Yearly Archives: 2013

Clinton Center Free Today in honor of 9th Anniversary

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On November 18, 2004, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park officially opened.  As the Clinton Presidential Center has done since it opened, it marks the anniversary with a free day (usually on a weekend closest to the actual anniversary date).
Celebrate the Center’s ninth anniversary with a FREE admission all day long. Take advantage of the opportunity to see “Oscar de la Renta: American Icon” and “And Freedom for All: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” as well as all the permanent exhibits. Also available, FREE Acoustiguide audio tours narrated by President Clinton.
Sunday is the last day to view And Freedom for All: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  This exhibit follows along the historic journey of the 1963 March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom through the powerful images of famed photojournalist Stanley Tretick.  Tretick was assigned by LOOK magazine to cover the March behind-the-scenes with organizers and program speakers as they led the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and where history led Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Oscar de la Renta: American Icon runs through December 1. This seminal fashion exhibition celebrates the world-renowned work and inspiring life of designer Oscar de la Renta. The exhibit will feature more than 30 of his iconic creations worn by leading arbiters of style, from First Ladies to Hollywood’s brightest stars.

In the 1960s, Dominican-born Oscar de la Renta moved to the United States, where he launched his signature ready-to-wear label and quickly became known as a leading figure in international fashion design. Oscar de la Renta’s award-winning career spans five decades and he continues to produce an exceptional body of work – a testament to his enduring creative vision.

The Hot Sardines at Wildwood Tonight!

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Wildwood Park for the ArtsThe Hot Sardines will be in concert tonight at Wildwood Park for the Arts.  The music will start at 8pm; tickets range from $35 to $75.

Take a blustery brass lineup, layer it over a rhythm section led by a stride-piano virtuoso in the Fats Waller vein, and tie the whole thing together with a one-of-the-boys frontwoman with a voice from another era, and you have the Hot Sardines. (We haven’t even told you about the tap dancer yet.)

In a short time, the Hot Sardines have gone from their first gig – at a coffeeshop on the last Q train stop in Queens – to selling out Joe’s Pub five times in as many months, headlining at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing, and opening for the Bad Plus, Lulu Gainsbourg and French gypsy-jazz artist Zaz. Through it all they’ve become regulars at the Shanghai Mermaid speakeasy and turned The Standard, where they play regularly, into their own “saloon in the sky” (The Wall Street Journal) – complete with tap dancing on the bar – honing a live persona that’s been called “unforgettably wild” and “consistently electrifying” (Popmatters).

The Sardine sound – wartime Paris via New Orleans, or the other way around – is steeped in hot jazz, salty stride piano, and the kind of music Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt and Waller used to make: Straight-up, foot-stomping jazz. (Literally – the band includes a tap dancer whose feet count as two members of the rhythm section). They manage to invoke the sounds of a near-century ago and stay resolutely in step with the current age. And while their roots run deep into jazz, that most American of genres, they’re intertwined with French influences via their frontwoman, who was born and raised in Paris (and writes songs in both languages).

The band was born when said Parisian (“Miz Elizabeth” Bougerol) met a stride piano player (bandleader Evan “Bibs” Palazzo) at a jam session they found on Craigslist. Above a noodle shop on Manhattan’s 49th Street, they discovered a mutual love for songs from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s that no-one really plays anymore. Or if they play them, “they handle them with kid gloves, like pieces in a museum,” says Evan, underscoring a point the pair can’t stress enough: “This music isn’t historical artifact. It’s a living, breathing, always-evolving thing.”

The hosts for the evening are: Dr. F. Richard Jordan, Gert Clark, Lee and Dale Ronnel, Jane Wilson, Buff Blass and Walt Winters

Governor’s Arts Awards Presented Today

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Arkansas_Arts_Council_logo_2Governor Mike Beebe will present the 2013 Governor’s Arts Awards today at a luncheon sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council.

Sponsored annually by the Arkansas Arts Council, the Governor’s Arts Awards recognize individuals and corporations for their outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. The recipients were nominated by the public and then selected by an independent panel of arts professionals from around the state. Each recipient will receive an original work of art created by Arkansas artist Stephen Driver.

The recipients are:
Arts Community Development Award – Bob Ford and Amy Herzberg (Fayetteville)
Arts in Education Award – Paul Leopoulos (North Little Rock)
Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts Award – Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, PLLC (Little Rock)
Folklife Award – Paula Morell (North Little Rock)
Individual Artist Award – Robert Hupp (Little Rock)
Patron Award – Lee and Dale Ronnel (Little Rock)
Lifetime Achievement Award – Billie Seamans (McGehee)
Judges Special Recognition Award – Farrell Ford (Arkadelphia)

Bryant Huddleston Is Featured at Philander’s Bless the Mic

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pschuddlestonEntertainment television producer and Arkansas native Bryant Huddleston is the guest speaker for the next installment of Philander Smith College’s Bless The Mic Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14.

A 1990 graduate of Sloan-Hendrix High School in Imboden, Ark., Huddleston began his broadcast career in Fayetteville at KHOG-TV before moving to KAIT-TV in Jonesboro as the station’s weekend news anchor and senior reporter. In 1998, Huddleston left Arkansas for Los Angeles and began producing news, specials, and live red carpet events for the E! Network. He joined NBC’s Access Hollywood in 2004 where he spent eight years covering the world’s biggest celebrities. Most recently Huddleston wrote and produced content to help launch the BRAVO network’s new series Property Envy.

Last May, a firestorm arose when Huddleston’s scheduled appearance as Sloan-Hendrix High School’s commencement speaker was abruptly canceled. A single father and ardent advocate for equality and adoption rights for LGBT citizens, Huddleston holds a bachelor’s degree in communications/broadcast news from Arkansas State University.

Free and open to the public, all lectures are held in the M.L. Harris Auditorium. Tickets are not required; seating is first-come, first-serve. For more information, call 501-370-5354.

Little Rock Look Back: Woodrow W. Mann

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IMG_3231Future Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann was born on November 13, 1916, in Little Rock.

In 1955, he ran as the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Little Rock and defeated two term incumbent Pratt C. Remmel, a Republican.  He took office in January 1956 and immediately set about to make a lot of changes.  In addition to revitalizing the City’s bus system, and removing some color barriers at City Hall, he oversaw the dismantling of the copper dome on top of Little Rock City Hall (as opposed to the repair of the dome championed by Mayor Remmel).

Mayor Mann was caught up in a grand jury investigation into purchasing practices at City Hall as well as within the City government in North Little Rock.  Partially in response to this, Little Rock voters approved a new form of government in late 1956.  Mayor Mann opposed the switch to the City Manager form and refused to set the election for the new officials but was ultimately compelled to do so.

He was also Mayor during the 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School.  He sought to keep the peace and to broker a deal between President Dwight Eisenhower and Governor Orval Faubus.  His powers within the city were, no doubt, hampered because of his lame duck status as Mayor.  In November 1957 following the election of the new City Board of Directors, he chaired his last City Council meeting and left office.

Because of ill will toward him due to the Central High crisis and grand jury investigation, Mayor Mann felt it would be difficult to maintain his insurance business in Little Rock. He moved to Texas in 1959 and remained there the rest of his life.  He died in Houston on August 6, 2002.

ASO River Rhapsodies Tonight: Artist of Distinction Inbal Segev

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Inbal Segev, celloThe Arkansas Symphony Orchestra River Rhapsodies concert series continues tonight with cellist Inbal Segev.

The concert takes place at 7pm at the Clinton Presidential Center. A limited number of tickets are available at the door. But the concerts usually sell out.

The program includes:

Prokofiev – String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50
Villa Lobos – Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1
Enescu – Octet in C Major, Op. 7

Israeli-American cellist Inbal Segev’s playing has been described as “characterized by a strong and warm tone . . . delivered with impressive fluency and style,” by The Strad and “richly inspired” by Gramophone. Equally committed to new repertoire and known masterworks, Segev brings interpretations that are both unreservedly natural and insightful to the vast range of music that she performs.

Architect Eric Höweler to Present Lecture on November 12th in Little Rock

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Howeler_November_12thc713d7Eric Höweler will present a lecture titled FAIL FAST on Tuesday, November 12th at the Arkansas Arts Center at 6 p.m., in the Center’s lecture hall, following a 5:30 p.m. reception. His talk is free and open to the public. Asked about the title he chose for his lecture, Höweler said FAIL FAST was part of a longer phrase, “Launch early, fail fast, iterate”, which, he believes, could easily serve as his firm’s motto.

Born in Cali, Colombia, Höweler (AIA, LEED AP) received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Masters of Architecture from Cornell University. He is currently an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and principal at Höweler + Yoon Architecture/MY Studio in Boston.

Prior to forming Höweler + Yoon Architecture, a multidisciplinary practice, operating in the space between architecture, art, and landscape, he was a senior designer at Diller + Scofidio and an associate principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. He is the co-author of Expanded Practice, Höweler + Yoon Architecture/MY Studio (Princeton Architectural Press 2009) and author of Skyscraper: Vertical Now (Rizzoli/Universe Publishers in 2003).

Awarded the Audi Urban Future Award in 2012, the Architecture League’s Emerging Voices award and Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard in 2007 for its efforts, the firm has participated in numerous exhibitions. Among their venues are the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), and the National Art Center (Tokyo). Höweler has lectured both nationally and internationally.

The Art of Architecture lecture series is sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network, a nonprofit organization. Supporters include the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Arkansas Arts Center and the Fay Jones School of Architecture. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.