Monthly Archives: July 2012

Tobi Fairley on the Tin Roof at Tales from the South

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Tobi FairleyStarving Artist Café

Dinner 5pm-6:30pm
Show starts at 7pm
Admission is $5

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show

This week’s program is the monthly “Tin Roof Project” which features a Southerner in conversation.  This month’s featured guest is designer Tobi Fairley.

Traditional Home Magazine predicts “Tobi will be like Cher or Oprah- of those women for whom one name says it all”. Selected as one of Traditional Home’s Top 20 Young Designers in America, Tobi Fairley has a signature look that is fresh and simple combining colorful, large-scale prints with classic furniture styles for a beautiful and functional result.

Since establishing her design firm more than a decade ago, Tobi’s projects have spanned the Southern region and the nation from Charleston to Los Angeles. Her award winning designs for high-profile and celebrity clients have been featured onHGTV, have been published on the cover of House Beautiful and in Traditional Home, Better Homes and Gardens special publications, Southern Living, and have graced the cover of At Home in Arkansas Magazine 9 times.

Audrey Kelly and blues guitarist Mark Simpson will provide musical entertainment.

Tales From the South is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

Tales from the South airs on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.

Sculpture Vulture: Michael Warrick’s CORAL

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Today’s Sculpture Vulture feature is Michael Warrick’s Coral which was installed in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick highlights the many facets of that material in an abstract piece. It features roughness, smoothness, broad surfaces and delicate tendrils.

Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.

Cheetahs in Little Rock!

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Zazi and her daughter Maggie moved into the new Laura P. Nichols Cheetah Outpost Monday night and became the first two cheetahs to reside at the new exhibit.

The exhibit is set for a grand opening on July 7, 2012 at 10:30 a.m.

Maggie and Zazi come to the Little Rock Zoo from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. The institute facilitates and promotes conservation biology programs at the National Zoo in Washington,D.C. Zazi is 11-years-old, and her daughter, Maggie, is 18-months-old.

Maggie

The grand opening of the new exhibit on July 7 will include a special address by Anne Schmidt-Kuentzel, Research Geneticist and Assistant Director for Animal Health and Research at the Cheetah Conservation Fund, a worldwide non-profit dedicated to saving the wild cheetah and its habitat.  Schmidt-Kuentzel will give a special presentation on her work with CCF later that day.

The new exhibit is a long, linear exhibit that develops a large portion of the Zoo’s new African Savannah area.  It features two yards for the cheetahs and two new observatory decks for viewing the cheetahs in their habitat.  The African Outpost exhibit was also renovated as part of the new exhibit and features new habitats for the naked mole rats and some African reptiles.  This air-conditioned indoor space also features interactive educational displays about the plight of the wild cheetah and the work of CCF to save the cheetah.

Although the exhibit will open with two cheetahs, the exhibit is fit to hold up to five and is designed to allow for breeding.  The Zoo is currently working with the Species Survival Plan for the cheetah to develop a breeding program.

The grand opening of the new Laura P. Nichols Cheetah Outpost marks the second major exhibit opening for the Zoo in the past year.  The Laura P. Nichols Penguin Pointe exhibit opened in the spring of 2011.

Both the cheetah and penguin exhibits are sponsored by the Laura P. Nichols Foundation inArkansaswho provided funding for both exhibits.  The cheetah exhibit is also partially funded through private donations collected through the Arkansas Zoological Foundation and through the 2009 refinancing of park bonds by the City ofLittle Rock.

About the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute plays a key role in the Smithsonian’s global efforts to understand and conserve species and train future generations of conservationists.  Headquartered in Front Royal,Va., SCBI facilitates and promotes research programs based at Front Royal, the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and the at field research stations and training sites worldwide.

About the Little Rock Zoo and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums

The Little Rock Zoo provides engaging experiences that inspire people to value and conserve our natural world.  The Zoo was founded in 1926 with a timber wolf and a circus trained bear.  Today the Zoo boasts more than 700 animals representing 200 species, many of which are endangered.   Located in the heart of Little Rock at War Memorial Park, the Zoo consists of 33 acres of manicured land and animal exhibits.  The Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  Look for the AZA logo whenever you visit a zoo or aquarium as your assurance that you are supporting a facility dedicated to providing excellent care for animals, a great experience for you and a better future for all living things.  With its more than 200 accredited members, AZA is a leader in global wildlife conservation and your link to helping animals in their native habitats.  For more information, visit http://www.aza.org.

Improv Little Rock Season Finale This Weekend

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Fri 7/6 at 10pm: ReQuest 20/90
ILR kicks off it’s Season VII finale weekend with ReQuest 20/90. Watch as ILR attempts the unthinkable–performing 20 short-form scenes and games in only 90 minutes. And the best part, you the audience, picks out which scenes we perform from beginning to end.

Sat 7/7 at 10pm: Oregon Trail
ILR rings out Season VII with a bang as we present Oregon Trail. That’s right. We’re bringing the classic computer game to life in this new long-form show. Watch our improvisers hit the Oregon Trail in our Conestoga Wagon train, as we hunt, get snake-bit, and face the real, and not so real, plights of pioneer life. Just don’t die of dysentery.

Both shows 7/6 & 7/7 take place at the PUBLIC Theatre. Admission is $8 at the door.

Birthday of first Little Rock Mayor

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Dr. Matthew Cunningham was born on July 5, 1782 in Pennsylvania. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, he ended up in New York City. It was there he met and married a young widow, Eliza Wilson Bertrand. After a brief stint in St. Louis, Dr. Cunningham was one of the first settlers of Little Rock in February 1820. He became the first physician in Little Rock.

In September 1820, Mrs. Cunningham and her children joined him. She became the first female in the Little Rock settlement. Dr. and Mrs. Cunningham had a son, Chester, who was the first baby born in Little Rock. They also had a daughter, Matilda, who would later marry Peter Hanger.

In 1831, Dr. Cunningham was elected the first Mayor of Little Rock. He won the race 23 to 15 over Rev. W. W. Stevenson. The first City Council meeting took place at the Cunningham house at the southwest corner of what is now 3rd and Main Streets (where Bennett’s Military Surplus is located).

Dr. Cunningham served one year as Mayor. He lived until June 15, 1851 and is buried at Mt. Holly Cemetery. His wife, son, daughter and her family are buried next to him.

Pops on the River

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Pops on the River, presented by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is the state’s largest Fourth of July celebration and takes place this year on Wednesday July 4th in downtown Little Rock.

Bale Chevrolet, Honda and Kia of Little Rock sponsor the event.

Pops on the River, in it’s 29th year, is FREE to the public and will begin at noon outside the main gates of the Riverfest Amphitheater in the River Market Pavilions with a Kid’s Pavilion and Car Pavilion.

The event will also have a marketplace with shopping, food trucks, a classic car show and other activities below the River Market Pavilions.

Pops on the River activities inside the Riverfest Amphitheater gates will begin at 5:30. The Oh Say! Can You Sing? Top 5 finalists will perform in addition to the Happy Tymes Jazz Band. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will close out the night with a beautiful performance. Fireworks will be finale at 9:30 p.m.

Please remember:
-No Coolers
-No Pets
-No Outside Food or Drink
-No Fireworks
-No Smoking

Arkansas Arts Center open on July 4

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Celebrate Independence Day at the Arkansas Arts Center! Visit the AAC on Wednesday, July 4 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Visitors to the Arts Center can enjoy the cool air conditioning and hot exhibits that are on display.
View the exhibitions Tattoo Witness:Photographs by Mark Perrott, 11th National Drawing Invitational: New York, Singular Drawings, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Doodle 4 Google and The Rockefeller Influence. Shop in the Museum Shop.
Then leave your car parked at the AAC free of charge and hop on the Rivermarket trolley for Pops on the River. The AAC will be a stop on the trolley route, which will circle continuously throughout the day stopping at the AAC Atrium Entrance, River Market, Clinton Presidential Center and the US Post Office.
The Trolley will run from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. Remember, admission to the Arts Center is free everyday. Happy July 4th!
Best Impressions Restaurant will not be open on July 4.