Category Archives: Lecture

Evolution of Jazz and its place on 9th Street focus of forum by Clinton School, Oxford American and Mosaic Templars

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jazz forumTonight (January 14) at 6pm at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Clinton School Speaker Series is presenting a forum on Jazz.  “Jazz: Evolution of an American Art Form and Its Place on 9th Street,” Jazz Symposium will be presented in partnership with the Oxford American and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

This panel discussion will be moderated by musician and lifelong jazz enthusiast, Chris Parker, and feature panelists Amina Claudine Myers (born in Blackwell, Ark.), a New York-based jazz singer and pianist; John Cain, a Little Rock-based activist and 9th Street historian; and Nathan Hood, a Hot Springs-based baritone saxophone player. The panel will share personal experiences as jazz musicians and lovers of the genre, as well as the art form’s historical context within the African American microeconomics that existed in U.S. cities prior to the Civil Rights movement.

At 7:30 p.m. — following the 60-minute symposium — a jazz ensemble led by Chris Parker will play a 60-minute set of music. Featured members of the ensemble will include bassist Bill Huntington, drummer Yvette ‘Babygirl’ Preyer, and saxophonist Nathan Hood. Parker, Huntington, Preyer, and Hood have worked with an impressive and wide range of musicians, including Ellis Marsalis, Dr. John, Benny Powell, Art Pepper, Isaac Hayes, and Harold Ousley, among others. Admission for the performance is $10 regular or $5 for students/artists.

Today’s Old State House Museum Brown Bag Lecture – AIRDOME: A HISTORY OF THE AIRDOME THEATER IN ARKANSAS

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OSH Brown BagToday (January 14)  at noon at the Old State House Museum, the first Brown Bag Lecture of 2016 takes place.

In the early 20th century, several of Arkansas’s small towns and smaller cities were host to Airdome theaters, an open-air movie theater. Ralph S. Wilcox of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program presents a talk about these early theaters for a Brown Bag Lunch Lecture at the Old State House Museum on Thursday, January 14, at noon. Once the Airdome appeared on the scene in Arkansas, it grew in popularity relatively quickly. By the mid-1910s at least sixteen communities in Arkansas had Airdomes. However, they closed just as quickly as they opened, and had virtually all disappeared by the mid-1920s. Learn more

Wilcox is a native of Meadville, Pennsylvania, and obtained his B.A. in History from Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA, and his M.S. in Historic Preservation from Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

The Old State House Museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Reinventing the Classroom, Rethinking Education this evening at the Clinton School

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This evening (January 12) at 6pm at the Clinton School, Dr. Harry Lewis will be discussing “Reinventing the Classroom, Rethinking Education.

Harry Lewis, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, is the author of numerous books and articles, including his celebrated book on higher education, “Excellence Without a Soul: Does Liberal Education Have a Future?”

As a member of the Harvard faculty since 1974 and the former Dean of Harvard College, he has helped launch thousands of Harvard undergraduates, including both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, into careers in computer science.

With “Reinventing the Classroom, Rethinking Education,” Lewis explores the movement of information online and how it challenges the old rule of the lecture hall as the place where information from the professor is passed on to the students, while also exploring the emergence of mass online education and rethinking how faculty use classroom time.

Architecture Design Network tonight presents Tommy Pacello discussing Innovations in City Building

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150511_Tommy_U3_Philly_Langdon_004INNOVATIONS IN CITY BUILDING: Lessons from Memphis, a lecture by Tommy Pacello

     DATE: Tuesday, January 19, 2016

    TIME:  6:00 p.m., preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m

PLACE: Arkansas Arts Center, 9th and Commerce, Little Rock, AR

Tommy Pacello will talk about lessons to be learned from the Memphis (TN) Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team (MMIDT), a body charged with helping struggling city neighborhoods become economically viable once again. Tasked with bringing about change, team members, with the assistance of public-private partnerships, work with distressed  communities as they deal with the challenges of urban blight, vacant properties, youth gun violence and the lack of adequate community services. Through the team’s efforts many distressed neighborhoods have been made livable again and enabled to sustain their viability.

Tommy Pacello is an attorney and city planner. He specializes in innovative yet pragmatic approaches to city buildings. He is currently consulting with U3 Advisors developing an Anchor Strategy around nine institutional anchors in Memphis, TN.

Prior to working with U3 Advisors, Tommy served as the Director of the Innovation Delivery Team in Memphis, Tennessee. This non-profit team, originally funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, is charged with developing strategies to address the city’s most pressing challenges. In Memphis, the team’s focus is on generating economic vitality in core city neighborhoods, reducing youth gun violence, reducing the number of blighted and vacant properties, and improving service delivery among city departments.

Tommy previously worked with the Austin, Texas based firm Code Studio where he managed several national planning and development code projects. Tommy started his career as an Assistant City Attorney in Memphis representing the city on legal matters involving planning, zoning, and constitutional law and managed the development of the city’s first unified development code.

Tommy was recently named one of the top 40 Real Estate Professionals under the age of 40 by Urban Land Magazine and serves as the Chairman of Mission Advancement for the Memphis Chapter of the Urban Land Institute. He is also actively involved with the Congress for the New Urbanism and is a frequent national speaker on civic innovation and urban issues.

Tommy earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia, Terry College of Business, and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis’ School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.  Tommy holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Memphis’ Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.

Pacello’s lecture is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required.

ADN supporters include the Arkansas Arts Center, the UA Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

For additional information, contact ardenetwork@me.com .  

Senator David Pryor in conversation with Skip Rutherford at today’s Legacies & Lunch

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CALS PryorLegacies & Lunch: Senator David Pryor
Senator David Pryor, founding dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, will be interviewed by Skip Rutherford, current dean of the Clinton School. Topics will include Pryor’s interest in history including his founding of the Pryor Center at the University of Arkansas, his life in politics, and his work at the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics at Harvard and at the Clinton School.  Senator Pryor will also discuss his late colleague Senator Dale Bumpers.

The conversation will take place today, January 6, at 12 noon at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

Pryor is the only person in Arkansas political history to have served in the Arkansas State Legislature, the United States House of Representatives, as governor of Arkansas, and in the U.S. Senate.
As a student at the University of Arkansas, Rutherford supported Pryor in his 1972 U.S. Senate campaign against Senator John McClellan. When Pryor was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978, Rutherford joined his staff and served there for almost six years. When Pryor stepped down as dean of the Clinton School in 2006, Rutherford succeeded him.
Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided.
They are expecting a large turnout for Legacies & Lunch . Parking at the CALS Main Library campus, where the Ron Robinson Theater is located, is very limited. Please plan to arrive early to allow ample time for parking and walking to the theater. Attendees may park for $2/hour per vehicle at the River Market Parking Deck, 500 East 2nd Street, which is operated by the City of Little Rock. This is the closest paid parking option. Attendees may also park for free at the Clinton School of Public Service and walk to the theater (approx. 0.5 mile, 10-15 min. walking distance).

2015 In Memoriam – Kula Kumpuris

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1515 Kumpuris

In these final days of 2015, we pause to look back at 15 who influenced Little Rock’s cultural scene who left us in 2015.

Kula Kumpuris owned every room she entered.  Whether she was holding court at Satellite Café or at the Capital Hotel, her sparkling eyes, generous smile and warm spirit entranced everyone.

She was devoted to her family and friends, always wanting to know the latest achievements or funny stories. Her zest for knowledge also extended to learning from books and keeping up with current events.

Born in Pine Bluff, she retained her girlhood friends throughout her life. She never shed friends, she only added to them through the various stages of life.

In 2006, her sons and daughter and their families established the Frank and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series at the Clinton School of Public Service in honor of Kula and her late husband.  In announcing the gift, son Dean Kumpuris noted that his parents, always believed “that through understanding, teaching and discussion, the world could be a better place, and they taught us that giving back to the community and the world is important and worthwhile. So, we decided that in keeping with our parents’ teachings, the Clinton School of Public Service was a perfect place to give back.”

For many years, Kula would be on the front row at the lecture series with an open mind awaiting the information from the speaker, and an engaging smile.

She was also a fixture at the annual Sculpture at the River Market show and sale. She charmed artists and arts patrons alike. Even as she found it harder to get around in later years, she was still a regular presence at the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, usually with her friend Jeane Hamilton.

A longtime and active member of the Little Rock Garden Club, Kula Kumpuris cultivated friendships with people from all walks of life as easily as she cultivated plants and flowers.

15 Highlights of 2015 – Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter led panel at Clinton Presidential Center

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Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter addressing the audience. Photo by James Doyle

On October 21, 2015, Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter and a distinguished panel of Arkansas educators and artistic directors discussed national trends in teaching the arts and humanities, while exploring new ways to give Arkansas schools access to combined national and local resources.

While no single cultural institution in Arkansas can match the reach & multi-disciplinary offerings of The Kennedy Center, Little Rock and Arkansas have many of the same resources distributed across multiple institutions. Educators and arts advocates from across the state participated in this very important conversation about the transformation of arts and humanities education in Arkansas through deeper collaboration between these institutions.
The program included two engaging panels.
Educator Discussion Panelists
  • Joy Pennington ( Moderator ), Executive Director, Arkansas Arts Council
  • Zinse Aggine, Teaching Artist and Musician
  • Jama Best, Senior Program Officer, Arkansas Humanities Council
  • Dr. Jeff Grubbs, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
  • Lana Hallmark, Fine Arts Coordinator, Arkansas Department of Education
  • Melanie Landum, Executive Director, Arkansas A+ Schools
  • Dr. Lenore Shoults, Executive Director, The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
Institution Discussion Panelists
  • Dr. Todd Herman  ( Moderator ), Executive Director, Arkansas Arts Center
  • Sericia Cole, Director, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center
  • Robert Hupp, Producing Artistic Director, Arkansas Repertory Theatre
  • Philip Mann, Music Director, Arkansas Symphony
  • Deborah Rutter, President, The Kennedy Center
  • Stephanie S. Streett, Executive Director, Clinton Foundation
This event was hosted by the Clinton Foundation; President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts member, Kaki Hockersmith; Mid-America Arts Alliance; Donna and Mack McLarty; and the Stella Boyle Smith Trust.