Art Greenhaw dreams of historic arts town downtown

The fine arts are a window into any culture. Whether it is music, drama or visual arts, they hold the key to properly defining and understanding a well-developed society.

            Mesquite's very own McWhorter-Greenhaw Music and Heritage Center, along with its talented owner, Art Greenhaw, might be the key to shinging the spotlight on Mesquite and Eastfield's rich culture and heritage.

            Greenhaw is a Mesquite native whose family has played an integral part in the town's history. They opened the first department store downtown during the 1940s and kept it running until the mid 70s.  Last year, Greenhaw opened McWhorter-Greenhaw at the same location as a way for the community to become more involved with the arts.

            The center offers music lessons and a recording studio, as well as a music store and a recent installment of The Texas Gospel Music Museum. Inside, the place is elaborately decorated with murals of famous musicians and artists. The walls are also adorned with numerous memorabilia from Greenhaw's country-swing band The Light Crust Doughboys, who recently celebrated their 80th anniversary with a matinee at the heritage center. As a member of the Doughboys, Greenhaw plays bass and guitar along with an occasional appearance on piano.

            Terry Reed, chairman for the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce and assistant to Greenhaw, has been helping the hard-working musician organize the heritage center and special events for The Light Crust Doughboys this year.

            Reed recounts Greenhaw's musical past and considerable talent.

            "He's practiced music all of his life," Reed said. "His father was a music director at their church for 30 years and started teaching Art a very young age. Ever since then, he's been extremely devoted to his music career."

            As a producer, Greenhaw has had his fair share of experience collaborating with other artists in the professional music world. He has produced Grammy-nominated albums for artists such as Ann Margaret, Engelbert Humperdinck, Trini Lopez, Nokie Edwards and The Jordanaires. Three-time Grammy-winning producer Phil York of Dallas calls Greenhaw "the king of projects" because he has invested so much of his life into working with other artists to create successful pieces of work.

            Greenhaw now has his creative eye set on the downtown square of Mesquite. He hopes to turn the plain town square into a location of great interest.

"This place has a terrific amount of potential, but we're going to have to obtain a greater ambience," Greenhaw said. "We have a vision for this area. If this could be a hotbed of professional music, or even an artist's square, it would be amazing."

Randy Wills, pianist for the Doughboys and producer at Greenhaw's studio, is also optimistic about Greenhaw's vision for the town square.

"We want to bring some spark back into Mesquite," Wills said. "Art is trying his best to make that happen and his ideas are great. We just need a bit more involvement from the community."