In addition, there will be a couple of new objects to view in our galleries. While the Arkansas Arts Center is closed for renovations, institutions around Little Rock will host artwork from their collections. HAM is excited to display a delightful wooden mechanical toy created around 1960 by Arkansas artist Marvin Warren (1895-1994). Woman with Spinning Wheel and Man with Banjo is a humorous depiction of life in rural Arkansas, made in the Southern folk art tradition.

Also new in HAM’s exhibit Life in the Western Country is a portrait of prominent Arkansan Peter Hanger (1807-1895) painted by nationally-recognized portrait and landscape painter John Mix Stanley (1814-1872), who became well-known for his genre scenes of Native Americans. Stanley stayed in Van Buren (Crawford County) for a short time, where he painted a portrait of his host, Peter Hanger. The portrait is on loan to the museum from Kathy and Adam Ratcliffe, Peter Hanger’s descendants.