Hot Springs is about to get its most theatrical night of the year. The Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance's Gala: POP returns Saturday, bringing immersive art installations, live performances and a tribute to a longtime local arts advocate to the Arlington Hotel.
The event is set for 7 p.m. in the Crystal Ballroom at the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa, 239 Central Ave., according to hotsr.com. The Alliance describes the black-tie gathering as a fully immersive evening built around pop-up visual art displays, live entertainment, music, runway-style performances and both silent and live auctions. As KATV reports, the night is designed around immersive experiences, live entertainment and a tribute woven directly into the program.
That tribute centers on Martha Smither, who will receive the 2026 Arts Ambassador Award. Smither is the founder and board president of Arkansas Learning Through the Arts, known locally as ALTTA, and the honor recognizes her work bringing young people and others into the arts, per the same KATV report. Alliance representative Allyson Pittman Gattin said Smither personifies the organization's mission, while Smither herself said she was excited and pleased to be honored, according to the station's account.
From Classroom Residencies to a Ballroom Stage
Smither's path to Saturday's spotlight runs through more than a decade of classroom work. ALTTA was formed in 2012 as a 501(c)(3) in Garland County, with Smither as president alongside co-founders Tom Bryant and Dorothy Morris. The organization says its mission is to improve student achievement by igniting students' interest in learning, delivering arts programming to Arkansas classrooms from Pre-K through grade 12.
According to KATV, ALTTA now works with 12 professional teaching artists who go into individual classrooms to spark interest and creativity among students. Those residencies, per youngaudiences.org, engage students through dance, music, poetry, theatre and visual arts. Smither has said arts education promotes the kind of creativity that helps students enter the workforce, KATV reports, and beyond ALTTA she serves on the Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild board and organizes the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Children's Concert in Hot Springs, according to hotsr.com.
Tickets, Funding and the Fine Print
Gala: POP functions as the Cultural Alliance's annual signature fundraiser, funded through a mix of sponsorships and ticket sales, with proceeds supporting the organization's broader programming, KATV notes. Individual tickets were listed at $250, according to hotsr.com, and the Alliance's own site, hotspringsarts.org, frames the night as a private, specially curated, unrepeatable event with limited tickets and sponsorships. Guests are expected to leave their phones out of the action, with no photos permitted inside the room, per KATV's reporting.
The evening's immersive elements include participatory art pieces, fashion, live art demonstrations and live musicians woven throughout the Crystal Ballroom, according to KATV. A similar fundraising formula played out in 2024, when ALTTA held a separate Poetry in Motion event featuring Janis F. Kearney, Kai Coggin, Amy Bramlett Turner and the Hot Springs Dance Troupe, with tickets running $75 per person or $600 for a table of eight, as reported by hotsr.com at the time.
A Year-Round Arts Calendar
Gala: POP is the splashiest stop on a calendar the Cultural Alliance keeps running throughout the year to promote arts and culture across Hot Springs, according to KATV. The Alliance also holds the monthly Gallery Walk, Arts in the Park and Art Springs, and its Spring Street Festival features family-focused activities and opportunities for children to create live art downtown, KATV reports. The organization additionally hosts quarterly network meetings where arts community members can connect, discuss upcoming events and make new contacts, per hsaca.org.
Tickets for Saturday's gala are available through the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance's website, according to KATV's report. For a community that has kept its Gallery Walk tradition alive for 37 years, per hotspringsarts.org, Gala: POP offers a once-a-year chance to turn that everyday arts scene into a black-tie spectacle at one of downtown Hot Springs' most storied addresses.
