After years of volunteering for the Main Street Batesville program, Mandi Curtwright is now its leader.
Curtwright, 31, was hired as executive director for Main Street in late July. She replaces Shannon Haney, who was recently promoted in the Arkansas Army National Guard and stepped down as Main Street’s executive director.
“This is my hometown, so I understand the history of Main Street Batesville,” Curtwright said. “I’m excited to take on this role. It’s an opportunity to continue the work to serve the history and help shape the future of my hometown. I’m excited about where the journey leads.”
Suzanne Magouryk, president of the Main Street Batesville Board of Directors, said Curtwright has been active in the organization for years.
“She has been instrumental in our social-media presence, most of the graphic design and also had chaired a huge Main Street event — Motorcycles on Main — for two years,” Magouryk said. “We are very excited to have her come on board as our new executive director, and we are certain she will carry on the vision started by Robert Carius in 2013, when he agreed to come back as the Main Street Batesville president.”
Curtwright and her husband, Adam, along with partners Joe and Janelle Shell, own the Melba Theater on Main Street. They purchased it in 2014, and the theater reopened in August 2016.
“I worked at the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce for four years,” Curtwright said. “By being at the chamber, that’s how I got firsthand experience at being involved as a volunteer for Main Street Batesville. I started to develop a passion for it. It was during a time when our Main Street was badly in need of something.”
Magouryk said Curtwright being a business owner on Main Street is beneficial in her new position.
“She already knows our Main Street people, our events, our fundraising needs, and Main Street is close to her heart,” Magouryk said. “She has hit the ground running, and the Main Street Batesville board could not be more pleased.”
A new streetscape plan was started in 2014, and Curtwright was involved in its early planning stages.
“I was there for all the beginning stages of that revival,” she said. “Then in 2014, my husband I were presented with the opportunity to buy the Melba Theater. It was right in the middle of my volunteering for Main Street, and it being a turning point, we knew that if we bought that theater, the possibilities were endless for what the economy would be like downtown.
“We didn’t want to see [the Melba] go away, so we purchased it, then completely renovated it, and it reopened in August 2016.”
Curtwright said since the “film cutting” for the Melba, she had prospective business owners come to her and her partners, saying that if they could reopen the theater, then “we’re going to put in a restaurant down the street or we’re going to put in a boutique because you guys are going to be here now.”
After the Melba reopened, Curtwright accepted a graphic-design position with WRD Entertainment, a media public-relations company in Batesville.
“The opportunity [with Main Street] came when Shannon [Haney] was being promoted in the National Guard, and she didn’t have as much time to be in the office for Main Street,” Curtwright said. “The position came open, and [the board] met with me and asked if I’d be interested. Of course, I said yes because I love volunteering for Main Street Batesville. I had seen it go from its worst, … and I know it’s not at its best yet, but it’s getting there.”
Curtwright said some of her plans for the organization include using the outdoor event venues — Pocket Park and Maxfield Park. Pocket Park is the home to the Main Street Farmers Market during May through September. Maxfield Park has a meditation garden, a waterfall and native-stone landscaping.
“We have two awesome outdoor event venues. … We have some indoor ones, and they are used a lot,” Curtwright said. “What I’d like to see is events in those two outdoor venues a lot more and have a lot more of the festival environment and a place where the community would want to congregate and hang out downtown.”
Another thing Curtwright wants to focus on is the businesses that are already on Main Street.
“I feel like Main Street Batesville does a good job of getting businesses down here,” she said. “The revival is appealing to the people downtown. Sometimes we forget to continue to cater to them after they’ve been open. I’d also like to have more training and incentives. Programs are available for those who are business owners downtown.”
Curtwright has lived in Independence County her entire life. She graduated from Midland High School in Pleasant Plains in 2005.
“I grew up in Pleasant Plains, which is just a short drive from Batesville,” she said. “Batesville was always the town we went to to get anything done.”
She married Adam Curtwright in 2006 and moved to Batesville while they were attending the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.
The Curtwrights have three children: son Eli, 10; son Easton, 8; and daughter Ellie, 5.
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.