CALS’ Main Character Energy – Little Rock Soirée

After nearly two years of extensive renovations and a last-minute delay, the Central Arkansas Library System has reopened the doors of its Main Library to the public. The updated campus occupies the same space in Little Rock’s River Market District that it has for nearly 30 years, yet the familiar footprint has now been transformed and modernized, looking ahead to the patrons it will serve for decades to come.

The outline for this next chapter in CALS’ service to central Arkansas started with support from the community. In May 2022, nearly 70% of voters opted to reduce the capital-improvement tax rate in Little Rock, allowing CALS to refinance and eventually dedicate $29 million in public funds to the Main Library overhaul.

CALS board member and retired judge Audrey Evans is quick to highlight the board’s gratitude and focus on the community.

“I very much hope every voter knows how much we appreciate that they trusted us,” she says.

Set to roll off the board in December, Evans, an octogenarian, is thankful for her six years of service.

“In the world we used to live in, people my age were considered finished,” Evans says. “In the world I now live in, we have a voice and we have a mission and we care. We want to give back.”

Evans is a longtime supporter of libraries. Stemming from an early love of reading, her appreciation for CALS expanded during her career in bankruptcy law.

“The thing I love about the library,” she says, “it’s free. The ‘everything is free’ is very important to me not just for budgeting purposes, but also because CALS provides equal access to learning and knowledge for all people, young and old, affluent or those struggling to make ends meet.”

While public funds covered the vast majority of the renovation project, the final cost was $31 million, leaving a $2 million gap to be raised by private funds. To close that gap, CALS embarked on its very first capital campaign. Martie North, the senior vice president director of emerging markets at Cadence Bank, serves on the CALS Next Chapter Capital Campaign steering committee.

Credit: Jason Masters

North, like Evans, is an enthusiastic believer in the fundamental benefit of libraries and CALS.

“I firmly believe that libraries are central to the quality and well-being of communities,” she says.

Once the Main Library renovation plans were drawn, costs were set and the gap was discovered, North and the CALS team were not deterred, but determined.

“I knew the additional funds would not only enhance the visitor experience, but take it up to a next level of world-class facilities,” North says, describing how the committee took a grassroots approach, each member meeting one-on-one with people in their sphere. “Everyone knows somebody. And so it was like, who could we reach out to? Who would be willing to make that financial contribution and also be an ambassador for CALS? I think each one of us just brings to the table a different network.”

Lisa Ferrell, co-chair of the capital campaign committee and CEO and president of Rockwater Village and Marina, underscores just how community-driven their work has been.

“The beauty of this capital campaign is that we have gotten donations from a wide variety of people,” Ferrell says, “We’ve literally had a library patron mail in a dollar, which is a very meaningful gift, and then the estate of Judith Faust gave a gift of $400,000.”

These Next Chapter donors are well aware they’re investing in CALS’ continuing story.

“People are thinking ‘legacy,’ particularly when it comes to naming right opportunities,” North says. “When we shared all the things people may not have known the Main Library offered, like the meeting rooms and supportive services, it really helped open the minds and wallets of individuals to say that is something I would love to have my name associated with.”

The capital campaign committee raised $1.6 million by August 2025, about 80% of its goal. To help raise the remaining funds, the Windgate Foundation awarded CALS a $250,000 matching grant. Within days of the announcement, the community had already raised $50,000 toward the match.

“The support of the Windgate Foundation, our donors and the people of central Arkansas will enable CALS to provide a first-class library to meet the needs of the library patrons, especially children and teens,” Ferrell says.

The updated Main Library is indeed a world-class campus with thoughtful elements geared toward connection, creativity and continuing growth for generations of library patrons to come. Visitors are greeted by a new green space and updated entrance before even stepping into the library — elements that, to perceptive patrons, lend a clue to the theme behind every new detail. Thanks to the removal of the I-30 ramp just outside the Main Library in 2020, CALS was able to make a meaningful shift.

“The design of the redone building emphasizes connectivity,” Ferrell says, pointing to the added windows as a visual connection to the neighborhood. “I think it sends the signal that we’re outward looking as well as providing a place to view events of all kinds in the city.”

The theme of connectivity is continued inside the building with a central glass staircase replacing the old brick stairwell and lower book shelves for a more open feel throughout.

Patrons and staff will also enjoy the addition of a Boulevard Bread Co. cafe on the first floor. Other new features include two teaching kitchens, a production studio, expanded and upgraded meeting room options and, to top it all off, a new rooftop terrace.

“As far as I’m aware, there is no other place in the city where anyone can bring a laptop, a book or just their thoughts and look out over downtown below,” CALS Executive Director Nate Coulter says.

Also at the heart of the design is an expanded area for kids and teens with added technology, study rooms and, says North, “just safe spaces for kids to be.”

The new design increases the children’s and teen’s space by nearly 70% beyond what the previous building offered, divided between the first and second floors. The youth areas now include a children’s story time stage, wellness room, outdoor courtyard, teen makerspace and new programming rooms. These features help the Main Library stay current with community needs.

“Students that are too old for daycare or after care, but need a good, safe place to go after school, the library provides not only that place, but academic support, technology support and programming,” Ferrell says. “That service to the community is extremely meaningful.”

Beyond serving thousands of young patrons every year, the Main Library will continue to impact its immediate downtown neighborhood, central Arkansas and the entire library system.

“My hope is that, with the reopening of the new and expanded CALS Main Library, even more central Arkansans will see the library as their resource, using it regularly and sharing that experience with others so the whole community understands that CALS is our library,” says Kamara Neal, president of the CALS Board of Directors.

“With places to eat, spaces to meet and an amazing rooftop view of central Arkansas,” Neal says, “the new CALS Main Library will not only welcome back regular users, but will attract visitors and new and returning library users from our service area and beyond.”

It’s a fixture that has served not only as a crown jewel for CALS, but a hub for the surrounding area for decades with more on the horizon.

“The Main Library was instrumental in the development of the River Market 30 years ago when it was first put in,” Ferrell says, “and this renovation of the library will continue to inject life, people and a bedrock into the River Market community.”

North anticipates the vitality the project will draw into downtown Little Rock as a whole.

“I’m hoping that it further connects people to our downtown,” she says, “people who may have felt, ‘Oh, I don’t have a reason to come downtown that often.’ I’m hoping this will help change their minds.”

Credit: Jason Masters

For Evans, the library is a point of pride all central Arkansans can share.

“I think once people come to see it, they are going to be so proud. It’s going to be a destination, a reason to come. It’s the library of the future,” Evans says. “It will make the downtown shine.”

Main Library is the flagship branch of CALS’ 14 branches serving Little Rock, Maumelle, Jacksonville, Sherwood, Perryville and Wrightsville. The hope is that, as more people interact with the new building, it will enhance their awareness of the library system as a whole and spread more positive engagement into each neighborhood branch.

Coulter finds the Main Library a poignant indication of society’s most fundamental needs.

“The public library in downtown Little Rock will be a reminder of our shared values: connecting people, nurturing potential and building community,” Coulter says. “As an author who spoke recently at CALS said, ‘Everyone is hungry for meaning, everyone is hungry for wisdom, everyone is hungry for community, everyone is hungry for depth.’

“At a time when so many people feel alienated or isolated, we are grateful to the community for reinvesting public and private dollars in renewing and modernizing its flagship library, helping ensure CALS remains a place for discovery, exploration and belonging.”

For Evans, the project brings something simple, yet invaluable — joy.

“I’m most excited to go to the new library, get a book and just sit there and watch people come and go,” she says. “It will give me so much happiness.”

CALS Main Library Reopening Celebration
Oct. 4, 10 a.m.
Info: cals.org/main2025

---

PHOTOGRAPHY
JASON MASTERS
HAIR & MAKEUP
LORI WENGER
ON LISA:
CLOTHING
B.BARNETT
JEWELRY
SISSY’S LOG CABIN
SHOES
DILLARD’S
ON AUDREY:
CLOTHING
BARBARA/JEAN
ON MARTIE:
CLOTHING
B.BARNETT
JEWELRY
SISSY’S LOG CABIN

---