Museum to fully reopen Saturday

The Calico Rock Museum & Visitor Center will officially reopen after a major expansion on Saturday,  at 10:00a.m. The museum has expanded into the historic Calico Rock Hardware Company building and now includes four historic buildings with approximately 20,000 square feet of space.

During the expansion, the museum doubled the size of the Sue McCluskey Memorial Birth of the Ozarks Gallery and expanded the history museum by 25%. The expanded history exhibits cover the 1970s-1990s on Trucking, Prison, Airport, CRIDC and economic development, the Train Depot, the Bootleggers movie, and the Doors of Main Street and the community’s revitalization efforts.

The new space afforded the opportunity to create the Ben Sanders Discovery Center that includes a comparison of early dwellings for Native Americans in the area from shelter caves to wikihuts, the Ozark Mountain Creekside Experience, pearling and shelling, farming, and weather.

The art center tripled in size with new galleries that allow the museum to showcase all of its 300 works of art in collection, including original works by Andy Warhol, Dale Tiffany, Dale Chihuly, Alice Neel, Thomas Hart Benton, and more.

The expansion project allowed the museum to create an accessible Archives and Research department, much-needed storage and work space for museum staff and volunteers, and the creation of additional meeting spaces and learning centers. It also afforded the opportunity to create office space for Main Street Calico Rock.

Main Street Calico Rock will be accessible by the public as the first door on Main Street after you cross the bridge. It will be a welcoming place that serves as a gateway for our downtown businesses and the partnership with the Calico Rock Community Foundation insure every business in town is served and represented. Aa always, admission is always free.