The monthly 2nd Friday Art Night is tonight at various locations in downtown Little Rock.
Among the participating sites are Historic Arkansas Museum, the Old State House Museum, Christ Episcopal Church, studioMain, Hearne Fine Art, and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.
Art, music, food, drinks and its all free from 5pm to 8pm. Transportation from the various sites is provided by a free shuttle as well.
At the recent “A Night in the Garden” party, guests chose the recipient of the third annual public art monument design competition. The three finalists were Lorri Acott’s On the Shoulders of Giants, Mark Leichliter’s Through the Looking Glass and Ted Schaal’s Open Window. At stake was a $60,000 commission and placement of the sculpture in Riverfront Park.
The winner was Schaal.
Ted Schaal graduated from Colorado State University, class of 1992, with a BFA concentrating on fiber arts and sculpture. He has been working as an artist and craftsman in Loveland since 1993. Ted chooses to produce his work in bronze and stainless steel so that his pieces will withstand the harshest of natural elements and should last for many generations.
Between 1993 and 2005 Ted’s work focused on functional designs in the form of boxes, treasuries and reliquaries. You will find mountain scenes, native flowers and Art Deco inspired designs embellishing the intricately carved exterior. Some special pieces have hand-woven tapestries adorning the interior walls. “I sculpt functional forms that are designed to enhance the everyday experiences of the user by creating a special and sometimes sacred interaction with the personalized contents of each piece.”
In 2004, he began using his corrugated texture to create strong geometric vessel forms. They are non-functional purely decorative objects for the home. The final compositions are reminiscent of artifacts from antiquity, designed to raise questions about their origins as well as their implied functions.
Recently, Ted has been exploring strong geometric forms in combination with a primitive corrugated texture, smooth and polished surfaces. The goal is an interesting juxtaposition of materials and surface textures. Moving away from the utilitarian boxes and non-functional vessels of his past, Ted’s new work is purely sculptural emphasizing strong horizontal balance, tension, and negative space. Larger forms frame and direct the viewer toward a focal point or focal space. “Functional objects have size limitations whereas sculpture does not.”
Ted publicly exhibits his work in galleries and juried exhibitions in Colorado, Arkansas, Kentucky, Kansas and Texas. He has established a collector base that stretches from New Hampshire to California and across the Oceans to Hawaii, Spain and Japan. His public placements include: The Compass Rose with Solstice Markers (2004) Washington University, St. Louis, MO. The Mirage Monument (2008) Cerritos Sculpture Garden, Cerritos, CA. The Mirage (2007) Sculpture Garden at Riverfront Park, Little Rock, AR.
A list of award winning exhibitions includes: “2005 Bacchus 4th Annual Juried Art Exhibition and Auction,” Denver CO. – Best of Show, 3D. “2005 Conifer Arts Festival,” Conifer CO. – Best of Show, Sculpture. “34th Annual CHUN Capitol Hill Peoples Fair,” Denver CO. – Best of Show, Sculpture. “7th Annual Colorado Arts Festival,” Denver CO. – Best in Show. “2005, 2006, 2007 Englewood Arts National Juried Art Show,” Englewood CO. “The 1993 Wood, Glass, Fiber, Metal and Clay Art Show,” Steamboat Springs CO. – First Place Hope Chest, Second Place Circle.
The 2011 recipient was Chapel for The Center. Last year, Arkansan Bryan Massey won with Nautilus.
On October 18, 1988, the City of Little Rock Board of Directors adopted the first official flag for the City of Little Rock.
The adoption of Ordinance No. 15,566 was the culmination of a design competition which had been spearheaded by Little Rock City Director Sharon Priest (later Little Rock Mayor, Arkansas Secretary of State and now Executive Director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership).
Prior to the Official Board of Directors meeting that day, a press conference was held in the Little Rock City Board Chambers for presentation of the City’s flag. The City Beautiful Commission, a commission of the Department of Parks and Recreation, sponsored a the contest which received a total of fifteen flag designs.
The flags were judged October 12, 1988, by City Directors and City Beautiful Commission Members. Director Sharon Priest presented the winning flag and introduced David Wilson, a law clerk at the Mitchell Law Firm, who designed the flag chosen for the $1,000 first prize. The second -place winner was Craig Rains, who received $500; and the third -place recipient was David Tullis, who received $250.
The flag was adopted by the City Board that night by a 6-0 vote; former mayor and current director Charles Bussey was absent. Those voting to adopt the flag were Mayor Lottie Shackelford and directors Sharon Priest, Tom Prince, Buddy Villines, Buddy Benafield and Tom Milton. Priest would be a future mayor while Prince, Villines and Benafield had all served as mayor.
The official description of the flag is as follows:
As the official flag of the City of Little Rock, its symbolism is described as follows: A clean white background of the banner represents the optimism and open potential that the city has to offer. The royal blue horizontal broad stripe symbolizes the Arkansas River which borders Little Rock, and has served as an economical and historical emblem since the city’s beginning. The forest green stripe runs vertical to the royal blue stripe, creating a cross which symbolizes the location and statute of Little Rock—a city serving not only as the crossroads of Arkansas, but a crossroad of the mid-southern United States as well.
The strong forest green color depicts the fields, parks and forests which contribute to the natural beauty of the city. The seal of the flag is a modernized adaptation of the current Little Rock seal. The razorback red silhouette of the great State of Arkansas shows her capitol, the City of Little Rock, represented by the centered star. The star rises directly above “The Little Rock”—the protruding cliff along the Arkansas River, which was discovered in 1722 by French explorer La Harpe, when the city was given the name. The Arkansas River behind the rock and the symmetrical oak leaves in the border of the seal are a stylized illustration of what the flag’s stripes represent—the natural beauty of the city. Finally, the gold color of the seal and bordering stripes symbolize the superior economic history, and the future economic potential that is available in the City of Little Rock, Arkansas.
Last 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.
Tuesday, 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.
Nine Arkansas artists will be celebrated today when the Arkansas Arts Council honors the recipients of its Individual Artist Fellowship awards. The artists will be recognized at a reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 6, at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.
The Arkansas Arts Council awarded nine artist fellowships in the amount of $4,000 each. Fellowships are awarded annually to artists in Arkansas in recognition of their individual artistic abilities. These fellowships enable artists to set aside time for creating their art and improving their skills. Three artistic disciplines are selected each year as categories for the awards.
The three categories for this year are Literary Arts: Playwriting; Performing Arts: Directing of Narrative and Documentary Films; and Visual Arts: Creating Contemporary and Traditional Crafts.
The fellowship recipients were selected by a jury of out-of-state professional artists, writers, performers and art administrators.
Literary Arts: Playwriting
Kelley Smith Pruitt, Little Rock – In a Year’s Time
Clinnesha D. Sibley, Fayetteville – Tell Martha Not to Moan
Werner Trieschmann, Little Rock – Disfarmer
Performing Arts: Directing of Narrative and Documentary Films
Joshua H. Miller, Little Rock – Pillow
Mark Thiedeman, Little Rock – Last Summer
Nathan Willis, Little Rock – “The Van”
Visual Arts: Creating Contemporary and Traditional Crafts
Ed Pennebaker, Osage – blown glass, stone and metal work
Timothy LaTourette, Fayetteville – wood, lighting and printmaking
Adam Posnak, West Fork – functional ceramic with stark black, white and red imagery
The Arkansas Arts Council is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
The Quapaw Quarter Association will host its annual membership meeting on Wednesday, October 2 in the Ottenheimer Theater at Historic Arkansas Museum. The evening will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception in the atrium, the membership meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. Nonmembers of the organization are invited to join at the door.
Board members standing for re-election this year are:
Chuck Cliett
John Herzog
Gabe Holmstrom
Cheri Nichols
Shana Woodard
Following a short business meeting, the Greater Little Rock Preservation Awards will be presented to projects in SoMa, the Governor’s Mansion Historic District, MacArthur Park Historic District and Main Street Commercial Historic District. Anthony Black will receive the Peg Smith Award for his many years of exemplary volunteer work on QQA projects and programs. Mayor Mark Stodola will receive the Jimmy Strawn Award. Since 1980, the QQA has presented its most prestigious award to “someone whose efforts on behalf of the preservation of Greater Little Rock’s architectural heritage are an inspiration to the entire community.”
Senator David Pryor will join the QQA as guest speaker to close out the evening.
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.
Rhea Roberts serves as the executive director.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 