Category Archives: Museum

2nd Friday Art Night – Bicentennial Bash at Historic Arkansas Museum

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In conjunction with the 200th anniversary of the creation of the Arkansas Territory, Historic Arkansas Museum is hosting a Bicentennial Bash.

Join them from 5 – 8 pm, for 2nd Friday Art Night, with live music by Two Larks in the Morning and #ArkansasMade beer from 6 Mile Brewing of Ozark

Life in the Western Country: Arkansaw Territory from 1819-1836
This exhibit celebrates the 200th anniversary of the creation of “Arkansaw” Territory. Historical documents, like the deed to the first newspaper print shop west of the Mississippi, provide context for stories of opportunity and westward migration, while a needlework sampler stitched by a young Cherokee girl at the Presbyterian school known as Dwight Mission speaks to the displacement and cultural assimilation of Native Americans.
In the Theater
Celebrate 200 Years of Pulaski County with a talk in HAM’s Ottenheimer Theater at 6 pm, featuring Jim Metzger, a representative from the Pulaski County Historical Society, with an introduction by Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde.

#5WomenArtists
Through their social media campaign #5WomenArtists, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) asks, “Can you name five women artists?” HAM is participating by exhibiting the work of five forward-thinking, female Arkansas artists: Martha Barber, Jenny Delony, Louise Halsey, Elsie Freund, and Natalie Henry.

#5WomenArtists – Elsie Bates Freund

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Through their social media campaign #5WomenArtists, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) asks, “Can you name five women artists?

In response to that, this month five artists with Little Rock connections will be highlighted throughout March.  Up first is Elsie Bates Freund.

Born in Missouri in 1912, she was active as an artist in both Eureka Springs and later Little Rock. She died there in 2001.

Freund drew inspiration from her home in the Ozarks and applied it to painting and ceramics. As a painter and ceramicist and she signed all of her jewelry as “Elsa” and her paintings as “Elsie.”  Her work can be found at many museums including the Smithsonian, Arkansas Arts Center and Historic Arkansas Museum.

Freund is one of the 5 Women Artists being highlighted by Historic Arkansas Museum this month as part of its #5WomenArtists effort.

Help the Little Rock Zoo name new baby Sloth Bear

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Photo courtesy of Little Rock Zoo

The Little Rock Zoo is proud to announce that a healthy female sloth bear cub was born January 9, 2019.  The proud parents are mother, Kali, and father, Sahaasa.

In celebration of our newest addition, the Zoo is hosting a naming contest.  Zoo staff have selected three names from which to choose. The public is invited to vote by online poll.  The voting will end Friday, March 8, 2019, at noon.

Choices are:

  • 1) Zaara (Arabic), which means bright as the dawn;
  • 2) Rani (Hindi), which means princess;
  • 3) Geeta (Hindi), which means pearl or song.  The name Geeta is in honor of Geeta Seshamani, co-founder and Director of Wildlife SOS, an Indian conservation group whose goal is to protect and conserve India’s natural heritage, forest and wildlife wealth.

The cub is one of only 34 sloth bears currently held in AZA zoos in North America and is an important individual in the survival of this population. The cub is bottle-fed every three to four hours to help her continue to grow and thrive; she is healthy and progressing well, according to Zoo staff.

The bear’s birth comes as a recommendation of the American Species Survival Plan® known as SSP.  The SSP Program, developed in 1981 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), helps to ensure the survival of select species in zoos and aquariums, which are either threatened or endangered in the wild. Native to the Indian subcontinent, sloth bears are listed as a vulnerable species, meaning one that is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve.  Their vulnerability is mainly caused by habitat loss or degradation of their home. Experts estimate fewer than 20,000 sloth bears survive in the wilds of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka.

Mardi Craw 2019 at the Little Rock Zoo on Sunday, March 3

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Mardi Gras may be Tuesday, but the Little Rock Zoo celebrates Mardi Craw on Sunday, March 3.

Mardi Craw at the Zoo features sustainable crawfish and catfish, too! The good folks from Crawfish Country Catering are back and you won’t want to miss these bugs! Crawfish Country Catering is straight from Ville Platte, LA and serves up some of the biggest and best bugs in the south and we bring them to you fresh at Mardi Craw’n for the Zoo! You can’t beat these bugs!

Craft beer can also be enjoyed by those at least 21 years of age. And you’ll need to quench your thirst after a generous portion of king cake. It is a fun-packed afternoon of food and festivities.

The event begins at noon with catered crawfish, catfish, corn on the cob and potatoes. Enjoy live entertainment from Crescent City Combo, Mardi Gras themed fun and some special animal encounters in the Zoo atmosphere.

To guarantee a ticket, advance purchase is encouraged.  Tickets may be available at the gate, but Zoo events tend to sell out in advance.  Ticket covers admission to the Zoo as well as food and drink for the event.

Tonight at the Old State House Museum – Erin Enderlin in Concert

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Image may contain: 1 person, guitar and indoorThe Old State House Museum (OSHM) will host rising country music star Erin Enderlin on March 1, 7-9 p.m., for a free community concert.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. Beer and soft drinks will be served.

The museum can validate parking at the DoubleTree hotel; metered parking near the hotel is free after 6 p.m.

Recently named one of CMT’s Next Women of Country and Arkansas’s Country Music Songwriter of the Year, Enderlin is an Arkansas native and award-winning singer/songwriter currently based in Nashville, Tenn.

Her critically acclaimed sophomore album, “Whiskeytown Crier,” was co-produced by Jamey Johnson and Jim “Moose” Brown and features Chris Stapleton, Randy Houser and Ricky Skaggs. An in-demand songwriter, Enderlin penned Alan Jackson’s “Monday Morning Church,” Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call,” and others for Luke Bryan, Randy Travis, Terri Clark, Joey + Rory and many more.

During the March 1 concert, Enderlin will present the guitar she used when writing “Monday Morning Church,” which she is donating to OSHM. The guitar will be included in the museum’s collection of Arkansas music artifacts.

Enderlin is touring with Jamey Johnson during February and March, and she will take a detour to Arkansas to play the March 1 show. All tour dates are available on her website at https://www.erinenderlin.com/p/tour.

Previously, Enderlin has toured with artists including Willie Nelson, Kip Moore and Marty Stuart. She was recently named Nashville Scene’s Runner-up for Best Singer-Songwriter in Nashville behind Jason Isbell.

February’s Science after Dark is a special Valentine’s Edition

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Since the month of February is devoted to love, the Museum of Discovery is devoting a Science After Dark to it – but one can’t talk about love without exploring the science of sex. They will look at attraction and reproduction in humans and the animal kingdom.

Perhaps the best part? Exploring aphrodisiacs! And what is the world’s favorite aphrodisiac? CHOCOLATE! We’ll learn about making chocolate and pairing chocolate all while sampling chocolate with some of the best chocolatiers around!

Science After Dark is for adults 21 and up. Tickets are $10 or free for members. You will be able to purchase food, cocktails and beer from the sponsors.  Those presenting sponsors are Fassler Hall Little Rock and Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge Little Rock and sponsors Rock Town Distillery and Stone’s Throw Brewing

Little Rock Look Back: Studio Gang announces plans for re-imagined Arkansas Arts Center

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South entrance of new AAC

 

On February 27, 2018, the Arkansas Arts Center unveiled design plans for a renovation that would cost $70 million.

Construction for the museum is scheduled to begin later this year, and the center is expected to open in 2022. The upgrades, led by architecture firm Studio Gang, include new exhibition areas, a children’s theater space, an expanded educational facility, a glass-enclosed walkway, a garden, and the uncovering of the institution’s original facade from 1937. The $24 million budget increase, which does not include additional costs such as architectural or consultants’ fees, will be taken care of by private funds.

Officials originally explained that $50 million in private donations would complement general obligation bonds approved by Little Rock constituents for the expansion of the museum, whose artworks are owned by the nonprofit Arkansas Arts Center Foundation. “It’s a more expensive project than we originally thought it would be,” Studio Gang owner Jeanne Gang said. “You discover things. There’s a lot to it. There’s a lot of, also, ambition for the project to make it visible, to make it really bring the institution up to the next level.”

The building is currently made up of eight different structures that were added over a period of time to the city’s Museum of Fine Arts, built in 1937. Studio Gang’s aim is to offer a more coherent layout, as well as provide additional space for the AAC’s expansive public arts programming of classes, lectures and film showings.

Among the main features of the project is the introduction of a new axis, which will cut through the center of the building. It will lead from the northern entrance facing Crescent Drive to the 36-acre MacArthur Park on the southern side.

Four glazed volumes featuring curved walls and folded roofs will join up to form the axis – a new entrance will be placed at the front with walls angled to open up to the city, while three others will trail towards the park at the rear, ending with a double-height dining room.

Around 127,000 square feet of space will be added or revamped. The enhanced location will feature an edition of British sculptor Henry Moore’s Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, 1976, which is currently on view in the city’s Union National Plaza.

Polk Stanley Wilcox is the associate architect and SCAPE is the landscape architect.  More members of the consulting team were added throughout 2018.