Happy To Be Home
I have to confess, I’m very much the “I could live here” guy when traveling. Whether it’s the mountains or a sunny island, I get wrapped up in the wanderlust of it all. Usually by day three, when the jet lag has worn off and the vacation buzz is at its peak, I start thinking “I wonder what that house goes for…”
On our most recent trip, we took advantage of an already-scheduled conference to make a little Orlando vacation out of it. We were even able to take our little boy to Disney World for the first time. You might be thinking the same as our server at dinner our last evening who called my wife and me a “couple of crazies” for bringing a seven-month-old to Disney, and you’d be forgiven. But we danced with Mickey, watched Moana parade down Main Street, and helped Buzz Lightyear defend the known Toy Story universe from Zurg and his alien minions. I even got to tell a Storm Trooper, “This is not the baby you’re looking for,” which was a dad joke, all-time highlight for me.
All in all, our boy loved every minute of it and we got a huge kick out of watching him enjoy it. So much so that I thought—for a very brief moment—that it would be nice to be able to visit those parks as often as a local. By the end of the week, though, we were all ready to be home. And even though we left behind sunny, 70-degree weather for a cold, rainy day when we landed back at XNA, we were so happy to be back in Northwest Arkansas.
Because as much as we cherish the photos of the trips we’ve taken, it’s between the walls where they’re hung that we make our lives. It’s where we grow, laugh, celebrate, and grieve.
As I write this, the baby is in the kitchen, feeding his noodles to the dog instead of eating them and I can hear my wife giggling at him. The cat is somewhere and our other two pups are lounging on the daybed in the next room. I’m surrounded by the people, pets, and things I love. As you read this, I hope you are too.
WYATT LAYMAN, PUBLISHER
@BENTONVILLECITYLIFESTYLE
March 2025
PUBLISHER
Wyatt Layman | wyatt.layman@citylifestyle.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Michelle Bazis | michelle.bazis@citylifestyle.com
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
Claire McFarland
Corporate Team
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
COO Matthew Perry
CRO Jamie Pentz
CTO Ajay Krishnan
VP OF OPERATIONS Janeane Thompson
VP OF FRANCHISE DEVELOPMENT Erika Smiley
AD DESIGNER Matthew Endersbe
LAYOUT DESIGNER Amanda Schilling
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Hannh Leimkuhler
Thaden’s
are dedicated to providing quality services in a welcoming, friendly environment, and we are committed to fostering creativity, passion, and innovation in everything we do. Above all, we are guided by a deep sense of compassion and respect for our clients, and we continually work to add value to each and every interaction.
Photography by Michelle Bazis
4-8: Peter Compton Foundation 150th Anniversary Celebration. Photography 4-7: Peter Compton Foundation and 8: Michelle Bazis
DON’T JUST TAKE MY WORD FOR IT TAKE THEIRS!
“Loved working with Lily! She is definitely on her toes with every aspect of real estate as my buying agent and selling agent. We completed at least 12 transactions together in NWA before we moved back to Nebraska. Hire her!! “
-Jeremy and Amber
“Lily was literally the BEST realtor we’ve ever worked with. She was knowledgeable, professional and accommodating in everything regarding the sell of our home. She put us first in all decision making and made the process as stress free as possible. If you ’ re looking for a realtor PLEASE use Lily Dighero. She truly is the best in the game, I can’t recommend her enough. We are so blessed to have been connected with her!”
-Taylor and Paymon
Life looks better in KREWE
Linda Stubblefield Publishes New Book: “Tell Them Why”
Bedrock Asset Management’s Linda Stubblefield has a new book now available on Amazon. “Tell Them Why” was written as an inspirational tool for Christian parents who want to teach their children to live courageous, God-inspired lives.
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THADEN SCHOOL'S
Community-Based Learning
Cultivating Confident Future Leaders For A Generation of Neighbors To Be Proud Of
ARTICLE BY MICHELLE BAZIS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY THADEN SCHOOL
The word “home” doesn’t always represent four walls and a roof. For some, “home” is a place or a feeling you get around a particular person. When crafting the 2025 “Home” Issue, we wanted to take a different approach. Rather than focusing exclusively on real estate or design, we wanted to dive into what makes Bentonville the kind of place people are proud to call their hometown.
Take Thaden School, for example. The campus is arguably as iconic to Bentonville’s cityscape as Walton’s 5 & 10 or Crystal Bridges. Designed by Fayetteville-based firm Marlon Blackwell Architects, with support from The Walton Family Foundation’s Design Excellence program, Thaden’s award-winning campus adds contemporary flare to our built environment while honoring sustainability and preserving the heritage of its namesake - aviator Louise Thaden.
Environmentally attuned, long, and angular, these vibrant buildings frame outdoor learning spaces, native landscaping, and pedestrian pathways, intentionally merging the learned experience with the Northwest Arkansas environment for what administrators have dubbed Community-Based Learning [CBL].
“CBL is predicated on the idea that the most transformative learning experiences take place in community—that is, when individuals are in authentic relationship with one another in service of making the world a better place,” said CBL Chair, Cycling Education and English Faculty, Sam Slaton. “Courses are designed to provide students with extended opportunities to work with and through our communities to think ethically, critically, and creatively about global issues and their local manifestations; to ideate and, when possible, implement solutions.”
A pivotal example of CBL success comes out of an Urban Studies class Slaton taught a few years ago. “Students in that course ideated, pitched, and executed Bentonville's first citizen-led tactical urbanism project,” he said. “This took the form of DIY crosswalks and a mural directly on the asphalt at the intersection of 8th and Main, right next to our campus. Though the mural was torn up during the 8th Street improvement project, it has inspired the city to pursue its own tactical urbanism interventions. That's the kind of transformational change that CBL catalyzes."
Thaden’s curriculum is designed to nurture curiosity and build a strong sense of civic engagement, exemplified in three signature CBL programs—Meals, Reels, and Wheels. These concepts bring learning to life through hands-on, interdisciplinary collaborations including
culinary arts, journalism, and mechanics. Student experiences include using greenhouse work to better understand science and culture [Meals] or engaging humanities through film and photography [Reels]. Quintessentially Bentonville, the Wheels program leverages local bike trails and mechanics to practice math, physics, and urban planning.
"The CBL curriculum introduces the students to the process of creating realworld impact,” said Thaden student, Killian S., class of 2027. “It is important because, without it, students who turn to adults have no idea how to make an impact in their community."
Thaden sets a precedent for education across the board, but when it comes to private institutions, no school comes close to achieving what Thaden has with its indexed tuition. While most independent schools achieve need or merit-based scholarships for ten to 15 percent of their students, Thaden supports closer to 70 percent of its students through the charitable support of local community leaders.
Thaden’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Sam Bertoncino says the purpose of building state-of-theart facilities and creating new pathways to access world-class education is to empower and cultivate confident future leaders and change makers.
MICHELLE BAZIS | @MICHELLEBAZIS
When she's not working as the Managing Editor of Bentonville City Lifestyle, Michelle loves to spend her time making art, dropping in on a dance class, mountain biking with friends, and traveling with her husband, Ben.
“Diversity is essential to quality education. We want to model what happens in the real world, which means learning to work together despite differences.”
“Diversity is essential to quality education,” she says. “We want to model what happens in the real world, which means learning to work together despite differences, whether they’re religious, socioeconomic, or otherwise."
Adding to that sentiment, Thaden's Associate Head of School and Head of Upper School, Dr. Jessica Bonnem says, “A Thaden education should fill students with confidence in themselves and a joy in learning that lifts them up and carries them far on the road to independence. Our curriculum is designed to develop not only the critical thinking skills of discerning citizens, but also the empathy and curiosity of scholars who can explore complex questions from many perspectives. We also strive to help students balance their convictions with humility and respect for civil discourse and free inquiry.”
The joy of Community-Based Learning has inspired more families to apply to Thaden year after year, bolstering the school’s decision to expand its offerings to encompass K-12 in the coming years.
“Over the past seven years, Thaden has seen great success and support from the Northwest Arkansas community,” said Head of School, Michael Maloy. “The demand has always been high to expand to K-12 and given the growth in the area, we were ready to expand. We will offer Grades K-12 for the 2026/27 school year.”
Without even realizing it, we’re enjoying the fruits of Thaden’s less conventional - though, nonetheless effective - approach to education. Joyful students make for engaging thinkers, conscious contributors, and ambitious athletes, with honorable character; a generation of neighbors to be proud of.
Bentonville: Dayton Castleman's Bilbao
WHY THE ARTIST AND PLACEMAKER RISKED
HIS CAREER FOR BENTONVILLE
ARTICLE BY MICHELLE BAZIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHELLE BAZIS & DAYTON CASTLEMAN
Castleman's "The Three Feathers" at 401 SW A Street in Bentonville
If you’ve recently enjoyed trivia night at The HUB Bike Lounge or shopped Two Friends Books at 8th Street Marketplace, you’ve engaged with the work of artist, curator, and educator, Dayton Castleman.
Verdant Studio’s Director of Creative Placemaking and Artist Lead, Castleman hails from New Orleans with a robust arts background peppering cities like Houston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. But it was an underdog port city in Spain that inspired his decision to leave his tenure in art education to work at Phat Tire in Bentonville.
Situated in Northern Spain, the Bilbao of the 1990s was a down-on-its-luck steel and shipbuilding town with not much to lose. Certainly, this grungy city suffering from crippling unemployment and political unrest wasn’t expected to become a catalyst of cultural transformation for the region. But in 1997, the renowned Guggenheim institution opened its first European museum along the Nervión River in Bilbao. Its world-class collection housed by an architectural marvel designed by Frank Gehry, transformed Bilbao into a cultural juggernaut with an economic impact exceeding the local treasury, tenfold.
In the decades following Guggenheim Bilbao’s opening, city leaders, developers, and curators worldwide have studied the project hoping to bottle the “Bilbao Effect” like a prescription for building culturally vibrant and financially successful communities. Around 2006, these studies caught the attention of artist and MFA student, Castleman.
Before grad school, Castleman’s interests had shifted from gallery work to creating for public spaces. Rather than working within the limitations of a museum space, his attention shifted to placemaking and understanding how communities can use their built environment to cultivate artistic ecosystems, like Bilbao.
“No matter their background, people who enter a museum or gallery are prepared for a particular experience," he said. "But when you’re going to get groceries,
and you see something out of the ordinary, you’re not in the same frame of mind. That really shaped my interest in going to grad school for sculpture and working in public spaces.”
What he hadn’t mentioned at this point of the interview was that emergency brain surgery had also played a major role in his future in sculpture. We’ll get to that… Castleman had been studying examples of cities that had invested in culture and three stood out as pivotal, the most profound (to him) being Bilbao. “The Guggenheim Museum is one of the most important art brands in the world,” he said. “What the analysis showed was that, over the next 10 years, the museum became the catalyst for cultural transformation.”
With this concept at the forefront of his mind, Castleman had a unique lens for observing a newsworthy announcement out of little ol’ Bentonville, Arkansas.
“I’m reading about Bilbao around the same time the announcement about Crystal Bridges came out. It was getting similar reactions to those Bilbao had in ‘97: ‘Why would anyone choose to build a significant art museum in a city like that?’ So, I began studying Northwest Arkansas from a distance.”
Castleman was looking for three key indicators to determine how closely Bentonville’s Crystal Bridges would parallel Bilbao’s Guggenheim: city leaders investing in culture, the significance of the real estate development, and the strength of the collection.
“Looking at the Crystal Bridges project, and the works the museum was collecting, I thought, ‘These are some of the singular examples of American art that exist in the world, and now, if you want to see them, you have to go to Arkansas to do it.’ It’s a really interesting strategy from a collection point.”
Fast forward to winter 2011, Castleman was a tenured professor of sculpture at Trinity College looking at early photos of the newly opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art wondering, “What if I had moved to Bilbao in 1997?”
"I wondered, 'What if I had moved to Bilbao in 1997?' And just as that thought was out in the open, I also thought, 'You could move to Bentonville, Arkansas.'"
"I had emergency brain surgery, and when I came out, I was a sculptor instead of a painter."
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Inside Guggenheim Bilbao
“Just as that thought was out in the open, I also thought, ‘You could move to Bentonville,’” he said. “I really believed something similar was going to happen in this region and I was willing to quit my job and work at Phat Tire just to be here.”
As a kid, Castleman lamented to his parents that there were no more hidden places left to explore. But by the summer of 2012, he and his growing family had packed up and moved to Bentonville to see if they could participate in a cultural experiment that could uncover the art world’s next Bilbao.
While working at Phat Tire, he kept an eye open for opportunities at Crystal Bridges. “At the time, in terms of my idea of ideal employment, it was the only game of town other than the University of Arkansas,” he said.
“Toward the end of July, I applied for a museum educator position and I started working at the museum from eight to noon, then one to six at Phat Tire.”
Not long after, 21c was preparing to open its Bentonville hotel and looking for a museum manager.
“Like three or four months into being here, I got an offer for both the Senior Museum Educator at Crystal Bridges and Museum Manager at 21c; I chose to go the 21c direction and was there until 2020.”
In the meantime, Castleman continued his work in public art, creating "The Three Feathers," the first public art commission in the Bentonville Arts District, and "The Vine" at 8th Street Marketplace. “That was nights and weekends - the usual for most artists. Doing that type of work, I began building relationships with architects and people in the built environment.”
As we unpacked his experiences as an artist and what inspired his shift from painting to sculpture and public art, he said, “The short version of it is, when we were living in Philadelphia, I had emergency brain surgery, and when I came out, I was a sculptor instead of a painter. As I was in recovery, I lost interest in the two-dimensional imagery I was making.”
This feels like the kind of life event you’d lead with when telling your story, but it turns out, Castleman is creatively satisfied in a supportive role, both as a project manager and a community organizer.
“I like gathering like-minded people to do interesting things together,” he said. “One thing that I love about working on art in public spaces is that the work becomes about the place, not the person. My perspective shapes the work, to be sure, but it's not about me, it's about where it is.”
The Guggenheim forever changed the way people think of and experience Bilbao, much like how Crystal Bridges continues to stimulate Bentonville’s creative economy. Today, Castleman works with Verdant Studio and the Urban Land Institute [ULI] to help educate and align developers and artists to further these initiatives.
“Public art creates connections between places, opportunities for contemplation, and memory in the way of wayfinding," he said "We don’t need a mural, but it changes our relationship with that space. My work with Verdant Studio and ULI is to help bridge some of the gaps between developers and artists. I want other artists to be able to live and thrive in Northwest Arkansas. I want it to be a larger, healthy creative ecosystem."
LEARN MORE: Learn more about Dayton Castleman and his work as an artist and placemaker with both Verdant Studios (Verdant-Studio.com) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI.org) at www.DaytonCastleman.com or follow along on instagram @DaytonCastleman.
WWW.DAYTONCASTLEMAN.COM | @DAYTONCASTLEMAN
DESIGN FOR your lifestyle
BEAUTIFUL HOME DESIGN REFLECTS THOSE LIVING INSIDE - EVEN THE
FOSTER PETS!
ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHELLE BAZIS
Situated a stone’s throw from Airship at the Pumphouse, Lee Anne Stelte’s Pineapple Cottage welcomes her White Line Designs clientele with charming curb appeal, functional and fashionable furniture, and personalized decor that tells her story. While her Bentonville oasis is curated for her lifestyle, the same experience can be expected when walking into any of the residential or commercial projects she designs. To her, beautiful spaces should reflect the stories of the people doing life in them.
The California girl grew up in Arcadia with a heart for architecture but attended graphic design school in Pasadena. Her Hawaiian heritage, SoCal upbringing, and creative passions inspire her work today, but her journey from the West Coast to Bentonville began with a craft business.
“I started a business called Country Seasons when I was maybe 22,” she said. “I made these wooden decor pieces that you could hang for different holidays and started going to craft fairs. One year, this gal walked up to me and asked if I would be willing to sell wholesale; she had a handful of grocery store gift shops.”
Soon, Stelte’s Country Seasons creations were in 100 stores with a showroom in Chicago, but she hit a bit of a speed bump in 2002. “I was selling my products on QVC, but the economy was changing, and my stuff was starting to get knocked off. I thought, ‘I need to do something.’” Her sister convinced her to use her artistic talents to paint residential murals and, through her retail business, Stelte had made some connections in Arkansas. “I started landing these big homes in Fayetteville and every time I'd be there, the homeowners would ask my input on something like which tile to choose,” she said. “It happened more and more, so I just started to teach myself.”
The crafty mom got her “big break” when one of her mural clients started a real estate development company and needed a lead designer. She pitched her first contract and shortly after had her hand in everything from construction design to street naming on over 100 projects across Northwest Arkansas.
“You have the ability to create whatever life you want,” she said. “I had this lightbulb moment, but some people never wake up.”
The girl who once admired her architecture colleagues now has decades of experience working as a lead designer on commercial and residential development projects, functioning as both a creative consultant and project manager. Aside from her designer's eye and professional resources, Stelte’s greatest assets are her ability to uncover client stories and identify complementary contractors to craft spaces that transform the living experience.
“I want to know: ‘Why are you doing this? What is the purpose behind it all?’ I really want people to dig and discover their story because I’d rather they have nothing and negative space than a bunch of junk.”
At the Pineapple Cottage, Stelte’s space showcases her heritage and hometown, as well as her artistic proclivities and progressive design tastes, all while accommodating the functional needs of a business, and gathering space for family and pets.
Pets not unlike Trace and Blueberry, foster dogs from Best Friends NWA.
Founded in 1984, Best Friends Animal Society is a national organization working to end the unnecessary killing of dogs and cats in shelters across the US. In Arkansas, Best Friends supports
shelters, provides grants and donations, and helps to develop and grow foster and adoption programs.
“Dogs belong in homes, not shelters,” says Best Friends NWA Senior Marketing Specialist, Linda DeBerry. “Studies have shown that dogs who have spent even a short period of time in foster care are likely to be adopted sooner than those who have not. When you take in a foster dog, you’re giving them an opportunity to decompress, relax, and learn to “dog” in a home setting. This gives them a vital leg up toward finding the loving home they deserve.”
While Best Friends NWA does not normally bring in pets from outside of Arkansas, Trace and Blueberry - who enjoyed a field trip to Stelte’s Pineapple Cottage - are an exception. “They are among the hundreds of adoptable dogs who have been moved out of shelters in Los Angeles to allow those shelters to take in pets who have been lost or displaced because of the fires,” DeBerry explained. “Our center is one of the many shelters and rescues working together to provide support and relief for our colleagues in LA.”
How fitting for these California natives - Stelte, Trace, and Blueberry - to come together in this happy Bentonville home. For Stelte, designing a happy home shouldn’t be about keeping
Learn how you can foster or adopt pets like Blueberry by visiting Best Friends NWA at 1312 Melissa Dr, Bentonville.
Trace is one of the adoptable pets at Best Friends NWA recently displaced from a Los Angeles shelter due to fires.
up with the Joneses. Instead, she urges her clients to focus on opportunities that enhance their personalities, passions, and lifestyles. “Of course, I would love to pick everything for my projects, but at the end of the day, it’s not me who’s living there,” she said. “If you have a friend who’s going to give you a hard time about your backsplash, they don’t need to come over. Let’s design something that fits you and your story.”
“Watching my clients walk into a finished project with speechless smiles - it’s the best.” This experience was manifest in the happy faces of Trace and Blueberry as they explored Stelte’s Pineapple Cottage with wagging tails, collecting affection around every corner.
This is the kind of environment Best Friends is looking for in pet foster homes. According to DeBerry, any loving home where a pet is cared for is an ideal home to foster, and it’s a great option for those who aren’t able to take on a pet full-time. “Best Friends provides everything you need to care for your foster pet: food, toys, bedding, and any medications your foster pet may need.”
As Stelte continues to expand White Line’s portfolio her work offers an inspiring reminder that design is about more than just aesthetics. Her projects are a testament to the power of intentionality, where every
“Dogs belong in homes, not shelters. When you take in a foster dog...this gives them a leg up toward finding the loving home they deserve.”
detail serves to provide joy and deepen connection with self and loved ones. In the end, creating these connections is what makes any space truly beautiful.
BEST FRIENDS NWA
If you are browsing the pets in care who are available for adoption at Best Friends NWA and find one you’d like to meet, email the staff at adoptnwa@ bestfriends.org to schedule a meet-and-greet. Learn ways to support the animals at Best Friends NWA by visiting www.BestFriends.org/Northwest-Arkansas and follow along on Instagram @bfas_NWA .
LEE ANNE STELTE
White Line Designs started with a passion for art and home design. In Stelte’s 20+ years of design work, her ultimate goal is for people to feel good in their home or work environment. She designs for projects ranging from residential to commercial bringing unique products that will be aesthetically and functionally pleasing.
479-263-6867 • leeanne@whitelinedesigns.com
MARCH 8TH
YT Celebrates International Women's Day
The YT Mill | 9:30 AM
Join Pro Freerider, Micayla Gatto, and local YT Ambassador, Natalie Peet, for a group ride from the YT Mill including a skills clinic with Gatto and postride social with food at The Mill.
MARCH 14TH
Shemekia Copeland
The Momentary’s RØDE House 7:00 PM
Grammy nominated blues singer, Shemekia Copeland, will be visiting Bentonville for a one night performance at Momentary’s RØDE House. Considered “one of the greatest blues singers of her generation,” hers is a performance you won’t want to miss.
MARCH 15TH
St. Patrick’s Day: Celtic Crawl
Downtown Bentonville | 11:00 AM
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Bentonville with the annual Celtic Crawl. Dress in your best green ensemble and sample specials from local businesses including Bentonville Taproom, Meteor Guitar Gallery, Ramo D’Olivo, Remedy Road, The HUB Bike Lounge, and ButterScotch Bakery and Bar. For more info, follow Downtown Bentonville Incorporated on Facebook.
