Category Archives: Museum

Science After Dark: The Science of Africa

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science_after_darkThe Museum of Discovery, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, UALR and the Little Rock Zoo are partnering to present “The Science of Africa” from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, February 27, the latest in the Museum of Discovery’s monthly Science After Dark series.

The museum’s Great Hall will come alive with interactive, science-based experiences highlighting the physical and earth sciences of Africa. Dr. Warigia Bowman, assistant professor at the Clinton School, and Joel Gordon, visitor experience director at the Museum of Discovery, have collaborated to plan and execute an engaging series of interactive experiences

Other presenters will include Dr. Amin Akhnoukh of UALR, representatives of the Reptile Rescue Center, members of the education staffs of the Little Rock Zoo and the Museum of Discovery as well as Hamadi Njoroge, owner/operator of African Wildcats Adventure Safaris.

Those attending the 21-and-over-only event full of Africa science-based experiences will get the chance to:

  • Meet some African animals and learn more about many of the continent’s best-known inhabitants.
  • Examine some of the more exotic skeletons of African animals, pulled from the Museum of Discovery’s collection, as well as skulls, hides and other animal artifacts from the Little Rock Zoo.
  • Learn about the science and scientists of Africa, including troubling phenomena like the melting of the snow cap on Mount Kilimanjaro.
  • Explore “The Development of Construction from the Age of the Pharaoh to Modern Egypt,” as Dr. Akhnoukh talks about pyramids, pharaoh temples and newer projects such as the high dam in Aswan, Cairo Tower, the famous Alexandria Library, and the Egyptian Museum.
  • Enjoy African roots-based music.
  • And learn why deep down in our DNA, we are all African.

Dr. Bowman is an expert in the science of Africa. She earned her doctorate degree from Harvard University, where her Ph.D. research centered on the effect of technology in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. She has consulted for many African organizations, including the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, the African Technology Policy Studies Network and the New Economic Partnership for African Development.

Dr. Akhnoukh, a native of Egypt, is an assistant professor of construction engineering at UALR. He has his Ph.D. in construction engineering from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and his masters in civil engineering from Kansas State University. He research focuses on ultra-high strength concrete mixes. Dr. Akhnoukh is a registered professional engineer in Arkansas and Cairo. His board affiliations include serving on the board of the Arkansas chapter of the American Concrete Institute.

Hamadi is an expert on Kenyan animals, including many of the country’s 1,000 bird species as well as wild cats, including lions and leopards, and other important large game species including rhinos, elephants, giraffes and the numerous antelopes that make their home in the vast grasslands of East Africa.

Admission to Science After Dark is $5, free for Museum of Discovery members, and is payable at the door. Bosco’s will provide a cash bar, and visitors will have full access to the 85 interactive exhibits featured in the museum’s three galleries. For more information, visit www.museumofdiscovery.org and “like” Science After Dark on Facebook.

Distinguished Laureate Lecture tomorrow at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

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The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, welcomes world-renowned physicist Dr. Oliver Keith Baker for a Arkansas Black Hall of Fame Distinguished Laureate Lecture tomorrow.

Dr. Baker, a McGehee native , will lecture on his ground-breaking research on particle physics, also referred to as Higgs Boson and the ‘God particle.’  He was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2006. Dr. Baker is a Professor of Physics at Yale University.  He is also Director of the Arthur W. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Yale.

To bring students, educators should contact our Education Department at 501-683-3592.

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center honors the story of the Mosaic Templars of America and all of Arkansas’s African American history.  The museum is dedicated to telling the story of the African American experience in Arkansas. The Center’s name is taken from the Mosaic Templars of America, a black fraternal organization founded in Little Rock in 1883 whose headquarters sat on the prominent West Ninth and Broadway location.

The mission of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is to collect, preserve, interpret and celebrate Arkansas’s African American history, culture, and community from 1870 to the present, and to inform and educate the public about African American’s achievements – especially in business, politics, and the arts.The center’s exhibits highlight fraternal organizations, African American entrepreneurs as well as integration.

Arkansas Arts Center features Wendy Maruyama’s Executive Order 9066

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Watchtower

Wendy Maruyama
Watchtower, 2008

Exhibits look at Japanese-American internment camps during WWII

This exhibition combines two projects of Wendy Maruyama, a studio furniture maker and head of the studio furniture program at San Diego State University. These projects, the Tag Project and Executive Order 9066, together tell the story of the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.

In the Tag Project, Maruyama replicated 120,000 individual identification tags worn by the internees in the ten relocation camps, including two in Arkansas. Maruyama assembled the re-created paper tags in ten groups, each group representing all the internees at a specific camp. Each of these groupings hangs from the gallery ceiling and is about 11 feet tall. Maruyama has folded the Tag Project into a parallel project of hers titled Executive Order 9066 to show them together in this exhibition.

Executive Order 9066 was the directive signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordering the incarceration of all people of Japanese ancestry then resident in the United States. For the parallel project, Maruyama created work that explores ethnicity and identity through suitcases, footlockers and steamer trunks, artifacts from their owners’ forced relocation journey in 1942.

The exhibits were organized by The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston.

The Arts Center has collaborated with the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the Arkansas Center for History and Culture to organize Relics of Rohwer: Gaman and the Art of Perseverance, a related exhibition documenting the experiences and artwork of Japanese Americans at Rohwer, one of two internment camps located in Arkansas.The artwork is on loan from the Mabel Rose Jamison Vogel/Rosalie Santine Gould Collection, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System.

See Washington’s Family Bible on the Washington Birthday Holiday

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George Washington’s Family Bible

On exhibit through July 12, 2013

1presToday is the George Washington Birthday Holiday.  George Washington’s Family Bible is currently on display in Little Rock at Historic Arkansas Museum.  It is part of the museum’s exhibit, Treasures of Arkansas Freemasons, 1838 – 2013, on exhibit  through July 12, 2013, in the museum’s Study Gallery. The exhibit correlates with the 175th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas, in downtown Little Rock and also features which will be on display for the entire length of the exhibit. Admission to the exhibit is free.

The George Washington Family Bible is on loan from the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA. It contains Washington’s signature and notes written in his hand. George Washington was a life-long Mason, having joined as a young man. He was later asked to be Charter Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 2. renamed after his death Alexandria-Washington Lodge. The Lodge was the recipient of many of Washington’s personal possessions, including this family bible. The George Washington Masonic Memorial is now the repository of many of the Alexandria-Washington Lodge’s artifacts.

“Freemasonry has been described as a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, the goal of which is to take good men and make them better men,” guest curator Dick Browning wrote for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Along with the George Washington bibles, Arkansas treasures often imbued with the symbolism of freemasonry will be on exhibit, including masonic aprons and jewels, ceremonial trowels, gavels, a ballot box and the chair of Arkansas’s most famous Freemason, Albert Pike.

Museum of Discovery Earns National Recognition

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20120814-171022.jpgThe Institute of Museum and Library Services announced last week that the Museum of Discovery was a National Medal for Museum and Library Service finalist. The National Medal is the nation’s highest honor conferred on museums and libraries for service to the community and celebrates institutions that make a difference for individuals, families, and communities.

“On behalf of the dedicated staff at the Museum of Discovery,” we’d like to thank IMLS for recognizing the impact our newly refurbished museum has had on the 170,000 people who visited us in the first year after our grand reopening,” said Kelley Bass, museum CEO. “Among the 33 institutions named as finalists, the Museum of Discovery is one of only six science and technology centers that target children, which makes this honor even more notable for us.”

Medal finalists are selected from nationwide nominations of institutions that demonstrate innovative approaches to public service, exceeding the expected levels of community outreach. This year’s finalists exemplify the nation’s great diversity of libraries and museums and include an aquarium and marine science center, conservatory and botanical gardens, county library systems, individual libraries, children’s museums, an art museum, science centers, and more, hailing from across the country.

“Museums and libraries serve as community gathering places and centers for lifelong learning, and we are very proud to announce Museum of Discovery as a finalist for the 2013 National Medal,” said Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “This year’s finalists exemplify the many wonderful ways museums and libraries can respond to the needs and wants of the communities they serve.”

Finalists are chosen because of their significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. IMLS is encouraging community members who have visited Museum of Discovery to share their story on the IMLS Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/USIMLS. Visit the IMLS Facebook page to learn more about how these institutions make an impact. National Medal for Museum and Library Service winners will be announced this spring.

To learn more about the 2013 National Medal finalists, visit http://www.imls.gov/medals.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.  Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive.  To learn more, visit http://www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Museum of Discovery 

Located in Little Rock’s historic River Market District, the Donald W. Reynolds Science Center at the Museum of Discovery is central Arkansas’s premier science, technology and math center. With nearly 90 state-of-the-art interactive exhibits in three galleries focused on health, physical and earth sciences, and a highly trained staff, it is a leading resource for informal science-related education. The Donald W. Reynolds Science Center at the Museum of Discovery’s mission is to ignite a passion for science, technology and math in a dynamic, interactive environment.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded the Museum a $9.2 million grant solely dedicated to the renovation. The money paid for the renovation of 44,000 square feet of existing space, a 6,000 square-foot addition and new exhibits throughout the facility.

Reception on Feb 15 for New Exhibit at MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History

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macmuseLast April, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History launched a new temporary exhibit program entitled “American Heroes” to recognize individuals from our city and state for their military service.

On Friday, February 15, there will be a public reception for the next unveiling of “Arkansas Heroes.”

The exhibit, entitled “Veteran’s Photo Voice,” places cameras in the hands of veterans and gives them an opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts through photography. Displayed photos are accompanied by a brief narrative.

During the process, veterans document in pictures and words their own perceptions of their experiences and values. It is amazing to watch participants grow in confidence as they become adept at shooting photos expressive of their own lived experience.

The exhibit was developed by the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Museum is hosting the reception for its opening.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History was created to interpret our state’s military heritage from its territorial period to the present.

Located in the historic Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal–the birthplace of General Douglas MacArthur–the museum preserves the contributions of Arkansas men and women who served in the armed forces.

Exhibits feature artifacts, photographs, weapons, documents, uniforms and other military items that vividly portray Arkansas’s military history at home and abroad.

2nd Friday Art Night: Washington’s Inaugural Bible

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George Washington’s Inaugural Bible will be on exhibit at the museum during 2nd Friday Art Night on Friday, February 8, 5 – 8 pm; and on Saturday, February 9, 9 am to 5 pm. The bible is part of the museum’s upcoming exhibit, Treasures of Arkansas Freemasons, 1838 – 2013, on exhibit February 8 through July 12, 2013, in the museum’s Study Gallery.

The exhibit correlates with the 175th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas,Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas, in downtown Little Rock and also features George Washington’s Family Bible which will be on display for the entire length of the exhibit. Admission to the exhibit is free.

“The museum is delighted to have the opportunity to exhibit two rare bibles closely associated with America’s preeminent Mason of the colonial era, and our nation’s first president—George Washington,” said Historic Arkansas Museum Deputy Director and Chief Curator Swannee Bennett.

George Washington’s Inaugural Bible is on loan from St. John’s Lodge, No. 1. In New York on April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. When it was discovered that a bible had not been arranged for, one was provided by a Mason in attendance. The bible Washington used came from nearby St. John’s Lodge No. 1, Ancient York Masons—and they have preserved it ever since. George Washington’s Inaugural Bible has been used in the inaugural ceremonies of Warren G. Harding, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush.

The George Washington Family Bible is on loan from the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA. It contains Washington’s signature and notes written in his hand. George Washington was a life-long Mason, having joined as a young man. He was later asked to be Charter Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 2. renamed after his death Alexandria-Washington Lodge. The Lodge was the recipient of many of Washington’s personal possessions, including this family bible. The George Washington Masonic Memorial is now the repository of many of the Alexandria-Washington Lodge’s artifacts.