Category Archives: Museum

Celebrate the Arts Council’s Arkansas Living Treasures tonight at Historic Arkansas Museum

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2fan ham 0715Tonight’s 2nd Friday Art Night at Historic Arkansas Museum is a special event! In collaboration with the Arkansas Arts Council, a sister agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, it celebrates the work of those who have been designated Arkansas Living Treasures.

“Art. Function. Craft. The Life and Work of Arkansas Living Treasures” – See the works of Arkansas’s finest and most fascinating artists and artisans practicing, preserving and progressing traditional craft. Hear about their personal artistic journeys in a series of documentary shorts. This exhibition, and corresponding film series, is a collaboration of Historic Arkansas Museum and the Arkansas Arts Council, which gives the Arkansas Living Treasure Award to those who excel in the practice of a traditional craft.

Since 2002, the Arkansas Arts Council has recognized Arkansas Living Treasures, Arkansas artisans who excel in the practice of a traditional craft and who have passed the tradition on to the next generation. For the past four decades, Historic Arkansas Museum’s Arkansas Made has systematically documented, collected and preserved the work of Arkansas artisans who lived and worked in the state from the early 19th century to present day. In 2013, the Arkansas Arts Council and Historic Arkansas Museum collaborated to produce a series of short films that celebrate the lives and work of each Arkansas Living Treasure.

In addition, the evening will feature award-winning Arkansas fiddler,Clancey Ferguson. Historic Arkansas Museum’s Year of Arkansas Beer continues with Saddlebock Brewery of Springdale.

The festivities run from 5pm to 8pm.

Book on Washington AR is focus of Old State House Museum Brown Bag today

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OSH Brown Bag

Today at noon at the Old State House Museum, Josh Williams will be speaking on his recent book through Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series entitled “Washington.” The book is a pictorial history of Washington, Arkansas located in southwest Arkansas.  His talk is part of the museum’s Brown Bag Lecture series.

Washington was home to James Black, maker of the first Bowie knife and saw visitors such as Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie & Sam Houston pass through.  After September 1863, it was the Confederate capital of Arkansas.

Josh Williams is the curator at Historic Washington State Park and has worked there since 2006. He graduated from John Brown University in Siloam Springs and attended graduate school at Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana State University. He also published another book through Arcadia Publishing on Hope, Arkansas. He is currently the president of the Arkansas Living History Association and has served on the boards of the Arkansas Museum Association and the Arkansas Historical Association.

Museum of Discovery unveils new musical bi-polar Tesla coil today

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11659315_10153372349360138_6462500919140238842_nThe Museum of Discovery unveils a word record treat for the eyes and ears today with the new Guinness World Record musical bi-polar Tesla coil!

Also, on July 4, active and retired military can be admitted free to the museum and can bring up to three additional people for free.

 

The tesla coil – named after its inventor Nikola Tesla, the developer of the alternating current system of electricity used today – is a device that creates high-voltage electricity at a high frequency visible to the eye.  The Museum of Discovery’s coil emits electrical discharges to a variety of songs and will share the record for the world’s largest bi-polar tesla coil with the coil at the Hands On Regional Museum in Johnson City, Tennessee.

The device, which can produce 200,000 volts of electricity, was built by Goodchild Engineering in Arizona and donated to the Museum of Discovery by Richard Mathias, founder and president of Tesla Coil Museum Exhibit Program, LLC, through a matching grant program from the General Electric Foundation.

“This world-record tesla coil will literally illuminate the work of this pivotal inventor and help the Museum of Discovery successfully fulfill its mission of igniting a passion for science, technology and math in our very interactive, hands-on environment,” said Kelley Bass, museum CEO. “We are grateful to Richard Mathias and the GE Foundation for making this opportunity possible for our museum and our visitors.”

The coil will is housed in a new theater in the museum’s Discovery Hall.

There will be a $2 additional fee to experience the show in the Tesla Coil Theater. Through the end of July, it will be free for members.  After that, members will pay an additional $1.

Frontier 4th at Historic Arkansas Museum today

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FrontierFourthCelebrate Independence Day as it was celebrated on the Arkansas frontier. During the territorial and early statehood days of Arkansas, July 4 was THE holiday to celebrate.

Historic Arkansas Museum will be offering activities and demonstrations all day.  The afternoon activities include an old-time patriotic parade, 19th century music and encounters with people from the past.

Cheer “huzzah” during a reading of the Declaration of Independence by Congressman French Hill (around 3pm) and sign your own copy in the print shop. Watch out for Red Coats! This year marks the 240th anniversary of the start of the revolution. Watch a reenactment of two battles and a duel on the lawn near the farmstead.

Children can walk on stilts and play other pioneer games, and they’ll be invited to take up brooms and wooden rakes to train with the militia. They will also have the opportunity to create flags, streamers and signs to use in the parade.

Visit Historic Arkansas Museum for an afternoon of old-fashioned fun!

All activities are free and open to the public.

Free Admission to Clinton Center for Independence Day

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CPC july4Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4, the Clinton Presidential Center will feature free admission to the exhibits.

Explore the Clinton Center’s newest exhibit, “Dinosaurs Around the World,” as well as our permanent exhibits. Acoustiguide audio tours narrated by President Clinton are also free.  The Clinton Center is open from 9am to 5pm on Friday and Saturday.

Dinosaurs Around the World takes you back in time on a dinosaur adventure and a tour of an Earth very different from today – a time before the continents as we know them existed, when lush landscapes covered Africa and greenery was the norm in Antarctica! With 13 life-sized animatronics, a multi-layered narrative, fossils, authentic casts, cutting-edge research and immersive design elements, you’ll experience the Age of Reptiles as it comes to life!

The permanent exhibits include:

The Science of Superheroes tonight at the Museum of Discovery

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SAD Superhero Promo 3Each month the Museum of Discovery hosts “Science after Dark” for adults aged 21 and up.  This month’s theme is “Science of Superheroes.”

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, IT’S SCIENCE AFTER DARK! Learn what makes superheroes so super with hands-on activities and demos (we’ll give you a hint; it has to do with science.)

Grab your favorite cape and pair of tights (tights are optional) and enjoy a night of pizza, beer and superhero science!

The program runs from 6pm to 9pm. Cost is $5, FREE for museum members. (Go ahead and get a membership, it will more than pay for itself within a year!)

Last Chance to see 30 AMERICANS at Arkansas Arts Center

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30amer30 Americans, the current exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center, closes on Sunday.

30 Americans showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades. This provocative exhibition focuses on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture while exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations.

“This exhibition presents a sweeping survey of artwork by many of the most influential African-American artists of the last four decades,” said Arkansas Arts Center executive director Todd Herman. “For years, I’ve searched for an exhibition of this kind but couldn’t quite find what I was looking for – an exhibition with powerful interpretations of cultural identity and artistic legacy. When I came across 30 Americans, I knew this was exactly what I wanted patrons and visitors of the Arts Center to experience. These themes are universal in nature and speak to the larger human experience.”

30 Americans features work by such early and influential artists as Barkley L. Hendricks, Robert Colescott and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and those of younger and emerging artists, such as Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu and Shinique Smith. Often provocative and challenging, 30 Americans explores what it means to be a contemporary artist through an African-American point of view – whether addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality, politics or history.

Drawn from the collection of Mera and Don Rubell, 30 Americans contains 41 works in a variety of media – paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, digital videos and photographs – by 30 of the leading contemporary African American artists. The Rubells began acquiring contemporary art in the late 1960s, often forging close friendships with living artists, particularly young artists.

The Rubells collected both backwards and forward, out of which emerged a pattern of intergenerational influence. Consequently, the works that comprise the exhibition afford viewers the opportunity to observe a stylistic dialogue among artists working throughout the past four decades. Now in collaboration with their two grown children, the Rubells continue to assemble one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in the world, which they currently house in a 45,000 square foot former DEA warehouse-turned-museum in Miami, Florida.