Local entrepreneurs Laura Provance and Meganne Rosen O’Neal have pulled their different talents together to create a Springfield boutique.
Provance and O’Neal shared how their life experiences and expertise contributed to the formation of their downtown business Arts & Letters in a recent interview with The Scoop.
Provance brings the ‘Letters’ half of the name.
“Laura is really the ‘Letters’ half of Arts & Letters because she is fluent in five languages and teaches language lessons here in the evenings,” O’Neal says.
Provance explained that she was never very interested or invested in the arts until she attended Truman State University where she became interested in the study of ancient history of Greek and Roman art.
“I came from a very sporty family, so I was always involved in basketball and soccer. But I did like to read, and I liked music and theatre, too,” says Provance, who now puts her language skills to use by teaching evening classes. “I teach French, Italian, and Latin, which some students might be interested in learning.”
O’Neal provides the ‘Arts.’
O’Neal, a Drury University graduate, had a different outlook on the arts.
She is on the board of directors of the Springfield Regional Arts Council, co-founded the Idea X-Factory, and has been director of the LemonDrop. She also teaches in the Art and Design Department at Missouri State University. “I am super involved in the art scene,” she says.
When prompted to discuss her childhood as it related to art, O’Neal says: “My mom was an art teacher in middle school and high school; she is now the weaving instructor at Drury University, so she’s an artist and a teacher. Our house was always full of artwork. I was always drawing, painting, or creating something.”
Nowadays, O’Neal specializes in large-scale abstract, acrylic paintings and live-art displays, which you can often see at Arts & Letters.
Why did they choose to open Arts & Letters?
“We wanted to open in Springfield because we thought that it had so much potential and we want to see it culturally develop in music, art, and language,” says O’Neal.
Adds Provance: “This was a way to incorporate things that we are both passionate about and bring them to our hometown.”
What is there for students to get involved in?
Arts & Letters is not only a place to discover creations from local artists, but it also provides learning opportunities. Students can get involved with lessons at the facility such as different music lessons and language lessons. They can also get involved in topic-discussion nights while enjoying live music and a glass of wine.
And if they are wanting to delve into the visual arts, Laura had a suggestion just for them: “I think that the traditional and alternative figure drawings could be interesting to a lot of college kids which is held on the third and fourth Friday of every month.”
All information regarding classes and events hosted at Arts & Letters can be found on on the boutique’s website.
