Little Rock Look Back: John Houseman visits Arkansas Arts Center

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Image result for john houseman paper chaseOn March 13, 1968, future Oscar winner John Houseman visited the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.

Mr. Houseman was here to audition actors for his new acting conservatory at Lincoln Center. Though media accounts did not identify it at the time, this became the new Drama Division of Julliard, which he led until 1976.

He had been aware of Dugald MacArthur’s acting program as part of the Arkansas Arts Center School of Art and Drama.  When he learned that it would be closing in May 1968, Mr. Houseman decided to come to Little Rock to audition actors to be part of his initial 20 member class.  Five actors from the Arkansas Arts Center were chosen to be part of that original class.

Mr. Houseman would again be connected with Arkansas. His Oscar came for THE PAPER CHASE which was directed by University of Central Arkansas alum and Arkansas native, James Bridges. The two had known each other when Bridges worked at Houseman’s UCLA theatre. Bridges recruited Houseman to make the film, his first screen work in decades.

Deviant Mobs of the Internet – UA Downtown Lecture Series tonight at 6pm

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Image result for nitin agarwal ualrCOSMOS director Dr. Nitin Agarwal will be speaking about “Deviant Mobs of the Internet: Bots, Trolls, and Misinformation” on Wednesday, March 13, from 6:00pm – 7:00pm at the UA Little Rock Downtown location. This lecture is free and open to the public. Prior knowledge of the topic is not required.

About the lecture:
Social media platforms are widely used for sharing information. Although social media use is generally benign, such platforms can also be used for a variety of malicious activities, including the dissemination of propaganda, hoaxes, and fake news to influence the public. The availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools has made such malicious acts much more convenient and effective.

This talk will touch upon our various research efforts that demonstrate how disinformation campaigns work, examine the critical link between blogs and other social media platforms (viz., YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, etc.), and the different media orchestration strategies. Using socio-computational models that leverage social network analysis and cyber forensics, prominent information actors and leading coordinators of disinformation campaigns are identified.

Further, the talk will highlight tactics, techniques, and procedures used by the deviant groups to propagate disinformation. The talk will further illustrate application of the research methodology to prominent cases of massive disinformation campaigns in the Baltic region and NATO’s military exercises, conducted primarily through blogs but strategically linking to a variety of other social media platforms.

About Dr. Nitin Agarwal:
Nitin Agarwal is the Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Director of the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS). He researches cyber information campaigns, social computing, deviant behavior modeling, group dynamics, social-cyber forensics, data mining, and privacy.

Remembering Betty Ford with Clinton Foundation, Clinton School tonight

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In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Clinton Foundation and University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service will host Remembering Betty Ford, a conversation about the woman who made a positive and lasting impact on our country.

The conversation will include Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford, and Lisa McCubbin, author of “Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer,” an intimate and insightful biography of Betty Ford, the groundbreaking, candid, and resilient First Lady and wife of President Gerald Ford. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa McCubbin – with foreword by Susan Ford Bales – the book tells the inspiring story of an ordinary Midwestern girl thrust onto the world stage and into the White House under extraordinary circumstances.

The program starts at 6pm at Sturgis Hall.

Setting a precedent as First Lady, Betty Ford refused to be silenced by her critics as she publicly championed equal rights for women, and spoke out about issues that had previously been taboo—breast cancer, depression, abortion, and sexuality. Privately, there were signs something was wrong. After a painful intervention by her family, she admitted to an addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. Her courageous decision to speak out publicly sparked a national dialogue, and in 1982, she co-founded the Betty Ford Center, which revolutionized treatment for alcoholism and inspired the modern concept of recovery.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

A book signing will follow the conversation. Copies of “Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer” are available for purchase through the Clinton Museum Store online, in store, and at the event. Those who purchase their book through the Clinton Museum Store will receive priority line access at the signing.

Women Making History: Anne Bartley

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In 1976, Anne Bartley was sworn in as the first director of what was then known as the Department of Arkansas Natural and Cultural Heritage.  In that capacity, she was the first woman to serve in an Arkansas Governor’s cabinet.  She had encouraged Governor David Pryor to propose establishing the department and then had lobbied the Arkansas General Assembly to create it.  (Her oath of office was administered by the first woman on the Arkansas Supreme Court, Justice Elsijane Trimble Roy.)

Since 1968, Bartley had been involved in historic preservation, promotion of the arts, and civic engagement.   In 1979, Bartley was asked to establish a Washington Office for the state of Arkanas.  She later was involved in founding the Threshold Foundation (1981), the Funders’ Committee for Citizen Participation (1983), the Forum Institute for Voter Participation (1986), the Faith and Politics Institute (1991), Vote Now ’92 and ’94, America Coming Together (2004), Democracy Alliance (2004), America Votes (2005), and, currently, the Committee on States.

Some of the boards she has served on have been the New World Foundation, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rockefeller Family Fund. She is currently on the boards of the Bauman Family Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, America Votes, and on the Advisory Councils for Project New West and TAI SOPHIA.

#5WomenArtists – Betty Dortch Russell McMath

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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 next is Betty Dortch Russell McMath. The Arkansas Governor’s Arts Awards were presented today.  In 2004, she was a recipient of one of the awards.

Born in 1920, she grew up just outside of Little Rock near Scott. After graduating from Little Rock Central High School, she attended Hendrix College. Beginning in the late 1930s, she studied art with such well-known artsits as Adrian Brewer, Louis Freund and Elsie Freud.

Her first commission was a portrait. While she also has painted numerous landscapes and scenes from Arkansas life, it is probably for her portraits she is best known. Among those she has painted are five Arkansas governors: Daniel Webster Jones, Sid McMath, Orval Faubus, Winthrop Rockefeller, and acting governor Bob Riley. Her painting of Rockefeller is the only official portrait of an Arkansas governor (to date) to have an outdoor setting. She has also painted many notable Arkansas women (including a 1986 exhibit for the Arkansas sesquicentennial).

In the 1960s, she and Marge Holman were commissioned to paint a mural on the flood wall in North Little Rock. Around the same time, she repeatedly took top honors at the Arkansas Festival of the Arts (which had been founded by Adolphine Fletcher Terry).

A longtime teacher at the Arkansas Arts Center, she was also active in numerous artistic and civic organizations.

For over 40 years, she was married to Henry Wellington “Rusty” Russell, who she met when he was stationed in Little Rock during World War II.  Several years after his death, she and Sid McMath married and were married until his death.

“Taking the Time,”a lecture by Rick Joy, FAIA tonight

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Amangiri Resort and Spa.

Architecture and Design Network (ADN) continues its 2018/2019 June Freeman lecture series by welcoming Rick Joy, FAIA, Principal of Studio Rick Joy, a 32 person architecture and planning firm established in 1993 in Tucson, Arizona.

The lecture starts at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception starts at 5:30pm.

From the beginning, each of Studio Rick Joy’s works has been exhibited and published extensively and have won numerous awards.  Joy received the 2002 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture and in 2004 won the prestigious National Design Award from the Smithsonian Institute/Cooper-Hewitt Museum.  He periodically serves as a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Studio Rick Joy has realized architectural works throughout North America with extensive experience with lifestyle based projects from numerous single family residences to an ultra-lux resort and large scale master-plans.  The office has several active residential commissions in New York City, Long Island, Turks and Caicos.  Studio Rick Joy is currently completing the prestigious commission of the new Train Station and Campus Gateway Buildings to Princeton University, a luxury resort hotel with private compounds in Mexico, an apartment building in Mexico City and a new luxury boutique hotel in Austin Texas.

Architecture and Design Network lectures are free and open to the public. No reservations are required.  Supporters of ADN include the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

Tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN is a “Movie Meant for the Big Screen”

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl PosterAs part of its “Movies Meant for the Big Screen” series, tonight (March 12) the CALS Ron Robinson Theater will be showing the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. 

Inspired by the amusement park ride at several Disney properties this movie stars Johnny Depp (channeling his best Keith Richards), Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Geoffrey Rush. Also on hand are Jonathan Pryce, Jack Davenport, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook and Zoe Saldana.

Blacksmith Will Turner (Bloom) teams up with eccentric pirate “Captain” Jack Sparrow (Depp) to save his love, the governor’s daughter (Knightley), from Jack’s former pirate allies, who have returned from the dead.

The film is directed by Gore Verbinski. It was nominated for five Oscars and spawned three sequels to date.

Admission is $5. The screening starts at 7pm.