Monthly Archives: February 2013

LR Wind Symphony Concert Tonight

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LRWSThe Little Rock Wind Symphony presents a concert tonight.  Entitled “An Organ Extravaganza” it features guest artist Adam Savacool on pipe organ as well as the musicians of the LRWS.  Under the direction of music director Dr. Karen Fannin the program includes:

Sigfried Karg-Elert: Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals
David Maslanka: Traveler
Haydn Wood: Mannin Veen
Eugene Gigout: Grand Choeur Dialogue
W. Francis McBeth: Canticle for Eleven Winds and Perucssion
J. S. Bach: Fugue in G minor, BWV 578
Camille Saint-Saëns: Finale from Symphony No. 3 in C minor, op. 78, “Organ Symphony”

Mr. Savacool’s appearance is underwritten by The Steve Dunnagan Family and Bob and Susan Morrow.

The concert is at 7:30pm at Second Presbyterian Church.  Tickets are available at the door.

The Wind Symphony performs concerts each fall, winter, and spring in addition to its vastly popular Christmas Concert in December. All concerts are held at Second Presbyterian Church. Another annual seasonal highlight is the “Stars and Stripes Celebration” in honor of Flag Day, held  outdoors in June in MacArthur Park.

The Wind Symphony has performed in cities throughout Arkansas. Out of town concerts are usually sponsored by arts and education groups. The LRWS is a participant of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Arts On Tour program.

The Wind Symphony is supported financially by donations received from concert attendees and from individuals’ and corporations’ concert sponsorships. The musicians donate their time, effort, and talent as a gift to the city and to the audiences who hear them play.

LANTERNS! this weekend at Wildwood

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LANTERNS! Festival, Arkansas’ only deep-winter outdoor festival, will light up the night at Wildwood Park for a fifth year of family fun and illuminating entertainment! Travel paved paths illuminated with fire pits and thousands of luminaria to enjoy unique entertainment, authentic food and beverages for all ages at eight cultural vistas from around the globe!

LANTERNS! runs from 6pm to 10pm on Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23.  On Sunday, February 24 it runs from 6pm to 9pm.

Tickets are available at the gate during festival days:
$10 for Adults
$5 for Children (6-12 years old)
FREE for Children 5 and UnderSHUTTLE service will be provided to and from Kroger Marketplace at Chenal Parkway.This year’s cultural vistas include:

Asia – Asian New Year festivals inspire LANTERNS! Hosted by Northington Investment Group, this vista’s serene Asian Woodland Garden & Pavilion are bedecked with paper lanterns and a traditional Chinese dragon. Sushi rolls, warming teas and sips of Sake beckon patrons to immerse themselves in demonstrations and traditions of Asian culture where families explore Eastern artistic traditions. Discover why it’s the Year of the Snake!

Bavaria – Visit the Park’s beer garden and polka to the sounds of The Itinerant Locals! This lively duo will have you dancing yourself into a pretzel under the full moon. Refresh your palate with German fare beneath the Maibaum and enjoy a lakeside feast for the eyes in the winter woodlands.

The Caribbean Warm up next to the fire pits along the shoreline, enjoy a show by the Park’s famed pirates (Armadillo Rodeo Improv Troupe), walk the plank, and seek your treasure in Pirates Cove.

Greece Travel back in time to the mythical land of ancient Greece where you’ll be greeted by living statues. Don your laurel wreath and help reconstruct ancient glory with vista hostess Christen Bufford and her team from Little Rock Central High School. Try a taste of lighter fare, maybe some Ouzo.

New Orleans Hot jazz continues all night indoors on Bourbon Street, where guests will delight in Cajun fare, signature beverages, and a fortune-telling Voodoo Queen! Thoma Thoma hosts our high-spirited Café du Monde while the kings & queens of this party feast on beignets!

Rio de Janeiro Café Bossa Nova, Vivian Norman and Patti Stanley are teaming up to take you on an adventure to colorful South America! Learn to Samba the night away while dining on exquisite authentic cuisine and sipping on caipirinhas.

Shakespeare’s England Hosted by Elizabeth and Tom Small with performances by the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, this vista transports you to Elizabethan England, complete with street urchins, fresh-roasted turkey legs, ale and kidfriendly Shakesbeer.

Venice The Park’s iconic Gazebo awaits sailors and ladies with a monumental selection of sweet treats! Commedia dell Arte performances will have you silly with glee! Launch wishing lanterns at the gazebo; your hopes and dreams will glow bright throughout this enchanting evening!

Arkansas Arts Center features Wendy Maruyama’s Executive Order 9066

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Watchtower

Wendy Maruyama
Watchtower, 2008

Exhibits look at Japanese-American internment camps during WWII

This exhibition combines two projects of Wendy Maruyama, a studio furniture maker and head of the studio furniture program at San Diego State University. These projects, the Tag Project and Executive Order 9066, together tell the story of the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.

In the Tag Project, Maruyama replicated 120,000 individual identification tags worn by the internees in the ten relocation camps, including two in Arkansas. Maruyama assembled the re-created paper tags in ten groups, each group representing all the internees at a specific camp. Each of these groupings hangs from the gallery ceiling and is about 11 feet tall. Maruyama has folded the Tag Project into a parallel project of hers titled Executive Order 9066 to show them together in this exhibition.

Executive Order 9066 was the directive signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordering the incarceration of all people of Japanese ancestry then resident in the United States. For the parallel project, Maruyama created work that explores ethnicity and identity through suitcases, footlockers and steamer trunks, artifacts from their owners’ forced relocation journey in 1942.

The exhibits were organized by The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston.

The Arts Center has collaborated with the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the Arkansas Center for History and Culture to organize Relics of Rohwer: Gaman and the Art of Perseverance, a related exhibition documenting the experiences and artwork of Japanese Americans at Rohwer, one of two internment camps located in Arkansas.The artwork is on loan from the Mabel Rose Jamison Vogel/Rosalie Santine Gould Collection, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System.

See Washington’s Family Bible on the Washington Birthday Holiday

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George Washington’s Family Bible

On exhibit through July 12, 2013

1presToday is the George Washington Birthday Holiday.  George Washington’s Family Bible is currently on display in Little Rock at Historic Arkansas Museum.  It is part of the museum’s exhibit, Treasures of Arkansas Freemasons, 1838 – 2013, on exhibit  through July 12, 2013, in the museum’s Study Gallery. The exhibit correlates with the 175th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas, in downtown Little Rock and also features which will be on display for the entire length of the exhibit. Admission to the exhibit is free.

The George Washington Family Bible is on loan from the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA. It contains Washington’s signature and notes written in his hand. George Washington was a life-long Mason, having joined as a young man. He was later asked to be Charter Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 2. renamed after his death Alexandria-Washington Lodge. The Lodge was the recipient of many of Washington’s personal possessions, including this family bible. The George Washington Masonic Memorial is now the repository of many of the Alexandria-Washington Lodge’s artifacts.

“Freemasonry has been described as a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, the goal of which is to take good men and make them better men,” guest curator Dick Browning wrote for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Along with the George Washington bibles, Arkansas treasures often imbued with the symbolism of freemasonry will be on exhibit, including masonic aprons and jewels, ceremonial trowels, gavels, a ballot box and the chair of Arkansas’s most famous Freemason, Albert Pike.

Museum of Discovery Earns National Recognition

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20120814-171022.jpgThe Institute of Museum and Library Services announced last week that the Museum of Discovery was a National Medal for Museum and Library Service finalist. The National Medal is the nation’s highest honor conferred on museums and libraries for service to the community and celebrates institutions that make a difference for individuals, families, and communities.

“On behalf of the dedicated staff at the Museum of Discovery,” we’d like to thank IMLS for recognizing the impact our newly refurbished museum has had on the 170,000 people who visited us in the first year after our grand reopening,” said Kelley Bass, museum CEO. “Among the 33 institutions named as finalists, the Museum of Discovery is one of only six science and technology centers that target children, which makes this honor even more notable for us.”

Medal finalists are selected from nationwide nominations of institutions that demonstrate innovative approaches to public service, exceeding the expected levels of community outreach. This year’s finalists exemplify the nation’s great diversity of libraries and museums and include an aquarium and marine science center, conservatory and botanical gardens, county library systems, individual libraries, children’s museums, an art museum, science centers, and more, hailing from across the country.

“Museums and libraries serve as community gathering places and centers for lifelong learning, and we are very proud to announce Museum of Discovery as a finalist for the 2013 National Medal,” said Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “This year’s finalists exemplify the many wonderful ways museums and libraries can respond to the needs and wants of the communities they serve.”

Finalists are chosen because of their significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. IMLS is encouraging community members who have visited Museum of Discovery to share their story on the IMLS Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/USIMLS. Visit the IMLS Facebook page to learn more about how these institutions make an impact. National Medal for Museum and Library Service winners will be announced this spring.

To learn more about the 2013 National Medal finalists, visit http://www.imls.gov/medals.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.  Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive.  To learn more, visit http://www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Museum of Discovery 

Located in Little Rock’s historic River Market District, the Donald W. Reynolds Science Center at the Museum of Discovery is central Arkansas’s premier science, technology and math center. With nearly 90 state-of-the-art interactive exhibits in three galleries focused on health, physical and earth sciences, and a highly trained staff, it is a leading resource for informal science-related education. The Donald W. Reynolds Science Center at the Museum of Discovery’s mission is to ignite a passion for science, technology and math in a dynamic, interactive environment.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded the Museum a $9.2 million grant solely dedicated to the renovation. The money paid for the renovation of 44,000 square feet of existing space, a 6,000 square-foot addition and new exhibits throughout the facility.

AIN’T NOTHING BUT A THANG continues at the Weekend Theater

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2262749picThe Weekend Theatre’s latest production is Marlin T. Tazewell’s Ain’t NothingBut a Thang.  The production opened last weekend and continues this weekend and next.  Performances are at 7:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Tickets are $16 for general admission, and $12 for students and seniors age 65 and older. Tickets can be purchased at www.weekendtheater.org or, based on availability, at the door. For information only, call 501-374-3761.

Director Liz Clarke was searching for a modern play to submit for Black History Month when she found Tazewell’s script last year and was intrigued by the story line. And once she read it, she was convinced it was something she wanted to direct.

Winner of the 1999 National AIDS Fund/CFDA-Vogue Initiative Playwriting Award, this gripping drama is the story of one black family struggling to survive, and remembering that each new curve life throws them “ain’t nothing but a thang” with which all of them must deal.

“The main theme of the play revolves around the decisions we make and the end result of these decisions. There is no ‘bad guy’ in this play,” Clarke says.

Rachel (Kelani Campbell), the mother of the family, struggles with drug use and thoughts that she isn’t good enough, hasn’t done enough, and isn’t loved by her kids. Oldest son Matt (Marquis Bullock) left home to pursue a college degree and better himself; he loves his family, but can’t allow himself to be drawn back in to their drama, no matter how guilty he feels about leaving. Middle son Kintai (Micheal Lowe), styles himself as a “dealer in higher plains of existence” – that is, a dope dealer. The youngest, 14-year-old Amber (Jess Carson), has been promiscuous and because of that, has contracted HIV, and just wants to know if someone cares if she lives or dies.

Also in the Fazes family orbit are Sara (Wendy Darr) Amber’s best friend, and Caveman (Justin Pike), a pal to Matt and Kintai.

And as the drama unfolds, the choices are … not so easy, really. “This play is not black or white – it is muddied shades of gray,” Clarke says. “Everyone in ‘Ain’t Nothing But a Thang’ is presented with a fork in the road and it’s their choice as to which road to take. “

LR Look Back: Mayor John Wassell

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JWassellFuture Little Rock Mayor John Wassell was born on February 15, 1813 in Kidderminster, England.

In 1829, he came to the United States.  He learned carpentry and construction in Ohio and ended up in Little Rock.  One of his jobs was as the finishing contractor on the State Capitol building, now known as the Old State House.  He later gave up carpentry and became an attorney.  (It is said that he did so after becoming embroiled in a legal dispute arising from one of his construction jobs.) Wassell also served as a judge.

In 1868, he was appointed Mayor of Little Rock by President Andrew Johnson.  He is Little Rock’s only Mayor to have served through a military appointment.  Mayor Wassell died in January 1881 and is buried at Mt. Holly Cemetery along with his wife and other family members.  One of his grandsons, Samuel M. Wassell also served as Mayor of Little Rock.