NW Arkansas

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’re going deeper on Washington Regional’s new Cancer Support Home in Fayetteville.

Why it matters: The home is a free place to stay for people who live out of town but are receiving cancer treatment in the area.

This way, they don’t have to make several trips, which might be particularly taxing on someone going through chemotherapy or surgery. It also eliminates the need to pay for a hotel on top of medical bills.

The new building is a major upgrade from the former cancer support home on Woolsey Avenue.

One of eight rooms for overnight guests. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

Context: NWA serves cancer patients who live in the surrounding rural areas where treatment is more scarce. Patients who stay at the home are not necessarily Washington Regional patients. They typically travel from rural Arkansas, Missouri, or Oklahoma, says the home’s director of outreach services, Jason Kelly.

Details: The home has eight hotel-like rooms with bathrooms, a community kitchen, a room for counseling services and a sunroom with a patio.

The home also has a boutique complete with vanity mirrors and fitting rooms where patients can choose wigs, headscarves, mastectomy bras and prosthetic breasts — at no cost to them.

Kelly says he often sees patients meeting and talking with each other in the community kitchen.

Patients must have a support person, like a family member or friend, stay with them.

The community kitchen. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

Flashback: The cancer support home previously operated inside a house that was built more than 90 years ago. It only had four bedrooms, including three upstairs that were accessible by only stairs — not ideal for people going through cancer treatment.

Of note: This month, the home will provide free breast exams to the public (with an appointment) this Saturday.

The home's boutique gives patients a place to choose wigs, headscarves and more at no cost to them. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

See inside the new cancer support home in Fayetteville

The home is a free place to stay for people who live out of town but are receiving cancer treatment in the area.

The Cancer Support Home at 488 E. Longview St. in Fayetteville Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

Northwest Arkansas

News

A daily look at the most significant and interesting stories affecting Northwest Arkansas, written by local reporters.

Axios Northwest Arkansas

Designs are in the works for Bentonville Public Library’s expansion.

Why it matters: Bentonville residents want more out of the library. About 77% of Bentonville voters approved $4.97 million for the library in the April bond election.

Details: Site plans show a 28,555-square-foot addition to the existing 38,500-square-foot building — as well as some outdoor program space.

Feedback from the library staff and the public indicated large meeting room space is needed, Kristilyn Vercruysse of MSR Design said last week at a library meeting.

A community hub will have resources for local events and social services.

The design team is also looking to incorporate into the plans more study rooms, an activity room for all ages, more space for genealogy and makerspace.

The idea is to have spaces be as multifunctional as possible, Vercruysse said.

1 cool thing: Expect the library to embrace the arts and cycling communities. It will have a gallery space highlighting local artists, plenty of bicycle racks and outdoor space with drinking fountains for cyclists. 

What's next: Construction could start as soon as early 2023 and will likely take 16 months.

Go deeper: Read the full library needs assessment here.

Flashback: The Fayetteville Public Library completed a major expansion earlier this year. Read about it here.

Bentonville library's $14.9 million expansion includes art gallery and outdoor space

Bentonville residents want more out of the library. About 77% of Bentonville voters approved $4.97M for the library.

"Tall Grass" by Asia Ward. Photo courtesy of Oz Art NWA

Oz Art NWA has wrapped up installing six pieces of public art at Osage Park, which quietly opened in May, off of Southwest 16th Street in Bentonville.

How it happened: Oz Art is working to create a dynamic public art scene, curator Chad Alligood told Axios. Alligood wanted to choose pieces from a diverse group of artists and images “that activate something in the viewer,” he says.

Osage Park is a collaboration between Oz, the city of Bentonville and the Peel Compton Foundation. Public art was always part of the plan, Alligood says.

Déjà Vu by Chakaia Booker. Photo courtesy of Oz Art NWA

Details: Each work of art is related to one of three themes.

Nature: Tall Grass by Asia Ward and Garden Boats by Jennifer Torres

Aviation: Launch Intention by Griffin Loop and Flight by Bob Doster

Osage Park’s evolution from an unused wetland: Déjá Vu by Chakaia Booker and Fluttering Quilts by Greely Myatt

What they’re saying: "I wanted to make something that made me feel like I was a wetland creature looking up through the water at the tall grass," Ward says of her sculpture.

1 weekend thing: A free event to celebrate the new park, A Day at Osage Park, will take place 10am – 4pm on Saturday. Expect live music, art walks, wetland tours and food trucks.

See 6 new public art installations at Bentonville's Osage Park

Oz Art NWA has wrapped up installing six pieces of public art at Osage Park.

Things to Do

Several haunted houses are up and running and are here to scare you through Halloween weekend.

1. Nightmares Haunted House and Phantom 13 Bus Ride

About: This year's theme is "Back from the Dead." Proceeds go to the Bentonville Breakfast Lions Club. 

Details: 3706 NW Frontage Road in Bentonville. Open this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22–23 and Oct. 29–31. Tickets are $20–$30

About: The staff says this mortuary-turned-haunted house is too scary for kids under 13 most nights, but it’s a little less scary and more "little goblin"-friendly Halloween night and the night before.

Details: 136 E. Main St. in Gentry. Open this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22-23 and Oct. 29–31. Tickets are $7–$25. 

About: Family night is Oct. 28, and this one might be too scary to bring little kids any other night.

Details: 210 N. Main St. in Cave Springs. Open this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22–23 and Oct. 28–31. Tickets are $20–$50.

About: New addition this year — carriage rides with ghost stories.

Details: 17023 Chamber Springs Road in Siloam Springs. Open this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22–23 and Oct. 29–31. Tickets are $20. Buy them onsite or here under the date you want to attend.

About: On the outside, you see Lokomotion Family Fun Park. On the inside, you can enter a haunted house.

Details: 4520 N College Ave. in Fayetteville. Open this Friday through Sunday, Oct. 22–24 and Oct. 29–31. Tickets are $13. You can get them inside Lokomotion.

Do you know something we don't know? Email us at nwarkansas@axios.com and tell us if we missed a haunted house in Benton or Washington counties.

5 haunted houses to check out in NW Arkansas

Several haunted houses are up and running and will be here to scare you through Halloween weekend.

The Asylum Haunted House in Cave Springs. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

Halloween

Yes, I rode that exterior elevator up to the top. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

I put on a hard hat and took a tour of the under-construction Ledger in downtown Bentonville on Friday. Now I’m ready to tell you all about the massive project that’s impossible to miss.

Why it matters: The flexible coworking space was planned before the pandemic, but it couldn’t come at a better time given changes in working habits. Mary Best, who’s on the operations and community team for the Ledger, called it the "evolution of the coffee shop worker."

It'll be a place that startups can use while getting their businesses off the ground, where self-employed and remote workers can rent office space, and where business people from out of town can get some work done.

Coworking space exists in Benton County, but not on this scale.

1 cool thing: Perhaps the most glaringly unique part of this building is that you can ride your bicycle up to any floor — including its in-building coffee shop.

If Bentonville is going to proudly be the "mountain biking capital of the world," then a workspace like this should celebrate the bike community, Best and developer Josh Kyles tell Axios.

Stadium seating on the sixth floor is in the works. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios

Details: The Ledger will be six stories and 230,000-square-feet with a bar and retail space. It will be able to accommodate about 1,500 workers at full capacity.

It will include a variety of offices, such as coworking space and private offices of different sizes.

Workers will not commit to leases. Instead, the building will be membership-based, allowing people to pay for day or month passes, Kyles says.

Unlike most office spaces only open to the people who work there, the Ledger will be community-oriented, Best says.

The space will be open to some ticketed events. 

And the adjacent parking garage, a joint project between the Ledger and the city, will have an 80-foot mural painted on the side. (No, they wouldn't tell me what it'll be yet.)

Flashback: This was originally supposed to be a joint project between Kyles and WeWork, but WeWork is no longer involved.

What's next: The Ledger is expected to open summer 2022. It will at first only be open to a limited number of people to work out any kinks, Best says.

Also, I'm told there are a few more features up the Ledger's sleeve that the developers aren’t ready to share. Stay tuned.

Meet Arkansas' office of the future: Ledger

I put on a hard hat and took a tour of the under-construction Ledger in downtown Bentonville on Friday.

Alex Golden

Featured stories

Bentonville library's $14.9 million expansion includes art gallery and outdoor space

5 haunted houses to check out in NW Arkansas

Meet Arkansas' office of the future: Ledger

See inside the new cancer support home in Fayetteville

See 6 new public art installations at Bentonville's Osage Park