Monthly Archives: December 2019

Holiday Open House and Sweet Potato Pie contest at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

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Celebrate the season with Mosaic Templars Cultural Center at the Holiday Open House!

The main attraction at Holiday Open House is the Say It Ain’t Say’s Sweet Potato Pie Contest. Both amateurs and professionals can compete to see whose pie is worthy to be in the same category as Robert “Say” McIntosh, a popular Little Rock restauranteur known for his generosity and his tasty sweet potato pie.

Those who can’t bake … eat! Guests get to sample the entries and vote for their favorites to win the People’s Choice Award.

There’s even more to enjoy at Holiday Open House, like musical performances and a family craft room!

Holiday Open House is free, but visitors are encouraged to bring a toy to donate to local children through Say’s Stop the Violence, a local nonprofit organization.

Hours are from 2pm to 5pm.

For more information, please call (501) 683-3593 or visit mosaictemplarscenter.com.

(A free trolley can take you to the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Old State House Museum and the Arkansas Governors Mansion.)

FREE 52nd Annual Christmas Frolic today at Historic Arkansas Museum

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Join Historic Arkansas Museum for the 52nd annual Christmas Frolic! It is today, December 8, 2019, from 1pm to 4pm.

Through living history performances, live demonstrations and hands-on activities, this event is an opportunity for adults and children of all ages to celebrate Christmas as it was in the 1800s. Activities occurring throughout the day include:

Holiday crafting such as making ornaments, holiday cards, wax seal letters, fabric wreaths, holiday sachets and pomander balls.

Music and dancing with Sugar on the Floor, Lark in the Morning, Arkansas, Ricky Russell, Arkansas Country Dance Society and the Aeolus Recorder Group.

Living history with Early Arkansas Reenactors Association.

Demonstrations at the Blacksmith Shop and the Woodruff Print Shop.

Holiday pictures on the pleasure wagon.

Scheduled readings of “The Night Before Christmas.”

Food and beverages will be served including traditional Scottish shortbread, mulled cider, ginger cake, gluten free and allergy friendly gingerbread cookies and snickerdoodles, and reindeer food to take home.

This is a FREE event!

Hear the Rodney Block Collective at South on Main tonight!

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Kick off the December with some music as sure to keep you warm regardless of the outdoor temperatures!

South on Main is turning up the heat with the Rodney Block Collective.

Led by musical favorite Rodney Block, this musical group alternates between various forms of jazz mixed in with gospel, Be-Bop, hip-hop, funk, and soul.

Show begins tonight (December) at 10 pm with a $15 cover. Purchasing a ticket does not guarantee you a seat.

Call (501) 244-9660 to reserve a table.

That time The Jackson 5 rode in the Little Rock Christmas Parade

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The 2019 Big Jingle Jubilee Holiday Parade takes place today in downtown Little Rock. It seems like a good time to remember one of the earlier incarnations.

On December 2, 1972, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 performed in concert at Barton Coliseum. But earlier in the day, they were the grand marshals for the second annual Little Rock Christmas Parade.

They were featured in a full page ad for M. M. Cohn advertising the parade (and of course encouraging persons to stop by the store while they were downtown).

The Jackson 5 sang and waved from the upper level of a London style double decker bus. About fifty kids followed behind the bus yelling their appreciation and singing along.

Writing for the Arkansas Gazette, Bill Lewis notes that the biggest cheers at the parade, however, went to Gary Weir as KATV’s Bozo (even louder than the one’s for Santa).

FROZEN SCIENCE at the Museum of Discovery today!

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Don’t “Let It Go” when it comes to the opportunity for Frozen Science at the Museum of Discovery.

The fun (and learning – but don’t tell the kids they will actually learn things) is today (December 7) from 10am to 3pm.

Suit up for a wintry science adventure full of icy experiments, liquid nitrogen demos and chilly hands-on activities!

Tickets are included in regular museum admission or free for members. Purchase tickets at the door or online.

Studio Gang was announced as Arkansas Arts Center architect on Dec. 6, 2016

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On December 6, 2016, the Arkansas Arts Center (AAC) announced the selection of Studio Gang as design architect for its upcoming building project.

The five firms selected as finalists were Allied Works (Portland, Ore./New York), Shigeru Ban (New York/Paris/Tokyo, Japan), Studio Gang (Chicago/New York), Thomas Phifer (New York) and Snohetta (Oslo, Norway/New York/San Francisco).

Studio Gang was deemed the best fit for the project due to the firm’s elegant and smart approach to architecture, their understanding of the issues posed by the AAC’s current facility, their vision for the center as a cultural beacon for Central Arkansas and their commitment to sustainability and strength as urban planners.

Founded by MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang is an award-winning architecture and urbanism practice based out of Chicago and New York. A recipient of the 2013 National Design Award, Jeanne Gang was also named the 2016 Archiitect of the Year by the Architectural Review and the firm was awarded the 2016 Architizer A+ award for Firm of the Year.

Studio Gang is recognized internationally for a design process that foregrounds the relationships between individuals, communities and environments. The firm has extensive knowledge in museum, theatre and artist studio spaces, with projects ranging from the Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Ill. to the Aqua Tower in Chicago to the expansion of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Since their selection, Studio Gang has brought on a variety of other members of the consultant team including:

In February 2018, Studio Gang released their first designs for the project.  On October 1, 2019, ground was broken and construction officially commenced.

Blues legend Bobby Rush in concert at the Ron Robinson Theater tonight, presented by CALS Arkansas Sounds

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CALS Arkansas Sounds presents an intimate solo show with blues legend BOBBY RUSH!

Bobby Rush is a Grammy Award winner, a Blues Hall of Fame member, a 12-time Blues Music Award winner and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year.

Bobby Rush was actually born as Emmett Ellis, Jr. outside Homer, La. His daddy was a preacher and knew enough about a harmonica to pass along a few riffs to his progeny, who twanged a diddley bow before picking up a guitar around age 11. The senior Ellis relocated his family to Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1948. When young Bobby went professional as a blues musician, he changed his moniker to not disrespect his devout dad. And Bobby Rush was born.

Bobby started playing with Delta blues guitarists Boyd Gilmore and Elmore James in Arkansas during the early ’50s before migrating to Chicago. There he assembled a band with an equally young Freddie King on guitar and Arkansan Luther Allison came into the combo later. Rush gigged around the West Side and in the southern suburbs of the Windy City, but it took until 1964 for him to debut on record with the tough downbeat blues “Someday” for the Jerry-O label.

And now, jumping forward to 2019, after decades of tearing up the chitlin’ circuit on a nightly basis with his sweaty, no-holds-barred funk-fests, Bobby has thoroughly broken through to the mainstream. He won a long-overdue 2017 Grammy for his spectacular album Porcupine Meat and consistently tours the globe as a headliner. What’s more, Bobby’s brand-new album Sitting on Top of the Blues on his own Deep Rush imprint promises to further spread the news that this revered legend, well past his 85+ years of age even if his stratospheric energy level belies the calendar, is bigger, badder and bolder than ever.

Don’t miss this chance to see BOBBY RUSH perform a special SOLO SHOW on Friday, December 6 at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock! That’s right, you’ll see and hear Bobby Rush singing, playing guitar and harmonica, and telling stories-all by himself!

Tickets are $30 for general admission seating. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the concert starts at 8:00 pm.