Art Abounds Downtown during 2nd Friday Art Night

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Scott

Among the various sites featured tonight from 5pm to 8pm as part of 2nd Friday Art Night are:

The Central Arkansas Library System Butler Center Galleries (401 President Clinton Avenue) is opening three new exhibits:

Creative Expressions (which will run through August 25)

This exhibition features artwork from the Creative Expressions Program at the Arkansas State Hospital. Creative Expressions is a non-profit organization that uses the visual arts to promote and support the self-awareness and growth of individuals with mental illness.

Arkansas Art Educators State Youth Art Show (which will run through July 27)

Arkansas League of Artists Spring Members Show (which will run through June 28 at the Cox Creative Center).

studioMAIN (1423 South Main Street) will open a new exhibit – “From Bauhaus to our Haus”

studioMAIN invites you to join us this Friday for our exhibit celebrating the Bauhaus movement. Come learn about that history of the movement and its influence on today’s architecture, design, and education. Several local examples of building inspired by the Bauhaus and International style will also be highlighted.

This will be a great opportunity to learn (or be reminded) about this amazing transition in the history design before the opening of the Arkansas Arts Center’s upcoming exhibit, Bauhaus twenty-21: An Ongoing Legacy (May 24 – September 1).

As part of the member’s opening for the AAC, studioMAIN will be hosting a lecture and panel discussion, stay tuned for further information in the next couple weeks.

Historic Arkansas Museum (200 East Third Street)

In addition to the opening of two new exhibits, HAM will have live music by the Rolling Blackouts and an opening reception for two new exhibits. Opening in the Trinity Gallery is Reflected by Three: William Detmers, Scott Lykens and G. Tara Casciano. Opening in the 2nd Floor Gallery will be Painting in the Open Air: Day and Night, with plein air paintings by Jason Sacran.

Old State House (300 West Markham)

Up-cycled Jewelry. Create an artful bracelet from unexpected found supplies: safety pins, buttons, charms and fabric. These bracelets make great Mother’s Day gifts.

Architect Kevin McClurkan in conversation tonight

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Scott

Tonight at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, award-winning architect and Arkansas native Kevin McClurkan, AIA, will make a presentation entitled THREADS: Ennead Architects’ Recent Works. This is part of the monthly Architecture and Design Network lecture series.

A founding partner and management principal of Ennead Architects, New York-based architect Kevin McClurkan, has Arkansas roots and continuing connections. An alumnus of Pine Bluff High School, McClurkan earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where, in 1983, he received the Edward Durell Stone Award for Excellence in Design.

McClurkan has continued to earn awards – a prestigious national American Institute of Architects Honor Awards among them. His commitment to design excellence, supported by technical innovation, is the hallmark of his work. Little Rock’s William J. Clinton Presidential Center; the Newseum/Freedom Forum Foundation World Headquarters, Washington D.C.; New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law are among the firm’s recent award-winning projects.

Ennead is the name of the firm formerly known as Polshek Partnership Architects. The firm’s 2010 renaming emphasizes its identity as a group of architects rather than that of a single design leader. The new name, which means a group of nine, reflects the democratic and collaborative culture of the partnership.

Currently working with Little Rock’s Polk Stanley Wilcox on the redesign of the city’s Robinson Auditorium, McClurkan is a member of the the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture’s Professional Advisory Board. Of interest to the whole community, his April talk is free and open to the public.

For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Sculpture Vulture: Easter Bunnys

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Scott

For those who are around the River Market today, there are two “Easter” bunny sculptures they can visit.

In honor of that, today’s Sculpture Vulture features Tim Cherry’s Rabbit Reach.

The sculpture is located at the corner of Sherman Street and President Clinton Avenue across from the Museum of Discovery.

The sculpture is a gift from Whitlow Wyatt and the Carey Cox Wyatt Charitable Foundation. It was given in memory of George Wyatt and Frank Kumpuris. Those two gentlemen were the fathers of Whitlow Wyatt and Dean & Drew Kumpuris.

Cherry’s sculpture was selected for this spot because of its proximity to children at the Museum and in the River Market district. The design and size of the sculpture encourages children to climb on it and to play around the rabbit. While some public art is situated so it cannot be touched, this one is situated to be touched as part of the appreciation experience.

Laurel Peterson Gregory’s Bunny Bump is featured in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden. Two stylized rabbits make for an interesting piece of artwork when they are not only dancing, but also doing the butt bump while dancing. The smooth surface and color of the bronze add to the illusion. This small piece has been placed on a pedestal to elevate more to eye level.

The sculpture was completed in 2009 and installed in 2010. Gregory has been featured at the Sculpture at the River Market show. (The photo was taken during a December snow. It may be cold now, but not enough for that amount of snow.)

HEART/HAND: an architectural lecture by Billie Tsien

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Scott

This month, the Architecture and Design Network features Billie Tsien, AIA, NCAARB, FAAR of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects of New York City.

Ms. Tsien’s lecture will take place tonight in the Arkansas Arts Center lecture hall. Her remarks will begin at 6pm following a reception at 5:30.

Born in Ithaca New York, Billie Tsien received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Yale and her Master in Architecture from UCLA. Currently, in addition to practicing, teaching and lecturing, she serves on the advisory council for the Yale School of Architecture. In 2007 Tsien was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Tsien and her husband Tod Williams have been working together since 1977. Their firm, which operates out of a small, unpretentious studio on Central Park South in New York City, has earned wide acclaim for its work. This past December, the American Institute of Architects awarded the firm its prestigious 2013 Architecture Firm Award in recognition of work that “reveals a contemporary sensibility and intelligence.” Given annually, the award is the highest honor the AIA bestows on a firm. It recognizes a practice that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least ten years.

Their recently completed, 93,000 square foot museum in Philadelphia, designed for the Barnes Foundation, has drawn critical acclaim from many sources. In January, the AIA gave it a 2013 Institute Honor Award for Architecture. The new facility replaces the original one in Merion, Pennsylvania, established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922. A challenge to its designers was to replicate the original 12,000 square foot main gallery, replete with art as arranged by the late Dr. Barnes himself. And they did.

Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network, a non-profit organization, include the Arkansas Arts Center, the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Friday Faces of February: Native Knowledge

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Scott

In the month of February the LR Culture Vulture will highlight four different faces found in sculpture and architecture in Central Arkansas.

To start things off is one of the faces from the new sculpture Native Knowledge which is located in Riverfront Park. The installation was created by Denny Haskew. Native Knowledge is a tribute to the Caddo, Osage, and Quapaw Native American Cultures of Arkansas.

It is sited near the Quapaw Line and La Petite Roche. The location is important because the Quapaw Line was used as demarcation to separate the Quapaw Tribe from land available for white settlers. It ran from La Petite Roche due south. In addition, La Petite Roche was a stop along the “Trail of Tears” as Native American tribes were resettled from their original homes in the American Southeast to points west.