Category Archives: Holidays

ASO Holiday Show This Weekend

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Join Maestro Philip Mann and your ASO in a FUN-PACKED program for the whole family, featuring vocalists Leslie Harper and Charity Vance, members of Arkansas Rep’s Young Artists program, choirs, dancing Santas, and more.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents a brand new show written and directed by Nicole Capri of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Among the highlights will be favorite Christmas Carols such as “Hark the Harold Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” as well as Christmas classics like “O Holy Night” and “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

This will be the final ASO holiday show in Robinson until 2016 (though they will take place in other locations during 2014 and 2015).  Bring your friends and family for the perfect way to get in the holiday spirit!

Performances are Friday, December 20 at 7:30pm; Saturday, December 21 at 8:00pm; and Sunday, December 22 at 3:00pm.

Tales From The South Season Finale

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talesfromsouthTonight’s edition of ”Tales from the South” is the season finale. It will feature the top six stories of the year. Music is by Mister Morphis and blues guitarist Mark Simpson

“Tales From the South” is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

The program takes place at Starving Artist Café. Dinner is served from 5pm to 6:30pm, the show starts at 7pm. Admission is $7.50, not including dinner.

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.

CALS Accepts FOOD FOR FINES this week

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Central Arkansas Library System sets Food for Fines dates Shed unwanted library fines this holiday season. The Central Arkansas Library System is continuing its annual tradition of helping those in need by holding its annual Food for Fines week beginning Monday, December 16 and continuing through Sunday, December 22.

The Food for Fines program gives patrons an opportunity to help others in central Arkansas while offsetting fines for overdue library materials. Patrons may donate non-perishable food items when returning overdue materials to erase the fine for that item as well as any other existing overdue fines. Each non-perishable food item brought represents one dollar. Patrons may donate up to ten food items to cancel up to ten dollars of fines. Food donations may not be used to waive charges for items that are lost or were previously billed to patrons. We encourage patrons to bring additional food items to help with the food drive.

Food collected during the drive will be donated to Arkansas Rice Depot, which has been working to alleviate hunger in Arkansas for more than 25 years. Donations will also be used to support Rice Depot’s Food for Kids program, which operates during the school year providing backpacks of “kid-friendly” food children can take home to eat during the weekend. Items needed for Food for Kids are ravioli, peanut butter, tuna, canned fruit, pudding cups, cereal and granola bars.

Holiday Events at Old State House Museum today

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oldstatehouseHoliday Open House
1:00-3:00PM
The traditions of joyous family holiday celebrations past can be relived at Holiday Open House. Visitors will find the Old State House colorfully decorated for the season. Fun, hands-on activities will be available to children; they can create unique holiday cards and more. Delightful carols will be performed by local music groups. Visitors will also enjoy delicious cookies and punch. Call (501) 324-9685 for more information. Admission is free.

Arkansas Chamber Singers Holiday Concert: Spirit of the Season
3:00PM
The Old State House Museum welcomes the Arkansas Chamber Singers performing their annual holiday concert. The program will include familiar carols and songs of the season featuring new works by Arkansas composers performed in the acoustically rich house chamber of the Old State House Museum for three nights. Admission is free, but seating may be limited, so reserve your seats now at http://www.ar-chambersingers.org/holiday.htm

Ballet Arkansas’ THE NUTCRACKER this weekend

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One of the sure signs of the Christmas season is the return of The Nutcracker to ballet companies across America.  Ballet Arkansas presents the annual production this weekend.  Performances started last night and continue this evening and tomorrow afternoon.  (School performances are going on throughout the week.)

Celebrate the season with your professional ballet company as we continue a favorite Christmas tradition performing The Nutcracker accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Geoffrey Robson. Every year this fun field production creates lifelong memories for hundreds of Arkansas families. With gorgeous scenery, enchanting costumes and original choreography, Ballet Arkansas will present The Nutcracker at Robinson Center Music Hall.

The ballet will come to life through the efforts of Ballet Arkansas’ ten professional company members and a handful of guest artists leading two casts totaling more than 200 dancers, actors and students (of all ages) from across the state.

Ballet Arkansas is under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bearden and Executive Director Lauren Strother.  Marla Edwards is the Ballet Mistress.  Company members include Lauren McCarty Horak, Leslie Dodge, Toby Lewellen, Amanda Sewell, Laurel Dix, Katchiri Feys Tillman, Paul Tillman, Lauren Bodenheimer, Justin Metcalf-Burton, Deanna Karlheim and Julianne Zilah.

The Nutcracker is the perfect yuletide gift, the ideal means of introducing children to the power and beauty of classical dance, and a delightful way for the entire family to ring in the holiday season. Make Ballet Arkansas’ Nutcracker part of your holiday celebration this December! To purchase tickets to The Nutcracker, visit www.balletarkansas.org or call 501-666-1761.

Ballet Arkansas performances of The Nutcracker are generously sponsored by: Orthodontic Associates, Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Pleasant Ridge Towne Center, The Dance & More Store, Arkansas Times along with support from the Arkansas Arts Council.

9th Nog Off, Other Activities at Historic Arkansas Museum tonight and Saturday

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9th Ever Nog-off

This Friday
December 13
5 – 8 pm
Free
Plus opening reception for two new exhibits: Dream and Imagery Entailed: Kerrick Hartman and LaToya Hobbs and A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America
Historic Arkansas Museum’s 9th Ever Nog-off is a culinary celebration of a favorite holiday drink, and friendly competition for the best eggnog in town.
 
The Noggers: The Honorable Mark Stodola; David Burnette, South on Main; Darryl Downs, Capital Hotel Bar and Grill; Bridget Fennell Farris; Laurie Harrison, Le Pops; Sally Mengel, Loblolly Creamery; Copper Grill
 
The Celebrity Judges: Darla Huie, Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro; P. Allen Smith; Amanda Hoelzeman, Arkansas Business
 
Shop for your holiday gifts in the Museum Store. During the Nog-off we’ll have:
Jann Greenland with her jewelry and fused glass stars
Jane F. Hankins signing copies of her book, The Thirty-Foot Elvis
Thomas Hankins making crystal ornaments and jewelry
Kat Robinson signing copies of her book, Ozark Eateries
 

 

Dream and Imagery Entailed

Kerrick Hartman and LaToya Hobbs
Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists
December 13 through February 9, 2014
 

Stuttgart artist Kerrick Hartman focuses on stone, wood and metal sculpture using the Arkansas landscape as inspiration for his work. He says, “To take a stone or other lifeless, stationary material and convey a sense of spiraling, undulating motion to an object is at its core a testimonial of hope and celebration of life’s design.”

North Little Rock native LaToya Hobbs, printmaker and painter, works with figurative imagery that addresses the ideas of beauty and spirituality. Her work is an investigation of how past influences, expectations and preferences resonate with women of color in the 21st century and are expressed through the canvases of our bodies.


46th Annual Christmas Frolic

This Saturday
December 14
10 am – 4 pm
Frolicking in the  Grog Shop from 1 to 4 pm
Free
 
Keep your family tradition going, or make a new one and join hundreds of others who have danced their first Virginia Reel in the Hinderliter Grog Shop, the oldest house in Little Rock. It’s always fun to watch your kids sashay down the line for the first time, or to brush up on your own steps.

From sack races to stilts, from fiddling to frolicking, this favorite seasonal event charms one and all with old fashioned fun. Bring the whole family out and enjoy live music, crafts, carols, pioneer games and our famous hot cider and ginger cake.

 
*Bowie Knife opening weekend activities happening simultaneously. See below. All free and open to the public.*

 

A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America

The largest and most important exhibit ever done on America’s iconic contribution to the world of blades
 
Horace C. Cabe Gallery
December 13 through June 22, 2014
Opening reception during the 9th Ever Nog-off
 

A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America will trace the history of this country’s most famous knife from just before its birth in a rough melee on a sandbar above Natchez, Mississippi in 1827, to the skilled craftsmen who keep the classic blade alive to this day in the form of hand crafted reproductions and modernized versions.

The exhibit of more than 200 knives includes knife designs associated with Alamo martyr James Bowie and his less famous brother Rezin, as well as bowie knives once owned by such historic figures as Davy Crockett, Theodore Roosevelt, General Winfield Scott and John Fox “Bowie Knife” Potter. The role of the bowie knife in the Antebellum era is explored along with the Civil War and the opening of the west, and there’s a special focus on the role bowie knives played in the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

 

Bowie Knife Symposium on Friday

This Friday
12:30 to 4:30 pm
Museum’s Ottenheimer Theater
Free

12:30    Mark Zalesky, Guest Curator and Editor of Knife World
                “Samuel Bell, The Tiffany of Texas and Tennessee”
1:30        Bill Worthen, Historic Arkansas Museum Director
                “James Black and the Bowie Knife”
2:30        Josh Phillips, Co-Author of Confederate Bowie Knives
                “Identifying Counterfeit Bowie Knives”
3:30        Garry Zalesky, ABKA Life Member and lender to the exhibit
                “Folding Bowie and Folding Dirk Knives”

Bowie Knife Opening Weekend Activities

This Saturday
December 14
Free
 
Bladesmithing in the Blacksmith Shop
With Master Bladesmith Lin Rhea
10 am – Noon; 1 – 4 pm
 
Gallery Talks
With Guest Curator Mark Zalesky and Museum Director Bill Worthen
Throughout the day
 
Jim Bowie Live!
Catch Jack Edmondson’s portrayal of Jim Bowie.
 
Knife Film Festival
In the museum’s Otttenheimer Theater
10 am – The Iron Mistress
12 pm – The Sandbar Duel documentary for Natchez TV
12:30 – The Adventures of Jim Bowie
1:00 – Dirty Work: Arkansas’s Knife Heritage from Bowie to Rambo
1:30 – The Iron Mistress
3:30 – The Sandbar Duel documentary for Natchez TV
 
*Christmas Frolic activities happening simultaneously. See above. All free and open to the public.*

 

 

Festivus 2013

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QQAAn organization dedicated to historic preservation continues to make history by hosting the third ever official Festivus party in Little Rock.

Festivus is a festival for the best of us.

Festivus attendees will not be required to perform feats of strength, air grievances or decorate the pole.  All they will be required to do is have a fun time and enjoy the opportunity to bid on great auction items.

When: Tuesday, December 10 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Where: Arkansas Governor’s Mansion

Tickets are $50 at the door.  QQA memberships are also available at the door.  The price includes food and open bar.

Proceeds benefit the preservation programs of the Quapaw Quarter Association.