best students.
A possible expansion in Medicaid will help determine the direction of the Arkansas budget during the next General Assembly. Roby Brock of our content partner Talk Business has more.
"Straight Up And Down" by Brian Jonestown Massacre
The 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville is a combination boutique hotel, art museum and restaurant, all modeled after the flagship 21c in Louisville, Kentucky. Each hotel has its own flock of unique sculptures.
Our monthly survey of theater in the area has a definite holiday theme. We spend some time backstage at the Arts Center of the Ozarks as the ACO preps for another production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"
"Deck the Halls" by R.E.M.