Author Archives: Scott

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About Scott

A cultural thinker with a life long interest in the arts and humanities: theatre, music, architecture, photography, history, urban planning, etc.

New theater in Arcade Building to be named for Ron Robinson

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Ron Robinson TheaterLast week the Central Arkansas Library System announced that the new theater in the Arcade Building would be named in honor of Ron Robinson.

If Arkansas was included in a piece of music or a film, Ron Robinson wanted it represented in his collection. The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) will house and begin to catalog Robinson’s vast collection of sheet music, film posters, and other memorabilia connecting those industries with Arkansas’s history and culture.

The Ron Robinson Theater in the Arcade Building on the Main Library campus, the newest performance space in the River Market district will bear Robinson’s name. Programming in the 325-seat multi-purpose event venue will be designed for all ages and will include films, music performances, plays, readings, lectures, speakers, and children’s activities. Equipped with a state-of-the-art projection system for films and a separate sound system for spoken word and music, the theater will receive the highest rating from the Digital Cinema Institute.

The Ron Robinson Collection includes a large number of pieces of sheet music of songs about Arkansas or with the state’s name in the song’s title, containing everything from Tin Pan Alley tunes describing the state to hits by Arkansas musicians such as Patsy Montana and the Browns to would-be state songs. The collection also includes a number of vintage recordings-including Edison disks of the “Arkansas Traveler”-and other materials depicting the state’s music. It will include Robinson’s huge collection of Arkansas-related movie posters, from which the Butler Center co-produced with him an exhibition last year called “Ark in the Dark,” as well as a vast number of pieces of Arkansas political memorabilia.

A native of Little Rock, Robinson has been an avid collector of all things Arkansas for the past fifty years. He is past chairman and chief executive officer of Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, a full-service advertising, marketing, and public relations firm. He has served on numerous boards and committees including the Friends of Central Arkansas Libraries (FOCAL), Arthritis Foundation, United Way,American Red Cross Public Information Committee, Arkansas Arts Center, and Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Other organizations using the theater space include the Clinton School for Public Service and the Little Rock Film Festival. As with other CALS meeting space, the theater may be used by the public, based on availability.

Little Rock voters approved a bond issue in 2012 that provided funding for the Arcade Building. Through a public-private partnership between CALS, Clinton-Commerce LLC (which includes Moses Tucker Real Estate), and Monroe Cache, retail stores, offices, and a restaurant will fill the Arcade Building, a three-story, 60,000 square foot structure.

CALS Heiskell Lecture Tonight – Thomas Patterson discusses the rise of misinformation

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9780345806604The rise of misinformation among the American public will be addressed by Thomas Patterson, author of Informing the News at the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) J.N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture on Tuesday, October 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center, 4800 W. 10th Street.

Informing the News: America’s Need for Trustworthy and Relevant News, and Why We’re Not Getting It will describe where the misinformation among the American public is coming from, the impact of partisan talk shows and blogs, how the mainstream press have contributed, and what can be done about it. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow the program. Reservations are appreciated, but not required. RSVP to pedwards@cals.org or 918-3009.

Patterson is Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press and teaches at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has written several books on public opinion, voting, and the media’s political role. His first book, The Unseeing Eye, was named by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as one of the fifty most influential books on public opinion in the past half century.

The Heiskell Distinguished Lecture is named for J.N. Heiskell, the longest-serving member of the Library’s Board of Trustees and editor of the Arkansas Gazette for more than seventy years. Speakers and programs honor Mr. Heiskell’s commitment to excellence in journalism as well as his support of the library.

Award winning architect speaking Tuesday, October 15

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Kevin_McClurkanTuesday, October 15 at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, award-winning architect and Arkansas native Kevin McClurkan, AIA, will make a presentation entitled THREADS: Ennead Architects’ Recent Works.  This is part of the monthly Architecture and Design Network lecture series.

A founding partner and management principal of  Ennead  Architects, New York-based architect Kevin McClurkan, has Arkansas roots and  continuing connections. An alumnus  of Pine Bluff High School, McClurkan earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where, in 1983, he received the Edward Durell Stone Award for Excellence in Design.

McClurkan has  continued to earn awards – a prestigious national American Institute of Architects Honor Awards among them. His  commitment  to design excellence, supported by  technical innovation,  is the hallmark of his work.  Little Rock’s William J.  Clinton Presidential Center; the Newseum/Freedom Forum Foundation World Headquarters, Washington D.C.; New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts  and  the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law are among the firm’s recent award-winning projects.

Ennead is the name of the firm formerly known as Polshek Partnership Architects. The firm’s  2010 renaming emphasizes  its identity as a group of architects rather than that of a single design leader.  The new name,  which means a group of nine,  reflects the democratic and collaborative culture of the partnership.

Currently working with Little Rock’s  Polk Stanley Wilcox on the redesign of the city’s  Robinson Auditorium, McClurkan  is a member of the  the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture’s Professional Advisory Board.  Of interest to the whole community,  his April talk is  free and open to the public.

For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Tim and Space Cadets at Museum of Discovery Today

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modThe Museum of Discovery welcomes the chart-topping band Tim and the Space Cadets today at 2pm at the museum. Admission to the museum also gives you admission to the concert. The cost is $8 for kids, $10 for adults and FREE for museum members.

Brooklyn-based Tim and the Space Cadets play songs about the important things in life: pizza parties, snow days, and summer vacations. Songwriters Tim Kubart and Matt Puckett weave their own childhood memories through textured pop tunes, rockers, and lullabies, including their XMKiDS chart-topping single “Superhero.”

Their new album, Anthems for Adventure, aims to inspire everyone to turn off their TV’s and computers, and get outside and play. It celebrates adventures as grand as riding a cardboard rocketship to space and as small as giving up an old pair of sneakers for new ones.

The thirteen-song collection takes on familiar and iconic childhood experiences with indie flair, distorted guitars, and lyrics that bridge the gap between innocence and wisdom in a way for listeners of all ages to appreciate and understand, bravely exploring the full spectrum of childhood emotion.

While attending Fordham University, Tim volunteered weekly at a New York City homeless shelter, where he assisted in the nursery. Asked to play the guitar for the shelter’s residents, he composed and performed “The Octopus Song,” and knew it was his calling when he saw the joy on the kids’ faces. Tim then set out to achieve a level of catchy power pop that pleases five-year-olds as well as their 15-year-old siblings.

“I like to say Tim and the Space Cadets isn’t music for kids, it’s music about being a kid,” Tim says, “so kids can relate and everyone else can relive those memories.”

Tim and the Space Cadets are veterans of renowned festivals like Lollapalooza’s Kidzapalooza, and venues like Symphony Space, The Smithsonian Museum, and New York City’s South Street Seaport. Tim’s energy is infectious, and a Space Cadets set is engaging and interactive – a true indie rock experience for families and fans, full of strong musicianship, and a tap dancing sidekick.

ASO – Halloween Spooktacular tonight and tomorrow

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This weekend the Arkansas Symphony kicks off the 2013-2014 Pops season with HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR.

Chills and thrills – back by popular demand! Bring the family and friends, come in costume and enjoy your favorite classics from Wagner, Berlioz and Liszt and movie music from Ghostbusters, Superman, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and much, much more!

The concerts take place at Robinson Center Music Hall at 8pm on Saturday, October 12 and 3pm on Sunday, October 13.

All kids in Arkansas Kindergarten through 12th grade can attend all Sunday performances for free using the Entergy Kids’ Ticket!

2nd Friday Art Night at HAM

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Among the stops for 2nd Friday Art Night tonight is the Historic Arkansas Museum.

Tonight, October 11, from 5pm to 8pm, Bonnie Montgomery will be rocking out the Rock while the works of Stephen Cefalo and Sandra Sell will be on display in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists.

Bonnie Montgomery has been bringing her raucous spin on traditional southern music to honky-tonks throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Her catalog hails from a place where outlaw country saddles up with Americana and folk.

Figurations: Stephen Cefalo and Sandra Sell is opening tonight and running through December 8 in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists. Stephen Cefalo’s work evokes the style of the Old Masters and is moody, complex and unapologetically human both in subject matter and technique. With her sculpture Sandra Sell is able to transform a tactilely hard medium into something soft, almost figurative and emotional.

Historic Arkansas Museum is located on a block bounded by Second, Cumberland, Third and Scott Streets.

Grammy winner Mavis Staples in concert tonight

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MS15sGrammy-winning gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples will perform with her band at Christ Episcopal Church, in the main sanctuary, on Friday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, as a member of her family’s band, the Staple Singers, led by her father Pops Staples, Mavis recorded songs that became chart-topping hits and anthems for the civil rights movement, including “People Get Ready,” “Respect Yourself,” and Pops’ composition “Why Am I Treated So Bad,” inspired by the Little Rock Nine’s integration struggle at Central High.

Mavis has also enjoyed a long, highly praised career as a solo artist, eventually earning a Grammy for her 2010 album You Are Not Alone, produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Her most recent album, also produced by Tweedy, is One True Vine, released in 2013. Rolling Stone wrote about it, “One True Vine shows there isn’t much the ex-Staple Singer can’t make gorgeous and lived-in” and has also called her “the most underrated diva of the century. She has an almost superhuman ability to implant the pure power of passion and emotion.”

Prices are $35 for general admission pew seats and $20 for standing room to the side of the stage in the transepts.