Category Archives: Design

George Washington Gardened Here – Mount Vernon Horticulturalist speaks at Clinton School tonight

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mount vernon nortonTonight at 6pm at Sturgis Hall, Dean Norton, the director of horticulture at Mount Vernon, will give a presentation.

For more than 150 years, people have studied, researched, and dug the earth for clues helping to make the home of George Washington one of the most accurately restored 18th century estates in America. The beauty, the use, and the importance of Mount Vernon’s gardens and landscape will be discussed, as well as preservation over the years with a focus on the most recently restored pleasure garden. Norton’s presentation is an informative and entertaining look at the gardening world of George Washington.

A book signing will follow.

The director of horticulture at Mount Vernon since 1980, Norton calls upon a full-time paid staff of twenty-three and a few volunteers to manage both the fifty-acre parcel open to the public and 450 acres of field and forest. He also supervises the green house and the estate’s livestock operations.

Sculpture Vulture: Through the Looking Glass

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DSCF9854Mark Leichliter’s Through the Looking Glass was recently installed in Riverfront Park.

He describes the piece:

“I was trying to create a way for Little Rock to see itself  which lead to the idea of reflections. On one side, it has a reflection as a single piece. It represents the community and how it works as a whole. On the other side, it is broken up into individual pieces and that represents the individuals of the community and how they work together to make it work.”

Taking about five months to complete, it stands eight feet tall and fourteen feet wide.  It sits in the park near the Marriott Hotel.

The curved outline of the piece also mimics the curvature of the Marriott’s footprint in that vicinity.  Once the new Broadway Bridge is completed, it will also compliment the “basket handle” arches which will be features of that bridge.

The sculpture was dedicated to Kay Arnold and her late husband Judge Richard Arnold.

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LR Cultural Touchstone: Jane Rogers

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Jane RogersJane Rogers is a Little Rock native who has had a hand in developing two different cultural entities in her hometown.  She helped organize the first Riverfest to be held in Riverfront Park in 1983.  Continuing her involvement, she later served as the first full-time executive director of Riverfest.  Under her leadership the festival experienced significant growth.  This, in turn, brought more people down to the banks of the Arkansas River and the new Riverfront Park.  Because of this, more people were familiar with the area which helped the fledgling River Market take hold in the mid-1990s.

Shortly after he became Governor, Mike Huckabee tapped her to lead the Department of Arkansas Heritage.  In that capacity, she oversaw the Arkansas Arts Council, Old State House Museum, Historic Arkansas Museum, Delta Cultural Center, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program and Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.  She served as Director for two years.

In 2003, she was appointed to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.  In that capacity, she has been involved in efforts to strengthen cultural offerings and facilities at the various campuses in the University of Arkansas system.

Her most recent cultural endeavor has been as a founder of Sculpture at the River Market.  In 2007, she helped recruit volunteers to create Little Rock’s first nation-wide sculpture invitational show and sale.  Since that time, Sculpture at the River Market has built a $2,000,000+ collection of public sculpture placed in beautiful surroundings along the banks of the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock.  As a result of pieces of these efforts, the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden was created in Riverfront Park.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Jeannette Edris Rockefeller

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J RockefellerJeannette Edris Rockefeller only lived in Arkansas for about fifteen years. But her impact on the cultural life of Little Rock and all of Arkansas continues to be felt today.

Born and raised in Seattle, as a young mother she met Winthrop Rockefeller while both were in New York.  He moved to Arkansas in 1953; after their 1956 marriage, she joined him. They split their time between Little Rock and Petit Jean.

In 1959, she was asked to become involved in plans for a new art museum in Little Rock.  She became a tireless advocate and fundraiser for the new Arkansas Arts Center.   In 1960, she assumed the role of president of the Arkansas Arts Center Board of Trustees, a position she held until 1968.  During that time period she oversaw the planning, construction and opening of the building.  She also invited Townsend Wolfe, who she had met when he taught some classes at the Arts Center, to apply to become the museum’s first executive director.

From 1967 to 1971, she was First Lady of Arkansas.  In that capacity, she supervised renovation of the Governor’s Mansion and started the tradition of displaying art on the walls.

Shortly after her 1971 divorce from Rockefeller, she relocated to California.  She continued to be a supporter of the Arts Center.  One of the galleries in the Arts Center is named in her honor.  In addition, one of the sculptures on the lawn of the Arts Center, Standing Red, was dedicated in 1970 in recognition of her service on the Arts Center Board.

MAC O LANTERNS in MacArthur Park

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There is a new tradition in MacArthur Park: Mac-O-Lanterns.  It is a pumpkin carving contest and night-time Jack O’Lantern celebration at downtown Little Rock’s MacArthur Park North Lawn.

October 25, 2014
MacArthur Park
601 E. Ninth Street, Downtown Little Rock

3-6 p.m. Pre-registered Carve & Walk-up $5 Paint a pumpkin .
6-6:24 p.m. Lighting
6:30-7:30 p.m. Judging

Visitors in the pumpkin patch 3-8 p.m.
Night celebration 5-8 p.m. with food trucks, music & libations
$5 entrance fee, children 12 & under free

7:30p.m. prizes announced and awarded:
$500 in the 100 lb. pumpkin category, winner determined by judges
$250 in the 25 lb. category, winner determined by people’s choice

To participate:
Link here for registration form. Complete the registration form and return as indicated; make payment by returning check with form, calling 501-375-0121 with your credit card or pay on Paypal here
Carver check-in is 3 p.m., Saturday, October 25.
Carving MUST be completed by 6 p.m. to be eligible for judging.

Two carving opportunities–
1. 75-100 lb. pumpkin: A team of four carvers max/ pumpkin. Registration donation of $40/ pumpkin, not per carver. Carvers ages 12 – 16 years old MUST be accompanied by an adult.
2. 25 lb. pumpkin: One carver per pumpkin. Registration donation $25. Carvers ages 12-16 years old MUST be accompanied by an adult.
No coolers allowed. Beer and food will be available for purchase after 5 p.m.
All entrants are to bring their own carving tools. Battery-powered hand tools are allowed. Pre-designed/ manufactured templates not allowed.

Portraits and Sculptures focus of new exhibits at Arkansas Arts Center

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arkartsThursday, October 23, 6 p.m., Lower Lobby Lecture Hall

Member Lecture and Reception
“Making Beckman” by Tom Butler, Director of the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia

Learn more about William Beckman’s gripping drawings in the first major retrospective of this great realists artist’s work on paper. The reception begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Alice Pratt Brown Atrium. Tickets are required to attend the lecture and are $15 for non-members and free for members. For more information or to reserve your ticket, call (501) 372-4000.

 

Friday, October 24, 2014 through February 1, 2015, Jeannette Edris Rockefeller and Townsend Wolfe Galleries

William Beckman: Drawings, 1967-2013

This exhibition includes intimate portraits of friends and family members, alongside arresting nudes of the artist and his wife. Some of the most attention-demanding works are massive portrayals of bulls. Accompanying the exhibition is a 112-page, full-color catalogue of Beckman’s work, which includes a revealing interview with the artist by exhibition curator Tom Butler and also illustrates archival photos from his childhood and college days. The catalogue is published by D Giles, Ltd., London. The exhibition was originated by the Columbus Museum in response to the ideas of Townsend Wolfe, the long-time director of the Arkansas Arts Center.

 

Friday, October 24, 2014 through January 18, 2015, Winthrop Rockefeller Gallery

The Sculpture of Stoney Lamar

This exhibition presents work from 1987 to the present. Uninspired by traditional turned wood vessel forms, Stoney Lamar embarked on a personal exploration of the lathe and other tools of turners and woodworkers. This spirit of experimentation has firmly placed his work in the avant-garde of the wood turning world. Not only was he one of the first to use multi-axial turning, but eventually he added steel, color and distressed surface treatments.

 

Friday, October 24, 12 – 1 p.m., Jeannette Edris Rockefeller and Townsend Wolfe Galleries
Feed Your Mind Friday with Artist William Beckman

Take an hour to feed your mind and learn more about William Beckman’s work in William Beckman: Drawings, 1967-2013. While Beckman’s paintings depict landscapes, figures, and still lifes, his most celebrated drawings are those of the human figure. Sign up at the Stephens Inc. Visitors Center to attend this free event. For more information, visit ArkansasArtsCenter.org or call (501) 372-4000.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Cheryl Griffith Nichols

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C NicholsCheryl Griffith Nichols is a historian, with an emphasis on historical structures, who has lived and worked in Arkansas since 1978.

She was born and raised in Indiana and graduated from Hanover College in 1974. After working for three years as the executive director of the Bartholomew County Historical Society in Columbus, Indiana, she enrolled in George Washington University in Washington DC, majoring in American studies with a concentration in historic preservation. While living in Washington, she worked for the National Register of Historic Places.

She moved to Little Rock in 1978, where she married attorney Mark Nichols and completed her Masters degree by writing a thesis on the Pulaski Heights community; the thesis was accepted in 1981. Meanwhile, Nichols became acquainted with Charles Witsell (a prominent Little Rock architect and historic preservation advocate) while he was working with F. Hampton Roy (a Little Rock ophthalmologist, historic preservation advocate and Little Rock City Director) to write a book about the history of Little Rock. Nichols did extensive research for the book, which was published in 1984 by August House as How We Lived: Little Rock as an American City.

Nichols then became a free-lance researcher, operating a business in Little Rock which she called History, Inc. This business did research and documentation of historic structures in Arkansas, mostly but not entirely in Pulaski County. Nichols also worked for the Museum of Science and History (now the Museum of Discovery) in Little Rock, served as the Executive Director of the Quapaw Quarter Association from 1984 through 1987 and again from 1991 through 1997, and wrote several books for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (Little Rock: Driving Tour of Three Historic Neighborhoods, 1989; MacArthur Park Historic Tours, 1993, Governor’s Mansion Area, 1993; Historically Black Properties in Little Rock’s Dunbar School Neighborhood, 1999, The Arkansas Designs of E. Fay Jones, 1999, Hillcrest: The History and Architectural Heritage of Little Rock’s Streetcar Suburb, 1999, and Construction of the Military Road Between Little Rock, Arkansas, and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, 2003.)

She has remained active in historic preservation efforts.  She has served on the board of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  She also served on a task force to determine the best use of Curran Hall.  Much of her research has been donated to the Arkansas Studies Institute.