DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about the Cultural Activities Center in Temple, Bell County. Now, some stories start with a single spark. This one starts with a violinist and a vision.
Cast your mind back to the 1950s — a time when something was stirring across the whole country, a national upsurge in the arts. And out in Temple, Texas, that wave had good soil to land on. The town was growing after the war, and it had a community history of supporting the arts already in its bones.
All it needed was somebody with the nerve to pull it all together. That somebody was Nora Lee Wendland. Born in 1896, a classically trained violinist, and at the time president of the City Federation of Women's Clubs.
She wasn't thinking small. She envisioned a festival of the arts — her words — and she moved on that vision. She established a Cultural Arts Committee, and that committee organized the first festival in April of 1958.
Just like that, something that had only existed in one woman's imagination was real and happening in the streets of Temple. The committee didn't stop there. That same year, it expanded and started working with citizens and local groups to build something lasting — organized programs, a real structure, a center.
Seven original groups came together under that roof: the Youth Activity Center, which handled both a Children's Library and an Employment Agency; the Old Central Players; the League of Contemporary Arts; the Artisans' Guild; the Temple Camera Club; the Community Chorus; and the Temple Civic Orchestra. Seven groups, each one doing something different. That right there is what they mean by multi-disciplinary.
They called it the Cultural Activities Center. The CAC. And what they built together that year in 1958 planted roots deep enough to make the CAC one of the oldest multi-disciplinary arts organizations in all of Texas.
Now, the CAC moved around over the years — housed in a variety of locations, as the marker puts it. From 1965 to 1977, it called a former church building home. Then came something better: the Azalee Marshall Cultural Activities Center, dedicated in 1978, built to replace it.
And the work kept spreading outward. The CAC's service organization, known as the Contemporaries, largely operated outside the building itself — out in the schools, where members went and staged arts programs for the kids. Bringing the art to the people, not waiting for the people to come to the art.
Here's the thing about something that works: it becomes a model. Other communities looked at what Temple had built and started building their own. The CAC spun off the Temple Civic Theatre.
It spun off the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum. What started as one woman's festival of the arts grew into an institution that kept generating new institutions. Nora Lee Wendland passed in 1988.
But that first festival she organized back in April of 1958 never really ended. The Cultural Activities Center is still there in Temple, still at the forefront of artistic life in Bell County. Turns out a violinist with a vision can change the sound of a whole community.
What the marker says
Organized in 1958, the Cultural Activities Center (CAC) in Temple is among the oldest multi-disciplinary arts organizations in Texas. During the 1950s, there was a national upsurge in the arts, which coincided with Temple’s post-war population growth and community history of support for the arts. Among the women responsible for starting the center was Nora Lee Wendland (1896-1988), president of the City Federation of Women’s Clubs and a classically trained violinist. She envisioned a “festival of the arts” and established a Cultural Arts Committee, which organized the first festival in April 1958. The committee expanded that year and began working with citizens and local groups to organize programs for Temple. The seven original groups were the Youth Activity Center (Children’s Library and Employment Agency), Old Central Players, the League of Contemporary Arts, the Artisans’ Guild, the Temple Camera Club, the Community Chorus, and the Temple Civic Orchestra. The CAC was housed in a variety of locations, including a former church building from 1965-77, and its replacement, the Azalee Marshall Cultural Activities Center, which was dedicated in 1978. The contemporaries, the CAC’s service organization, largely operated outside of the organization’s building, visiting schools where members staged arts programs. As a groundbreaking institution, the CAC became a model for similar centers in other communities. It also spun off the Temple Civic Theatre and the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum. Today, the Cultural Activities Center remains at the forefront of artistic activities in Temple and throughout Bell County.