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Maybe part of the credit could go to a little beach-ball-sized chunk of metal flying through the stratosphere and a post-war community yearning to give life a creative side.
Sputnik and the Cold War more than a half century ago could take some recognition for the absolute exultation of art springing full blown from children’s imaginations at the Azalee Marshall Cultural Activities Center April 7-May 2.
The 20th century radically changed when the Soviet Union blasted the Sputnik satellite in October 1957. And, just six months later in April 1958, it was the impetus for a twinkling idea for an arts festival, launched by a grandmother and a young mother – Nora Lee Wendland and Raye Virginia Allen. Their idea soon soared two years later into the Cultural Activities Center, now regarded as the oldest multi-disciplinary arts center in Texas.
Temple, with its solid reputation in medicine, had a firm grounding science and technology education. The city’s population expanded 90 percent in the 1950s, thanks to expanding industries, the post-World War II baby boom and stable economy based on medicine and nearby Fort Hood.
Sputnik and Cold War worries increased the emphasis. However, Mrs. Wendland recalled earlier decades in the 1920s through the 1940s, when Temple was an artistic oasis on the Blackland Prairie. “There was a time when Temple had its own community orchestra, sponsored national art exhibits, had little theater groups and placed emphasis on all of our cultural arts,” she said in 1957. Feeling that Temple residents wanted those same creative attractions, she wanted to link the cultural arts hand-in-hand with the sciences.
“We were very aware of what was happening [in current events],” Mrs. Allen, the CAC’s co-founder, said recently, recalling 50 years ago. “We knew parents wanted to increase interest in science and math. But other people were concerned: Were we going to just emphasize science and technology and ignore the arts? So, there was new enthusiasm for the arts and humanities.”
The two women were a generation apart in age, but they were contemporaries in their vision and drive. Mrs. Wendland, a classically trained violinist and string teacher, had been active in the arts since her marriage to Robert Wendland in 1924. A former president of the Texas and National Federation of Music Clubs, she headed the Young Artist Auditions and founded Temple’s Community Concert Series in the 1930s.
By 1957, the Temple City Federation of Women’s Clubs nominated her to be its president, but Mrs. Wendland balked. The City Federation was the umbrella organization for more than a dozen women-only clubs - ranging from gardening and civic improvement to bridge and book clubs. Mrs. Wendland was interested in revitalizing the public schools’ string program. “I thought maybe this was the beginning, maybe we could get something for the whole family and not just for women,” she said in 1978. So, she accepted the City Federation gavel and named Mrs. Allen, a young banker’s wife and mother of toddlers, as her fine arts chairman.
The two women met with Temple Mayor Roy Strasburger, Chamber of Commerce president Afton Schulz, First Christian Church pastor the Rev. Howard Johnson and Temple Daily Telegram’s managing editor Harry Blanding. The idea was simple – they would have an arts festival designed to complement the Federation’s annual Barclay Fine Arts Awards. Most of all, they wanted an event open to men, women and children of all ages who could celebrate the arts and their own creativity.
But the two women needed to complete three other Federation projects before the arts festival could happen: enlarge the clubhouse on King Circle to accommodate the audience; air-condition the clubhouse; and initiate senior citizen community volunteer program helping Fort Hood soldiers and other civic projects, which would include the arts festival. Mrs. Wendland also wanted to include men in the senior citizen volunteer program, but there was a big snag. Men could not join the Federation, but an eventual compromise allowed them to enter the clubhouse through the back terrace.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Allen parlayed her public relations skills and family contacts to stir up enthusiasm in the community. She met with civic, social and school groups to build coalitions. Between January 1958 and the arts festival in April, seven organizations were formed to assist or to participate in the festival: Temple Camera Club, Temple Symphony, Temple Civic Chorus, Old Central Theater (precursor to the Temple Civic Theatre), Artisan Guild, League of Contemporary Arts and the Youth Activities Center and Library.
With the groups in place and the community support, they scheduled a three-day arts festival at the City Federation Clubhouse, featuring local artists and activities for children and adults. Each member group participated with performances, demonstrations or exhibits. The three days were a rousing success. “We saw that a great hunger existed,” Mrs. Allen. “The thing just mushroomed.”
Despite the festival’s success, the City Federation could not undertake such a large event annually. Mrs. Allen again met with various community groups to establish a permanent organization to coordinate the festival. On July 21, 1958, the Cultural Activities Center was incorporated. Temple Independent School District allowed the CAC to rent for $1 annually the former Central High School building abandoned when a new school opened.
By January 1961, the burgeoning CAC moved to new headquarters, in a 1890s vintage school building, the former Wedemeyer Academy, 2311 West Avenue J. The CAC offered classes and activities for adults and children in art, drama, music and literature, including the Temple Boys Choir, a community theater and exhibits. Within three years, the CAC had outgrown that location and moved in November 1964 to the former 7th and G Church of Christ, which had moved to become Western Hills Church of Christ. That’s where the arts and the CAC flourished. In 1968, the CAC was one of 11 organizations statewide to get matching funds from the Texas Fine Arts Commission to hire a professional director. Over the years, the CAC caught the attention and admiration from larger cities
Twenty years after its founding, the CAC, renamed the Azalee Marshall Cultural Activities Center, opened in its $1.2 million building at 3011 N. Third, designed expressly for a multi-disciplinary art center, with studios, auditorium, practice halls and galleries.
During the 1978 opening, David Rockefeller Jr., then chairman of the Arts, Education and Americans Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, keynoted a three-day symposium on arts education to more than 500 attendees. He described the city as a “model community” in its commitment to a multi-disciplinary and multi-generational approach to the arts.
“It looks as though Temple read the book before we wrote it,” he said.
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