“As cities and towns begin dedicated services and trails for cyclists, it’s important to note that the enthusiasm for bikes in Arkansas has roots that go back over 100 years,” said Old State House Museum Director Bill Gatewood. “The interest at the turn of the 20th century in bicycles was very similar to the one that we are seeing at the turn of the 21st century.”

While the exhibit mainly explores the technological advances of cycling in the past 130 years, Different Spokes also tells the story of competition, economics, and social life. The history of trail systems, cycling communities and history in Arkansas is explored in videos produced by the Old State House Museum. From an 1880 wooden bicycle built from white oak and agricultural implements to the world’s first carbon-fiber bicycles made by Brent Trimble of Berryville, Different Spokes contains artifacts that show this history from past to present. Gatewood says the Museum relied on contributions from the cycling community to present this story. The exhibit will remain on view to February 2016.

“I have not participated in any other exhibit that has had this kind of immediate response from the community,” Gatewood said. “The passion these people have for their pursuit is overwhelming, and I believe it will be reflected well in this exhibit.”

Lights! Camera! Arkansas!

Arkansas’s rich and varied history in film is the subject of Lights! Camera! Arkansas!, the newest exhibit at the Old State House Museum. The exhibit features the state’s ties to Hollywood, through both movies and television. Lights! Camera! Arkansas! highlights several well-known films with Arkansas connections and includes over 800 artifacts from the Old State House Museum’s permanent collection and objects loaned by other museums, film companies, actors, and writers. The comprehensive exhibit shows artifacts related to films shot on location in the state, actors born in Arkansas, and literary figures whose works were the basis for films shot in Arkansas.

 Lights! Camera! Arkansas! features a stellar list of Arkansas-born actors, authors, directors, and scripts. The exhibit  includes the work of Jeff Nichols, Mary Steenburgen, Harry Thomason, Julie Adams, Lisa Blount, Johnny Cash, Gail Davis, Levon Helm, Ben Piazza, James Bridges, and Joey Lauren Adams among many others.

Visitors will see five galleries of costumes, scripts, film footage, awards, photographs, theater posters, props, and more. Documentary videos add to their understanding and appreciation of Arkansas’s role in American film. Visitors will be able to watch the videos in a newly-constructed theater room.

The Old State House Museum commissioned original paintings of the state’s Hollywood-famous by House-of-Blues artists Patterson and Barnes. These fourteen portraits will portray Broncho Billy Anderson, Dick Powell, Alan Ladd, Gail Davis, Julie Adams, William Warfield, Louis Jordan, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Levon Helm, Mary Steenburgen, Billy Bob Thornton, Lisa Blount, and Jeff Nichols.