Category Archives: Design

Back to the Future: The Rise of NeoTraditionalism in Urban Planning at the Clinton School today

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clinton-school-logoIn “Back to the Future: The Rise of NeoTraditionalism in Urban Planning,” Karl Besel explores new urbanism and urban revitalization within the context of public policy trends, such as regional governance and the role of non-profits. The book primarily assesses the commonalities between suburban new urbanist development and inner city redevelopment projects, connecting the roots of historical preservation communities to New Urbanism.

Karl Besel is an Associate Professor at Indiana University Kokomo. His administrative experience outside of academia includes serving for five years as the CEO of a court-related agency that provided a variety of health and human service programs within Johnson County, Indiana. He also worked as the director of a health clinic at the University of Louisville for two years.  Before becoming an administrator, he served as a clinical social worker for hospitals and outpatient facilities within the Louisville area.

His research on nonprofit management within the health and human services field has been published within a number of internationally recognized, peer reviewed journals. In addition to these publications on healthcare related agencies nationally, he has also conducted research on NGOs within the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Jamaica, and India related to economic development, real estate development, as well as nonprofit sustainability. His latest book project is entitled Back to the Future: The Rise of NeoTraditionalism in Urban Planning.

ESSE Purse Museum Opens New Exhibit Today – On Hats

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Esse Purse HatsThe ESSE Purse Museum & Store is opening a new temporary exhibit today. Entitled “The Milliner’s Art” it runs through Sunday, June 8.  Though the ESSE Purse Museum & Store mainly focuses on purses/handbags/clutches/etc., this exhibit looks at another fashion accessory which also tells the story of the changing roles and tastes of women through the years.

The exhibit features vintage hats (circa 1910-1960) from the collections of Anita Davis and Catherine Nugent.  Admission to the exhibit is $10, $8 seniors and students.

ESSE Purse Museum & Store is located at 1510 South Main.  It is the culmination of owner Anita Davis’ dream of sharing her love of purses, art and history — while honoring women and their struggles, accomplishments, hopes and dreams.

More than just a fashion history, ESSE shows the evolution of the 20th-century American woman — decade by decade — not only through the bags she carried but through their contents. More than a trip down memory lane or history lesson, ESSE Purse Museum is a don’t-miss experience.

ESSE grew out of a traveling exhibit selected from Davis’ extensive collection. From 2006 to 2011, “The Purse & the Person: A Century of Women’s Purses” (curated by Curatrix Group and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services) traveled the country.  Now Davis has brought her handbags back to Little Rock for good and given them a home worthy of the part they have played in women’s lives and history. ESSE is housed in a historic building in SoMa, an up-and-coming, hip neighborhood in downtown Little Rock.

 

Learn about Ark Rep LES MIZ costumes tonight

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cosette marius smallreplesmizThis is the final week for LES MISERABLES on stage at the Arkansas Rep. Tickets are still available for performances through Sunday, April 6 at 7pm.

While there is not a performance tonight, there is still a chance for a LES MIZ experience at the Rep.

Join Rafael Castanera, Production Manager and Costume Designer, as he discusses his creative vision for Les Miserables.
See the remarkable costumes and wigs from the production and learn how Mr. Castanera developed each character.

5:30 to 7:00 pm
5:30 registration and cash bar
6:00 discussion begins

RSVP required
No charge for members, $10 for Non Members | RSVP to cbays@therep.org or call 501.378.0445 ext 211

Performances for the final week of Les Miserables are 7pm on Wednesday and Thursday, 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 2pm & 7pm on Sunday.

Join Rafael Castanera, Production Manager and Costume Designer, as he discusses his creative vision for Les Miserables.

See the remarkable costumes and wigs from the production and learn how Mr. Castanera develops each character. 

– See more at: http://www.therep.org/attend/events/default.aspx?eventid=71#sthash.bglUKxXp.dpuf

Join Rafael Castanera, Production Manager and Costume Designer, as he discusses his creative vision for Les Miserables.

See the remarkable costumes and wigs from the production and learn how Mr. Castanera develops each character. 

– See more at: http://www.therep.org/attend/events/default.aspx?eventid=71#sthash.bglUKxXp.dpuf

Join Rafael Castanera, Production Manager and Costume Designer, as he discusses his creative vision for Les Miserables.

See the remarkable costumes and wigs from the production and learn how Mr. Castanera develops each character. 

– See more at: http://www.therep.org/attend/events/default.aspx?eventid=71#sthash.bglUKxXp.dpuf

Chris Olsen at QQA Preservation Conversation tonight

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ChrisHOlsenThe Quapaw Quarter Association’s award-winning Preservation Conversation series continues tonight.

The program takes place this evening at Curran Hall, 615 East Capitol Avenue. From 5:30 to 6:00 a reception will take place. The program will run from 6:00 to 7:00.

This evening’s speaker will be Chris H. Olsen, a nationally known home and garden guru, designer, author, TV personality and public speaker. Chris will be speaking on landscaping for historic homes.   Learn more about Chris at http://www.chrisholsen.com/.

Landscape Designer Chris H. Olsen attended Oxford University in England, studying landscape architecture, landscape principals, and philosophy and also graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in business. Chris has over 25 years of landscape architecture and interior design experience. In partnership with his father, Chris obtained a landscape maintenance company called Doramus and established the Horticare Landscape Company. After only ten years, the company grew into five divisions: chemical, maintenance, landscape, nursery, and irrigation. In 2003, Chris opened his second home and garden store called Botanica Gardens on Rebsamen Park Road. In September of 2005, Chris chose to pursue other endeavors in his life and sold Horticare.  His new book called “Five Seasons with Chris Olsen” was released in December of 2011.

QQA

The Quapaw Quarter Association’s mission is to promote the preservation of Little Rock’s architectural heritage through advocacy, marketing and education. Incorporated in 1968, the QQA grew out of an effort to identify and protect significant historic structures in Little Rock during the urban renewal projects of the early 1960s. Throughout its existence, the QQA has been a driving force behind historic preservation in Greater Little Rock.

Architecture critic Mark Lamster featured tonight at Architecture & Design Network

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Smark-lamster-presented-dallas-archit-66IZING UP ARCHITECTURE: A Critic’s View

Mark Lamster
Architecture Critic | Dallas Morning News 
Assistant Professor and Dillon Center Fellow | School of Architecture University of Texas Arlington

DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 2014
TIME: 6:00 pm, preceded by a reception at 5:30
PLACE: Arkansas Arts Center lecture hall

Architecture critics are a rare breed in this part of the country. Mark Lamster, a recent arrival at the Dallas Morning News, offers a perspective on the built environment that enables others to see and talk about their surroundings in new and different ways. Lamster, who also teaches a graduate seminar on criticism and critical writing at the University, has, according to the newspaper’s editor, Bob Mong, a “range of interests that rivals those of any architecture critic in the country.” His background in art as well as architecture informs his writing. A contributing editor to Architectural Review and Design Observer, his work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other national publications. Lamster is currently at work on a definitive new biography of the late architect Philip Johnson who, among his many accomplishments, established the architecture department at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The book is to be published by Little Brown.

For more than a decade, Lamster served as editor of the Princeton Architecture Press. He is the author of several books including Master of Shadows (2009) a political biography of the painter Peter Paul Rubens. Baseball fans may be familiar with his first book, Spalding’s World Tour, the story of a group of all-star baseball players who circled the globe in the 19th Century. That work was a New York Times Editor’s selection. Lamster, a native of New York City, has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. from Tufts.

Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network lecture series include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture and the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture. All Network lectures are free and open to the public. For further information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Gardner and historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan at Clinton School today at noon

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todd-portrait-52b41521e74e7Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is an author, historian, gardener, geographer, and landscape architect will be speaking at the Clinton School today at noon.

Since entering into private practice, Longstaffe-Gowan has advised on a number of public and private historic landscapes. He has developed and implemented long-term landscape management plans for the National Trust, English Heritage and consulted on historic landscapes including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, and the Crown Estate. Longstaffe-Gowan will discuss his re-presentation of the pleasure grounds at Kensington Palace to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen. The Kensington Palace Gardens has been a favorite place of residence for various members of the royal family including Queen Victoria, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and will soon be the London home of Prince William and Princess Catherine.

Longstaffe-Gowan takes on a range of projects in Britain and abroad, many with a conservation slant. ‘My work reflects my interest in the dramatic and sculptural potential of landscape, and is imbued with whimsical, historical eclecticism’, he says. ‘I like to think that my gardens are intelligent as well as beautiful, as they are informed by my training as an architect, landscape architect, geographer and historian.’

Longstaffe-Gowan appears at the Clinton School in partnership with P. Allen Smith.

Marching to Historic Arkansas Museum and Butler Center for 2nd Friday Art Night

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March 2FAN

It is time again for 2nd Friday Art Night in Downtown Little Rock.  Numerous locations from 5pm to 8pm with free admission and free shuttle to various sites.

Ciara Long: A Different Perspective – at Historic Arkansas Museum‘s Second Floor Gallery.
Opening tonight and running through May 4, 2014 – Ciara Long’s art reflects the itinerate life of a military child. Moving from place to place, Long ritualistically sketched the people she met and left behind. “The fragmented lifestyle of my past has directly influenced the way I observe the environment around me now,” says Long.

The body of work on exhibit illustrates Long’s ongoing process of elaborately encoding her observations and has been carefully organized according to place of occurrence, specific moments in time, or specific individuals.

At the Butler Center Galleries of the Central Arkansas Library System –

Featured artist: Judy Tipton Rush is a self-educated fiber artist who studied at the University of Arkansas and came to her avocation from an art background. Her work has been exhibited in numerous juried shows and has toured the United States and abroad. Her work is also included in many private collections.
Featured musician: Tribal Motion & the Motioneers will pair bellydance performances with rhythmic tribal drumming.
Opening exhibitions:

Southern Voices: A Regional Exhibition of the Studio Art Quilt Associates – This show features contemporary textile works related to the folk art quilt tradition. Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibition, professional development, and documentation. SAQA defines an art quilt as “a creative visual work that is layered or stitched or that references this form of stitched layered structure.” SAQA was founded in 1989 by a group of 50 artists and now has over 3,000 members.

An Exhibition of the Arkansas Printmakers Association – This show features prints in a variety of artistic media by members of the Arkansas Printmakers Association. Artist whose work will be shown include Robert Bean, Win Bruhl, Warren Criswell, Debi Findley, Melissa Gill, Diane Harper, Neal Harrington, Evan Lindquist, Dominique Simmons, Tom Sullivan, David Warren, Jorey May Greene, and Jane Watson.