Monthly Archives: October 2014

LR Cultural Touchstone: Anita Davis

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anita davisAnita Davis has founded a museum, a sculpture garden and nurtured an eclectic retail community which has transformed Main Street south of I-630 into a thriving SOMA with its own unique identity.

Starting in 2004, she began to acquire property along Main Street in the teen blocks.  After attending a conference and learning about “placemaking” she started to envision ways to transform South Main through various artforms.

On the site of a burned out fast food restaurant, she devised the plans for the Bernice Garden. This sculpture garden and community gathering spot has become a hotspot for festivals (including the annual Cornbread Festival – another of her projects – this year it will be November 3), community events and a farmer’s market.

More recently, she opened the ESSE Purse Museum.  ESSE grew out of a traveling exhibit selected from Davis’ extensive collection. From 2006 to 2011, “The Purse & the Person: A Century of Women’s Purses” (curated by Curatrix Group and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services) traveled the country. The collection was exhibited in Concord, Mass.: Little Rock, Ark.; Edmund, Okla.; Columbia, S.C.; Pasadena, Calif.; Rockford, Ill.; Logan, Kan.; Fullerton, Calif.; Baton Rouge, La.; Dallas; Sacramento; and Seattle.

Now Davis has brought her handbags back to Little Rock for good and given them a home worthy of the part they have played in women’s lives and history. ESSE is housed in a historic building in SoMa, an up-and-coming, hip neighborhood in downtown Little Rock.  The Huffington Post declared it one of the hot museums for 2014.

Little Shop of Horrors at UALR this weekend and next

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The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Theatre Department is hosting several performances of the play, “Little Shop of Horrors,” about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a man-eating plant, in October.

Little Shop of HorrorsPerformances started on October 9 and continue tonight (October 11) and again on Oct. 16, 17, 18.

The first week’s showtimes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are all at 8 p.m. For the second week’s shows on Thursday and Friday, performances are at 8 p.m., and the last Saturday’s performance is a matinee at 2:30 p.m.

Performances will be at University Theatre in the Center for Performing Arts at UALR. Ticket prices are $10 for the general public and $5 for  senior citizens and UALR students, faculty, and staff.

For more information or tickets call 501.569.3456.

The cast includes Heidee Alsdorf, Hope Boyd, Marquis Bullock, Brian Chambers, Gabrielle Confer, Brianna East, Jeremy Grandison, Katie Greer, Ashley Mahan, William Wofford, and Jay Raphael.

Little Shop of Horrors is an award winning musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics and book by Howard Ashman.

 

LR Cultural Touchstone: Lorraine Albert Cranford

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Lorraine Albert Cranford formalized ballet training and performance in Little Rock.  Together with her husband, she was the founder of Ballet Arkansas—a company that traces its roots to the Little Rock Civic Ballet of the 1960s—as well as a dance teacher.

Lorraine Albert was born on September 4, 1918, in Steubenville, Ohio, to Henri Albert and Arthurine Van Klempette Albert. Her mother was a ballroom dancer who started her daughter in dance classes. By the time she was three, her family lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Albert studied ballet under Karl Heinrich in Pittsburgh and went to New York at age fifteen to continue her dance training. Her training was not limited to classical ballet, and she studied and danced in the same shows as famous performers such as Gene Kelly and George M. Cohen.

She married D. Cater Cranford, a dancer originally from Little Rock, with whom she had performed. They had one daughter. They moved to Dallas, Texas, and lived in a house formerly owned by the outlaw Belle Starr. In 1957, they founded the Cranford House of Ballet, which developed dancers for the Dallas Civic Ballet, later named the Dallas Ballet. The company was dissolved in 1988.

In 1966, D. Cater Cranford moved to Little Rock, where he founded the Little Rock Civic Ballet; Lorraine Cranford joined him in Little Rock later. D. Cater Cranford died in 1977, and Lorraine Cranford founded Ballet Arkansas in 1978. Ballet Arkansas is perhaps best known for its annual production of The Nutcracker, which had begun with the Little Rock Civic Ballet. Ballet Arkansas has also contributed to the formation of most of the other ballet companies in central Arkansas, such as the Arkansas Festival Ballet, established in 2000. In addition to her work establishing ballet schools and companies in Arkansas, Cranford was a teacher herself and even performed as the grandmother in The Nutcracker.

Cranford died on December 3, 2004.

Cleveland County native Johnny Cash is focus of UALR exhibit, concert

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cash-image1-1-204x264The Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has announced plans to premier a new exhibit on Johnny Cash’s relationship with Arkansas. The exhibit, “Johnny Cash: Arkansas Icon,” will open in the Underground Gallery at the Arkansas Studies Institute on October 10, 2014, and run through January 24, 2015. The physical exhibit will be accompanied by a virtual exhibit with educational materials for teachers.

Opening Night

The exhibit opens Friday, Oct. 10, in the Ron Robinson Theatre.

A free concert will be at 7:30 p.m. featuring the W.S. Holland Band, with special guests Jeff Coleman and the Feedersbeginning at 6:45 p.m. Seating is limited.

Johnny Cash: Arkansas Icon

The exhibit explores the musician’s Arkansas connections over the decades, covering his 1930s childhood in Dyess, Arkansas (though he was born in Kingsland in Cleveland County), through his comeback at the turn of the 21st-century. The exhibit places special emphasis on connections between his Arkansas roots and his music from his first performance in Little Rock in 1955 to a 2002 music video. Though Cash’s career took him far from Arkansas, the exhibit argues, he never quite severed his Arkansas roots. This exhibit tells that story through narrative and archival photographs from CAHC’s own collections, as well as others.

According to Colin Woodward, the CAHC archivist who proposed the exhibit and wrote its narrative, “While writing an article about Johnny Cash’s work with Governor Winthrop Rockefeller on prison reform, I began to see the thread of Arkansas in Cash’s music and life. He was such a dynamic artist, who persevered through many personal and professional challenges. He was a great Arkansan, and I wanted to show that through historical research and archival images.”

The exhibit will cover the walls of the unique Underground Gallery and immerse visitors in an artistic representation of Cash’s life in pictures and text. Designed by Bachelor of Fine Arts student Nick Sosnoski under the direction of Tom Clifton, Department of Art Chair, the exhibit makes use of key design elements like variety, unity, and texture on a large scale. The exhibit uses rare images from family albums and other sources and incorporates Cash’s lyrics into the design. According to Sosnoski, “The design is meant to reflect Johnny Cash as a man who never forgot his roots.”

The accompanying virtual exhibit will offer deeper exploration of the topics covered in the physical exhibit. The website will include a media gallery and behind-the-scenes information on the exhibit development. Educational materials, including full lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations, will be available for Arkansas teachers to use with students before and after visiting the exhibit. Stan James, an undergraduate Social Studies Education major, worked on the project and says, “It was really exciting to be able to prepare materials that will teach students important world concepts, and at the same time, expose them to one of Arkansas’ true treasures, Johnny Cash.  These materials, along with the exhibit and related events, will guide the students through an exciting journey towards learning about key issues in our state and nation, as well as how celebrities use their influence and talent to further issues that are important to them.”

On opening night, the W. S. Holland Band will perform a free concert in the Ron Robinson Auditorium. Holland spent 40 years performing with Cash’s band, Tennessee 3, and is the only band member to stay with the group until Cash’s retirement in 1997. In his long career, Holland has toured with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. The Holland Band performance will start at 7:30, following an opening performance by Jeff Coleman and the Feeders at 6:45. Seating is limited. Also on opening night, Shape Note Singers from Mountain Home, Arkansas, will perform for Second Friday Art Night visitors to the Arkansas Studies Institute.

This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Additional funding provided by the Arkansas Community Foundation. The Arkansas Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization that fosters smart giving to improve communities. The Community Foundation offers tools to help Arkansans protect, grow and direct their charitable dollars as they learn more about community needs. By making grants and sharing knowledge, the Community Foundation supports charitable programs that work for Arkansas and partners to create new initiatives that address the gaps. Contributions to the Community Foundation, its funds and any of its 27 affiliates are fully tax deductible.

The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture collects, preserves, and enables access to Arkansas records of enduring value; prepares students and the region for the 21st century through academic leadership and education on archival practices and technologies; and engages the community through outreach, programming, and exhibitions.

For more information on the exhibit or CAHC, contact us atcahc@ualr.edu or 501.320.5780.

Power of Glamour topic at Clinton School talk

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Postrel“The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion”

Virginia Postrel is an author, columnist, and speaker whose work spans a broad range of topics, from social science to fashion, concentrating on the intersection of culture and commerce. Her most recent work, “The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion,” lays out the case for glamour as a life-shaping force, whether for good or for ill. Postrel takes an exhaustive look not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works, developing a theory that explains just about anything – from “how Jackie Kennedy is like the Chrysler Building or a sports car is like a Moleskine notebook, to why some audiences might find glamour in nuns, wind turbines or ‘Star Trek.’”

She will speak at the Clinton School at noon today. A book signing will follow.

*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Ann Chotard

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Ann P ChotardAnn Chotard grew up in Little Rock singing.  After graduating from Little Rock High School, she attended Henderson State University and received a Bachelor of Music degree.  She would later receive her a master’s and doctorate in music from the University of Colorado.  In 1966, she returned to Henderson on the music faculty.

In 1973, she formed Arkansas Opera Theatre in Little Rock. By 1976, it was a full-time focus for her as she left Henderson.  From 1973 to 1990, she led the AOT as it performed at various venues around Little Rock and the state.  As the state’s only professional opera company, it presented operas in English in an effort to be accessible to a broader audience.

By the late 1980s, she started looking for a permanent home for the AOT.  Settling on land west of Little Rock, in 1990, Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts was established.  Instead of doing year-round programming, it now presented opera and other arts in a month-long festival format.

The first few years, performances took place in a black box space in the park.  (It later became the backstage area.) In June 1995, the Cabe Festival Theatre opened.  With a thrust stage and over 700 seats, it set performers near the audience.

In 2007, she retired from Wildwood after 34 years leading a professional opera company.  By the mid 1990s, arts education and youth training were capturing more of her attention.  After retirement, she founded the Chotard Institute. It specializes in offering college preparatory training for aspiring young classical singers.

A free Capital Hotel concert tonight at 5:15 by Arkansas Symphony musicians

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ASO at CHMusicians from the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will be performing this evening in the lobby of the historic Capital Hotel. The music will start at 5:15 pm.

In 2011, the ASO started these free concerts in the lobby of the Capital Hotel.  The marble and tile of this historic lobby provide a wonderful acoustic backdrop for the musicians.

The concert will feature the Rockefeller String Quartet.  Members of the quartet will introduce the pieces to be performed.

Unlike concerts in music halls, guests here are encouraged to bring drinks to their seats or to stand and move around while the musicians are playing.  It is a relaxed, informal atmosphere where the audience and musicians alike are able to interact with each other.

This concert is part of the ASO’s ongoing efforts to play throughout the community under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann and Executive Director Christina Littlejohn.  In addition to the Capital Hotel concerts, they offer occasional free concerts at UAMS and have recently started the INC (Intimate Neighborhood Concerts) subscription series.