Monthly Archives: August 2015

Tonight at 6 at South on Main, Clinton School & Oxford American present “Jazz: Integrated Art in Segregated America” symposium

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alvin02sm.jpg.190x140_q60_cropThis evening at 6pm at South on Main, Oxford American in partnership with the Clinton School of Public Service presents “Jazz: Integrated Art in Segregated America,” a symposium and panel discussion surrounding music and race.

The discussion will be led by Dr. Jackie Lamar, Professor of Saxophone at University of Central Arkansas’s College of Fine Arts and Communication. A jazz performance will follow the panel discussion. Thanks to sponsors Clinton School of Public Service, UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication, Piano Kraft, Rosen Music Company, and Arkansas Arts Council for helping make this event possible.

Featured panelists include Little Rock-based singer Irene Crutchfield; bassist Bill Huntington (born, New Orleans, LA); drummer Alvin Fielder (pictured), based in Jackson, MS; and bassist London Branch, also based in Jackson, MS. The symposium event is free and open to the public. South on Main’s doors open at 5:00 PM. with light food and drinks available for purchase.

At 8pm, the Oxford American presents jazz ensemble The Southeast Quartet at South on Main. This event is $10 regular, or $5 students/artists payable in cash at the doors on the night of the show.

Little Rock Look Back: The Quapaw Line

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Stones placed in Riverfront Park denote where there Quapaw Line started from La Petite Roche

Stones placed in Riverfront Park denote where there Quapaw Line started from La Petite Roche

On August 24, 1818, the Quapaw Line was drawn.  Starting at La Petite Roche and heading due south, this line formed the boundary between the Quapaw tribe lands and public lands available for settlement.  Though by 1824, the Quapaw were forced to give up all of their lands, the line continued serve as an important marker.  In the ensuing six years, the first permanent settlement of Little Rock took place and streets were planned.

It is interesting to note that the 1818 treaty referred to La Petite Roche as the Little Rock.  Some have speculated that this is the first official use of “Little Rock” to designate the outcropping.  When the Post Office was established in March 1820, it was given the name Little Rock.

There is a marker commemorating the beginning of the Quapaw Line located at La Petite Roche in Riverfront Park.  The first segment of the line is also noted in the park.  There are also sunken markers place along the line at various points.  In MacArthur Park, at the corner of 9th and Commerce Streets, there is a marker noting that the line passed through at that location.

A good account of walking the Quapaw Line through downtown Little Rock can be found on this website.

Most of what is now called the Quapaw Quarter was located to the west of the Quapaw Line.  However, it did take its name from the fact that the tribe had once lived in that area and was later sequestered to lands near it.  The name for the area was chosen by a committee composed of David D. Terry, Peg Newton Smith, Mrs. Walter Riddick Sr., Dr. John L. Ferguson, and James Hatcher. They had been appointed to a Significant Structures Technical Advisory Committee to advocate for preservation of important structures as a component of the City of Little Rock’s urban renewal efforts.

Be a Part of Fountain Fest – Design Public Art for the Fountain

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AAC Con FF2015Your public art installation proposal could put you at the center of this fall’s Fountain Fest, hosted by the Arkansas Arts Center Contemporaries. Submit your entry on the following pages so you can be in the running for this prestigious art installation in front of the Arkansas Arts Center. The winning artist’s name(s) will be included in publicity about this event, and there is a cash prize.

The AAC Contemporaries are seeking an artist or a group of artists to create a (temporary) art installation centered on or around the Carrie Remmel Dickinson fountain in front of the AAC. The selection process will be by jury.

Art Installation initial proposal shall include a written description of the project and a sketch (or more if needed). The written description can include a list of materials that will be used and ideas about execution. Deadline for initial proposal is September 11. Jury will narrow down the applicants to no more than the top four. The finalists will be notified by Wednesday September 18, letting them know that they have been selected to expand upon their proposal. Interviews with the finalists will follow. The artist or group which is selected will be notified by September 21.

The artist (or group of artists) who is selected as the winner will be awarded $1,000 to offset cost of materials and time.

Please feel free to visit the Carrie Remmel Dickinson fountain in person, for help with visualizing the size and scale for your proposed project. Click here for fountain dimensions and views

Artists may submit their proposal any time before September 11 via this form, including the written description of the idea and attaching a jpeg (300 dpi) of the proposal sketch, or may send a package via the US Post Office to Arkansas Arts Center Attn: Spencer Jansen PO Box 2137 Little Rock, AR 72203 containing a written description of the proposed idea along with sketch(es). All (postal) mailed entries must be received before September 11.

2015 marks the third annual Fountain Fest, an outdoor party around the Carrie Remmel Dickinson fountain hosted by the Arkansas Arts Center Contemporaries. Funds raised will go toward purchasing artwork and to fund Contemporaries projects that support the AAC.

The Contemporaries is an affiliate-membership group of the Arkansas Arts Center whose members are made up of young art enthusiasts who wish to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the arts.

Back to School Cinema: THE BREAKFAST CLUB

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breakfast-club-movie-poster1The Back to School Cinema week ends with what may be the only school film to be set on a Saturday, 1985’s The Breakfast Club.  Written and directed by John Hughes, this Chicago-area high school film both exploits and explodes high school stereotypes.

As the nerd, the jock, the stoner, the loner and the princess, five tackle teen issues during detention in an upscale high school library.  It has to be upscale – it has a Henry Moore sculpture in it.  (It is a copy of Standing Figure Knife Edge which sits in downtown Little Rock.)

It seems like pretty much every Hollywood actor under the age of 25 was considered for one of the five roles in this movie. The lucky five – Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy – helped define their generation of actors. Their work together in this movie and others helped create the brand of the Brat Pack.

Borrowing a concept nearly as old as time, Hughes pits five unlikely strangers against each other in a confined space. While united against Paul Gleason’s sadistic principal, they also grapple with ever-shifting alliances and antagonists.  It is no surprise that each student discovers the others are equally unhappy and uncertain, but that doesn’t lessen the charm and emotional tug of the movie.

 

See 5 Choreographers’ VISIONS tonight with Ballet Arkansas

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visions posterFive new ballet pieces will be premiered tonight in Little Rock as part of Ballet Arkansas’ second VISIONS choreographic competition.

VISIONS began as the vision of Ballet Arkansas’ Artistic Director, Michael Bearden, who wanted to create a event that would give choreographers an opportunity to have their works seen and appreciated by audiences and the dance community, as well as have the opportunity to receive a contract to have their choreography fully produced.

This season, Ballet Arkansas will present Visions Choreographic Competition at the UALR Center for Performing Arts on August 22, 2015 at 7:00 pm.

Thirty-one emerging choreographers from around the country competed for five spots in this year’s competition of which the winner will receive a commission to expand their new work for Ballet Arkansas’ company dancers for our spring mixed repertory show.

This year’s selected choreographers include Boston Ballet’s Boyko Dossev, former Houston Ballet’s Ilya Kozadayev, former Ballet West and Visceral Dance Chicago’s Tom Mattingly, former Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Barry Kerollis and Post: Ballet’s Aidan DeYoung.

A week before the VISIONS Competition, the choreographers drafted their cast of dancers and have a total of 11 rehearsal hours over 5 days to set their choreography on their cast. The night of the competition, the resulting works of choreography are performed for 4 judges, 3 of those judges are professionals in the local and national dance community, with the audience counting as the 4th judge.

The big finale of the competition is the announcement of the VISIONS Winner, who receives a contract with Ballet Arkansas to expand their choreography to have it fully produced for performance in Ballet Arkansas’ spring mixed repertory show, “Under the Lights”, to be held May 20-22 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Back to School Cinema: FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

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FasttimesEvery so often a film comes along which seems to launch most of the cast into various levels of stardom.  1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of those movies.

Amy Heckerling directed Cameron Crowe’s script of life in a California high school.  While Sean Penn may have been the breakout star of the movie for his stoner Spicoli, he was hardly the only actor to make a mark with it.  Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Phoebe Cates all saw their profiles rise due to this film.

Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards and Forrest Whitaker, though in minor roles, also appear in the movie.  Others in the cast included Tony Award winners Ray Walston and Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, Scott Thomson, Vincent Schiavelli, Amanda Wyss, D. W. Brown, Taylor Negron and Nancy Wilson (Mrs. Cameron Crowe).

Episodic in nature, this film celebrates and commiserates the challenges of life in high school. It examines classes, dating, and bad jobs.

Reception tonight at Wildwood to mark opening of new Art in the Park exhibit

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ww LK-SukanyWildwood Park for the Arts announces Art in the Park – Developed and Less Finished: Maintaining Life with artist L. K. Sukany.

The exhibit will run from August 21 – September 20. Sukany uses developed compositions and less finished paint applications to depict mysterious scenes of figures in interiors maintaining life. These memory-inspired works do not have obvious narratives but are based on a collection of moments in time. The themes of maintenance, celebration, conversation, and leisure use formal elements of figures in interiors and perspective for emphasis. The individual pieces are not intended to portray real life, but to show figures in a shared physical and mental space. Many of the pieces blur the line between depiction and magic realism so that the events can seem weird, magical, or wonderful to a spectator.

A free opening reception will be held on Friday, August 21 from 6 – 8pm. Foods for the reception have been generously provided by Whole Foods Market. Live music for the reception will be provided by Who Knows a Robot and The Damsels in Distress.

Wildwood’s gallery hours are Monday – Friday: 10am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday: 12-4pm.