Yearly Archives: 2012

Art in Motion at Arkansas Arts Center TONIGHT

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The Arkansas Arts Center will host a special arts program titled Art in Motion: An Evening of Inspirational Dance on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, at 6:30 p.m.

The evening will feature choreographed works inspired by artwork in the Arkansas Arts Center’s permanent collection. Students from UALR’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present short studies based on works in the current exhibition Building the Collection: Art Acquired in the 1990s.

Working with AAC Curator of Education Louise Palermo, Associate Professor Stephanie Thibeault incorporated the project into this semester’s Choreography II course. Guests will enjoy an exciting evening of art in its many forms. Admission is free.

For more information, call 501-372-4000 or visit http://www.arkarts.com.

Happy 100 to WR

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One hundred years ago today, Winthrop Rockefeller was born in New York.  After moving to Arkansas in the early 1950s, he would establish himself as a positive force for the development of the state.

Perhaps his most obvious impact was helping to transform the provincial Little Rock Museum of Fine Arts into the first rate Arkansas Arts Center.  He and his family were generous donors of money and art to this effort.

Through the effort of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, many cultural institutions have received funds for programming which has reached into every county and every corner of this state.  For instance, one of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s string quartets is the Rockefeller Quartet.

Mr. Rockefeller at the groundbreaking for the Arkansas Arts Center

It is hard to quantify what impact his efforts had on cultural institutions which did not even exist in his lifetime.  Without the elevation of the arts and the understanding of their impact, it is doubtful that endeavors such as the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Opera Theatre (now Wildwood Park for the Arts) and Ballet Arkansas would have had success with donors in their nascent days.

In 2012, a year-long Celebration is planned to highlight the legacy of Winthrop Rockefeller in the state 40 years after he left office as the state’s 37th governor.  His leadership in political, economic, and cultural arenas as well as in his philanthropic endeavors had a significant impact on the development of Arkansas. This celebration is intended to promote an understanding of these accomplishments to an audience that may know little of his deeds as an historical figure or his contributions to the evolution of the state.

Over the next year, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Winrock International, the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the Arkansas Arts Center will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Winthrop Rockefeller’s birth by reaching out from Petit Jean Mountain, the home he created in his adopted state, to the rest of Arkansas and the United States.

This Centennial Celebration will offer a variety of programs that will honor his legacy, bringing it alive to a new generation. These programs will convene some of the nation’s leading thinkers and innovators to explore his contributions and take a contemporary look at the issues about which he cared so deeply. Alongside celebratory events, the Celebration will include an assortment of academic conferences, public forums, art exhibits, and educational programs.

Architeaser – May 1

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The Architeaser had been envisioned as a one-month only project for April.  But due to overwhelming positive response, it will continue.

Yesterday’s Architeaser showed shadows along the Broadway street entrance to the Pulaski County Administration Building.  The inset of the first floor and the overhang of the building’s facade creates a banded pattern of light and shadow along the sidewalk.

Here is today’s Architeaser.

Architeaser – April 30

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was a cross-shaped shadow cast on the floor of the Arkansas Arts Center atrium.  The panes in a window at the top of the atrium caused the cross-shape.

Continuing with shadows, here is today’s.

11th National Drawing Invitational at Arkansas Arts Center

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The Arkansas Arts Center presents the exhibition 11th National Drawing Invitational: New York, Singular Drawings on view April 20 – September 9, 2012, in the Jeannette Edris Rockefeller Gallery.

In 1986, Arkansas Arts Center Director and Chief Curator Townsend Wolfe organized the first National Drawing Invitational to further advance the Arts Center’s commitment to collect and exhibit drawings and to focus on living American artists and their work. For the 11th National Drawing Invitational, guest Curator Charlotta Kotik puts together an exhibition that features drawings by ten New York artists whose works border on obsession in their execution.

Ati Maier

Charlotta Kotik works as a writer and independent curator, facilitating various projects for galleries around the world. Until 2007, Kotik was Chair and Curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art Drawing Department. Currently, Kotik is Curator Emerita at the museum. During the course of her career, Ms. Kotik has organized over 100 museums exhibitions, presenting the work by contemporary artists such as Mariko Mori, Kerry James Marshall, John Cage, Jenny Holzer and Robert Longo.

The National Drawing Invitational continues the Arkansas Arts Center’s commitment to collect and exhibit drawings of all periods. The Arkansas Arts Center began its collection of drawings in 1971 when Wolfe purchased Willem de Kooning and Andrew Wyeth works on paper. Today the drawing collection includes over 5,000 sheets.

11th National Drawing Invitational: New York, Singular Drawings is sponsored by Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP

Architeaser – April 29

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was a detail of brick designs on the old Heights Theatre, which was built as a single screen, 850 seat movie theatre. Opening in 1946, it was designed by Edwin B. Cromwell. The movie theatre closed in 1985. Since then the building has been repurposed and now houses shops and restaurants.

Today’s Architeaser starts a week of looking at shadows that architectural elements can cast.

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Sculpture Vulture – Worthen Obelisk

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Today is the annual Mt. Holly Cemetery RIP (Rest in Perpetuity) picnic.  Today’s Sculpture Vulture feature is an obelisk in Mt. Holly which serves as a grave marker for Arkansas banker and author W. B. Worthen.

William Booker Worthen was born in Little Rock in 1852.  In 1874, he entered the banking business which in 1888 became known as W. B. Worthen and Company. Later known as Worthen Bank, it survived through recessions, world wars and the Great Depression.  Mr. Worthen also served as publisher of the Arkansas Gazette and wrote a history of the Arkansas banking industry.  He died in 1911.

The obelisk is the tallest structure in Mt. Holly Cemetery and is likely the tallest monument in Little Rock. Though it is still a very impressive structure, the trees which have grown up along side of it now obscure the obelisk from view outside of the cemetery.

The obelisk is four-sided with largely smooth faces until the pointed top.  At the base, in addition to Mr. Worthen’s name, there is some ornamentation for a couple of feet.  But by early 20th century standards the ornamentation is simple.

Other members of the Worthen family are buried in the plot marked by the obelisk, as well as throughout the cemetery.  Mr. Worthen’s granddaughter-in-law, Mary F. Worthen has been a member of the Cemetery Association since the 1950s.  One great-grandson, George, continues in the banking business while another, Bill, is director of Historic Arkansas Museum.