Category Archives: Visual Art

August 2nd Friday Art Night at Historic Arkansas Museum

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Join Historic Arkansas Museum for 2FAN in August!

Fire & Brimstone Duo will provide the live entertainment. Phil G. and Lori Marie provide Caribbean-inspired tunes and old classics.

Slate Rock Brewing will be the evening’s featured brewery.

If the weather is nice, HAM will open their brick plaza as well as the historic grounds for a stroll.  This is a chance to see the current exhibits.  In the HAM store, there will be a trunk show by Malvern jewelry artists Rob and Cathy Feather.

The reception is sponsored by the Historic Arkansas Museum Foundation, with special thanks to 107 Liquor. Beverages and appetizers will be served in the Stella Boyle Smith Atrium. The exhibits and reception are free and open to the public.

Still time for artists to register for 2019 Open Studios Little Rock

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The Little Rock Arts+Culture Commission is proud that Open Studios Little Rock is going to take place during 2019 ACANSA Arts Festival.  It will be on Saturday, September 14.

Open Studios Little Rock is an event that gives the public an opportunity to meet Little Rock artists, see the spaces where they work, and see their creative processes first-hand.

Open Studios LR is open to all artists – visual and performing – working with the Little Rock city limits. Open Studios LR gives artists the opportunity to develop face-to-face relationships with potential buyers, gain public recognition, and be represented by the City of Little Rock’s Arts and Culture Commission.

New this year:  because Open Studios Little Rock is partnering with ACANSA, participating artists will be given the opportunity to participate in the ACANSA Opening Night Party on Friday, September 13.  It will be in the CALS Bobby Roberts Library at Library Square in downtown Little Rock.  Each Open Studios Little Rock artist will be able to showcase one piece of art that evening.  Maps and information about Open Studios Little Rock will also be available.  In addition, this is a 2nd Friday Art Night, so the preview party/Open Studios showcase will be on the 2nd Friday Art Night route. 

The public can participate in FREE, self-guided tours of art-related studios, live-in/work studios and homes, galleries, schools, and other creative spaces

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 – 10am until 4pm.

ALTERNATIVE SPACE
If you are unable to welcome the public into your studio, you may participate by showing your art at the alternative space, inside Cranford Co., 512 Main Street.

SALES
Sales are handled by each artist and we do not take a percentage. You may sell prints, other artistic projects and commission customized work for the future. It is suggested that you should be equipped to accept credit cards.

ARTISTS – HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Join by opening your own studio or location.

Register for 2019 Open Studios Little Rock at this link.   

Please also email a photo for publicity purposes to artsandculturelr@gmail.com
-Visual artists, please submit a photo of a representative piece of your art
-Other artists, please submit a photo that represents you and/or your artform.

Latest Quapaw Quarter Association Preservation Conversation focuses on Quapaw Tribal Pottery

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1c2d437f 4244 41b6 b953 0d7bf560b583Join the Quapaw Quarter Assocation for their next Preservation Conversation which features a lecture about Quapaw Tribal Pottery by Betty Gaedtke, a member of the Quapaw Nation. The program is supported, in part, by the Arkansas Humanities Council.

It is tonight, August 8, at the Mixing Room at the Old Paint Factdory, 1306 East 6th Street.  The 6pm lecture is preceded by a 5:30pm reception.
5:30 pm (reception), 6:00 pm (lecture)

RSVP: The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Please RSVP .

Parking: There is parking directly in front of the doors that are marked “live”, “print”, “meet.” If those spots are taken. park in the parking lot to the right. There is also street parking in front of the building.

Entrance: Enter the event space through the door facing 6th Street marked “Meet.”

Questions? Call 501-371-0075 ext. 3 or email qqa@quapaw.com

Betty Gaedtke Artist’s Statement:

“My interest in making pottery began decades ago, but since I had a full time job with the US Postal Service, it was nearly impossible for me to dedicate the time for it. When I retired early, my husband and I bought property near Yellville, Arkansas. In 2010 we built a house there and moved to our getaway in the Ozark Mountains. I was very fortunate that in our local area there are numerous potters, many whom studied and taught all over the country and the world. I soon became friends with many of them and began personal one on one lessons and monthly group workshops with experienced potters.

I was mentored by Helen Phillips, a world renowned potter and teacher, Robin MacGrogan, a lifelong potter and professor in pottery and the arts, Sue Whittington, an experienced potter, and Marian Yancey, an experienced potter. As I became more comfortable making my own pottery, in 2012 I decided to dive into where my real passion was, pottery made by my Quapaw tribal ancestors. I took personal one on one lessons with Lisa Crews, experienced in Mississippian pottery, who taught me how to make head pots and animal & human effigy pots in Quapaw and Mississippian styles.

I have since made about 300 Quapaw and Mississippian pots making them in the styles and decorations unearthed in Quapaw villages. My inspiration comes from my many visits to museums that display Quapaw pottery and twice viewing hundreds of Quapaw pots stored at the University of Arkansas. I have read many books that are dedicated to some of the best Quapaw and Mississippian pottery ever found. I have pots displayed at several museums around the country. “

Celebrating Henry Moore’s Birthday with a look at Large Standing Figure, Knife Edge

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British sculptor Henry Moore was born on July 30, 1898.  He became connected with Little Rock 80 years after his birth.

It was 1978, Bill Clinton was making his first run for Governor, Dallas and Robin Williams both made their TV debuts, disco was dominating the music scene, and Little Rock received its first major piece of public art.

Arguably Little Rock’s most famous piece of public art is Henry Moore’s 1961 creation Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge, which is known locally as “The Henry Moore Sculpture.”

The original model was created in 1961; this sculpture was cast in 1976 and purchased in June 1978 by the Little Rock Metrocentre Improvement District.

The purchase price was $185,000 — a princely sum at the time but now a bargain for a Henry Moore sculpture. (Adjusted for inflation, that amount would be the equivalent of $727,000 today.)

A committee consisting of Townsend Wolfe (then the director and chief curator of the Arkansas Arts Center), James Dyke and Dr. Virginia Rembert traveled to England to meet with Moore about the sculpture.

It was originally placed on Main Street when the street had been bricked over as part of the Metrocentre Mall pedestrian mall plan. As portions of the street became unbricked and reopened to vehicular traffic, it was moved to the intersection of Capitol and Main. Finally, when the last segment was reopened to vehicular traffic, it was put at its current location of the southeast corner of Capitol and Louisiana.

In March 2018, ownership was transferred to the City of Little Rock.  Plans call for it to be relocated to the Arkansas Arts Center when it reopens in 2022.

A replica of the sculpture is featured in the 1980s classic The Breakfast Club.

Life and Legacy of Chesley Bonestell focus of film on CALS Ron Robinson Theatre screen tonight

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Chesley Bonestell: A Brush With The Future, is a feature length documentary about the life, work, and influence of “The Father of Space Art.”  It will be shown tonight (July 26) at 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

The film is sponsored by the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society, the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, and the Central Arkansas Library System.

Long before spacecraft would journey to the planets or deep-space telescopes photographed distant galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters, there was an artist whose dazzling visions of space would capture the imaginations of all who beheld them. With his art, he helped inspire America’s space program, NASA, and many of the scientists, engineers, technicians, and astronauts who would one day put us on the Moon. Before that, he was an architect working on projects like the Chrysler Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. He would later be recruited by Hollywood to create matte paintings for films such as Citizen Kane and Destination Moon.

Who was this man? His name was Chesley Bonestell.

Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future is the first-ever documentary to focus on the amazing life and works of “The Father of Space Art.” Bonestell’s paintings of worlds beyond our own helped create America’s space program. On the eve of celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the lunar landing, it can be said thatChesley was a man who helped get us to the moon, not with technology, but with a paintbrush.

“More than three decades after his death in 1986, Bonestell remains one of the most important and influential astronomical artists ever to put paint to canvas.” – Don Vaughan, Filmfax Magazine, Jan. – Mar. Issue 2019

Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future features rare interviews with Bonestell himself, along with Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey) and veterans Ben Burtt, Craig Barron and Richard Edlund. Additional perspectives come from space artists David Aguilar, Don Davis, astronomer Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz and numerous others who knew him or were influenced by his art. This multi-award-winning film compellingly combines art, science fiction and science fact to engagingly tell the story of Bonestell’s life and his uncanny predictive ability to create visions of distant worlds that still resonate deeply within us.