Yesterday’s Architeaser featured wrought iron dragons which grace the doorways to the Pulaski County Courthouse on Markham Street. There are three sets of these dragons which were incorporated to the George Mann designed structure.
Here, for today, is another set of mythical creatures.
The Arkansas Arts Center is a proud participant in the Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families through Labor Day 2012. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.
“Through Blue Star Museums, the arts community is extending a special invitation to military families to enjoy over 1,500 museums this summer,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This is both an opportunity to thank military families for their service and sacrifice, as well as a chance to create connections between museums and these families that will continue throughout the year. Especially for families with limited time together, those on a limited budget, and ones that have to relocate frequently, Blue Star Museums offers an opportunity to enjoy one another and become more fully integrated into a community.”
“As we enter the third consecutive year of the Blue Star Museums program, we are happy provide an opportunity for our nation’s service members and their families to connect with our national treasures,” said Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet. “Through this distinctive collaboration between Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts and more than 1,500 museums across the United States, military families have an unparalleled opportunity to visit some of the country’s finest museums for free.”
This year, more than 1,500 (and counting) museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative, including more than 300 new museums this year. Museums are welcome to join Blue Star Museums throughout the summer. The effort to recruit museums has involved the partnership efforts of the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers. This year’s Blue Star Museums represent not just fine arts museums, but also science museums, history museums, nature centers, and 70 children’s museums. Among this year’s new participants are the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia, the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM, the Cleveland Botanical Garden in Cleveland, Ohio, the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, California, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, and the World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was one of the masks on the side of Robinson Center Music Hall. Built from 1937 to 1939, it was designed by George Wittenberg and Lawson Delony, as well as associate architect Eugene Stern in a modified art deco style with neo-classical elements.
Today’s Architeaser is below.
The final day of the 2012 Little Rock Film Fest starts with a flash back to the 80s as Some Kind of Wonderful is screened with actor Lea Thompson in the audience. At 3:20 on Sunday afternoon Thompson will participate in a discussion of Women in Film.
The Closing Night Film is Stella Days which will be screened at 8:30pm at Riverdale Cinema.
Prior to Stella Days will be the Arkansas Times Closing Night Awards Gala at the Clinton Presidential Center. After the closing film, a Wrap Party will be held at Crush Wine Bar.
Jeff Nichols, who will be one of the honorees at the gala will participate in a conversation earlier in the day.
Films screened on the sixth and final day of the LRFF with filmmakers present include A Sister’s Call; Eating Alabama; Leave Me Like You Found Me; The Gleaning; Tchoupitoulas; First Winter; Think of Me; Wolf; The List; Conlon Nancarrow: Virtuoso of the Player Piano; Running the Distance; and Go the Distance: Helping End Homelessness. Other films screened include Town of Runners and The Dynamiter.
Several series of shorts will be shown. Best of the Little Rock 48 Hour Film Project, and LRFFYOUTH! Shorts will both be screened with filmmakers present.
The Ark Shorts screened on the final day are (in the Road Most Traveled grouping) “Tree,” “John Wayne’s Bed,” “The Proposal,” and “StillLife.” Filmmakers will be present for these as well.
The World Shorts which will be screened are (in the Let’s Talk About It grouping) “Crossing,” “Lost Night,” “Contra el Mar,” and “The Sea Is All I Know”; (in the Closing In grouping) “The Carnival Is on Fire,” “Infinity,” “Abigale,” “Homecoming,” “The Darkness Is Close Behind”. Filmmakers will be present at the screenings.
The Central Arkansas Library System is playing host to a Family Day of family friendly films on Sunday afternoon.
Since June is a month in which people spend a lot of time in gardens, the Sculpture Vulture will focus on sculptures found in a garden. In this instance it is the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden, located in Riverfront Park. Over 30 sculptures are located in this garden, which opened in 2009.
Today’s is Michael Warrick’s Grown which was installed in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick creates a framework to evoke the lower-half of a human. What initially looks merely like an abstract series of strips is, in fact, sculpted to resemble twigs and branches. The sculpture is approximately four feet tall, making it roughly 25% larger than life.
Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.
June’s first Architeaser was one of the dozens of persons sculpted into the wall of the Justice Building on the State Capitol grounds. The wall surrounds the court chambers in an addition which was completed in 1976 and designed by Noland Blass Jr.
Here is today’s Architeaser.
Films and fun punctuate the fifth day of the LRFF.
The day will kick off for filmmakers with a brunch at The House and conclude with the Oxford American’s Best of the South Soiree at the Oxford American headquarters on South Main.
Films screened today with filmmakers in attendance include Clean Lines, Open Spaces; The Mayor; Supporting Characters; Pilgrim Song; Europa; High Tech, Low Life; Leave Me Like You Found Me; On Down the Line; The Dynamiter; Future Weather; Wolf; The Trouble with Truth; I Am Not a Hipster; Think of Me; Tchoupitoulas; Bay of All Saints; Gimme the Loot and The Gleaning.
Other films screened today are Journey to Planet X; Planet X: Part II – The Frozen Moon; Booster; Once in a Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story and I’m from Arkansas.
The Arkansas Shorts which will be screened are (in the Tricks and Treasures grouping) “The Man in the Moon,” “The Birthday Present,” “Chutes and Gates,” “The Bloodstone Diaries, Thief of All Things,” and “Good Guys vs. Bad Guys”; (in the Warm-Blooded Cold-Hearted grouping) “Shattered,” “Cain and Abel,” “Greed,” “Children of the Mother Beaver,” “Fowl,” “Cold Tracker,” and “Ruthless.” Filmmakers will be present at the screenings.
The World Shorts which will be screened are (in the In the End Let’s Feel Good grouping) “Busted Walk,” “Die Beobachtung,” “Happy Voodoo,” “Chin Up,” “The Assignment”; (in the True to Life grouping) “Mr. Christmas,” “Idle Hour,” “This Is Our House,” and “Beneath the White City Lights”; and (in the Let’s Talk About It grouping) “Crossing,” “Lost Night,” “Contra el Mar,” and “The Sea Is All I Know.” Filmmakers will be present at the screenings.
The day will also feature a conversation with photographer Brent Stirton and a discussion on crowdsourcing independent film.
