Today at Noon – Panel Discussion of “NO TEARS SUITE” commissioned by OXFORD AMERICAN

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Today (March 1) at noon – a free panel discussion presented in collaboration with the National Park Service and Clinton School of Public Service will be held at Central High School National Historic Site.

Featuring  Rufus Reid, Kelley Hurt, and Bobby LaVell, the panel will be moderated by composer Chris Parker. The goal is to facilitate discussion on the ongoing work of social equity in the United States from the perspectives of people living in different communities and what role music and the arts play in affecting change in our society today.

Additional partners on the project include University of Central Arkansas College of Fine Arts & Communication, Central High National Historic Site, Kay Kelley Arnold, Mid-America Arts Alliance, National Endowment for the Arts, Arkansas Arts Council, and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

This project is generously funded by the Stella Boyle Smith Trust, Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

Performances of “No Tears Suite” will take place on Saturday at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and Sunday at Central High School.

Celebrate Bicentennial of creation of Arkansas Territory

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On March 2, 1819, the Arkansas Territory was created.  It was carved out of the Missouri Territory (which itself had been carved out of the Louisiana Territory).  The land consisted of what is now Arkansas as well as most of what is now Oklahoma.

Today (March 1) from 9am to 1pm, the Department of Arkansas Heritage is leading events to commemorate the bicentennial of the establishment of the Arkansas Territory. These will take place on the second floor of the rotunda at the Arkansas State Capitol.  At 10am, Governor Asa Hutchinson will make remarks.

Throughout the commemoration there will be family-friendly activities and opportunities to learn about the history of Arkansas. Many of the divisions of the Department of Arkansas Heritage will be on hand. And, of course, there will be birthday cake!

 

Tonight – OXFORD AMERICAN welcomes Joan Shelley to South on Main Stage with Nathan Salsburg as opening act

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An Evening with Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg

The Oxford American welcomes Joan Shelley to the South on Main stage! This is a special addition to the 2018-19 Concert Series, with special opening act Nathan Salsburg. Doors open tonight (February 28) at 5:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time.

Tickets are $20 (General Admission), $26 (Reserved), and $28 (Premium Reserved). Please take a look at this important ticketing and seating information before purchasing your tickets (view reserved seating chart).

The stunning, self-titled fourth album from the Kentucky singer, songwriter, and guitarist Joan Shelley began, surprisingly, with a fiddle.

“Turns out, I wasn’t very good at fiddle,” remembers Shelley, chuckling. “But I took that idea back to the guitar and tried that same method. I did it as a game to make these songs, a way to find another access point.”

It’s fitting that the set is self-titled. These are, after all, Shelley’s most assured and complete thoughts to date, with lyrics as subtle and sensitive as her peerless voice and a band that offers support through restraint and nuance. In eleven songs, this is the sound of Joan Shelley emerging as one of music’s most expressive emotional syndicates.

Shelley’s music has never been experimental, at least in some bleeding- edge sense of the word. And she’s comfortable with that, proud of the fact that her simple songs are attempts to express complex emotion and address difficult question about life, love, lust, and existence itself. But in their own personal way, these songs are experimental and risky, built with methods that pushed Shelley out of the comfort zone she’s established on a string of records defined by a mesmerizing sort of grace and clarity.

“I don’t have a concept, and I don’t know the meaning until much later. Whatever I am soaking up or absorbing from the world, there will be songs that reflect all those thoughts,” Shelley says. “I keep my songwriting alive and sustainable by trying to be honest about how it came out—these are all its jagged edges, and that’s what it is to be human.”

Stories of moments that changed lives are the focus of The Moth tonight from Robinson Center stage

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The Moth, a nonprofit based in New York City dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, is in Little Rock tonight! (February 28)

Robinson Center Performance Hall will play host to The Moth’s Mainstage event featuring storytellers as they take the stage to share a true, sometimes heartwrenching, story about their life.

Get ready for an evening of stories, shared live at Robinson Center Performance Hall as five storytellers, several of whom are very well known locally and nationally, take the stage and share a true, personal story from their life:  joy and heart, in equal measures. Stories of glory and defeat, taunting fate, laughing in the face of danger, and the moments that forever changed the course.

Doors open at 6:30pm.  Storytelling begins at 7:30pm.

Storytellers:
Alistair Bane
Korto Momolu Briggs
Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton
Monte Montepare
Danusia Trevino 

Purchase your tickets here.

The Storytellers:

Alistair Bane is a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Nation of Oklahoma and currently resides in Denver Colorado. Besides being a storyteller he is also a visual artist. He makes dance regalia, quilts and paints. In 2016 he was a resident artist for the Denver Art Museum’s Native American Arts Program. In his spare time he enjoys rehabilitating feral rez dogs, which is a much more relaxing hobby than it might sound like, as long as you don’t mind a tiny bit of growling.

Korto Momolu Briggs  Liberian-born fashion designer and stylist Korto Momolu (pronounced Cut • Toe – Mo • Mo • Lu) is stamping her global brand on fashion-forward women’s wear and accessories. Korto is inspired by her African roots and celebrate the essence of her rich heritage through the use of traditional, luxury fabrics; skins; mixed prints, etc. A graduate of the L’Academies des Couturiers Design Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, Korto also studied at the renowned Parsons School of Design in New York City while working as an independent fashion designer. Prior to arriving in Canada in 1990, Korto and her family had to flee Liberia following a civil war. In 2014, she competed on the third season of Project Runway All Stars and finished in second place. Most recently, Korto unveiled her spring/summer 2019 collection during New York Fashion Week – which was a tribute to her late friend, and former Project Runway All Stars castmate, Mychael Knight, who passed in 2017. Momolu was highlighted as a ‘Top 5 Designers to Watch’ by New York Magazine, and presently makes her home with her husband and two children in Little Rock, Arkansas.

 Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton, Ed. grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and was a member of the second class of African American students entering Little Rock Central High School in 1959. Dr. Hampton has participated in numerous professional and civic organizations over the years, including the Georgetown Foundation for Educational Excellence and the Eastern Association of College Deans and Advisors of Students. Some of Dr. Hapton’s awards include 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award, Teachers College, Columbia University; 2017 Award of Excellence and the Little Rock Central High School Tiger Foundation. Her latest professional pursuits center on consulting with foundations, nonprofits and colleges/universities, public speaking, and volunteering in her home community

Monte Montepare is a comedian, storyteller and improviser originally from Breckenridge, Colorado. For the last year he has been performing regularly in the thriving Denver comedy scene. Prior to that, Monte spent a decade guiding wilderness adventures in remote Alaska and is co-owner of Kennicott Wilderness Guides. He recently moved to Los Angeles to study at the UCB theatre. Monte’s a 3x Moth StorySLAM winner and has performed at The Moth GrandSLAM in Los Angeles.

Danusia Trevino is an actress and a storyteller. Born and raised in Poland. She toured the United States and Europe with the New York City band FUR. As an actress, she performed with the Black Lips Performance Cult and Anohni ( Pyramid Club and PS122) SITI Company (NATL tour) HB Ensemble (HBPF) Solo show
( 59E59st, Theater Row, TNC, Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Most recently she performed with The Wooster Group in A Pink Chair at the Performing Garage and with Nowy Teatr (Warsaw) also at the Performing Garage. Film work: Acts of Worship, Where is Joel Baum, Metamorphosis, and Xenophilia. Web series: The Louise Log.
She was a part of the New York literary salon, Women of Letters and at Joe’s Pub and appeared at Cornelia Street Cafe’s Liar’s Show. A Moth double Grand SLAM winner, she lives with her husband Xavier in Washington Heights.

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.

Nonprofit Capacity Building Strategies is topic of UA Little Rock Downtown talk this evening

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The UA Little Rock Downtown Campus continues its Wednesday evening lectures tonight. This evening’s topic is “Nonprofit Capacity Building Strategies”

This talk is given by Kirk Leach, assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs. Dr. Leach will be discussing collaboration and social entrepreneurship in the context of nonprofit capacity building. The goal for the discussion is to engage nonprofits in a shared learning environment, to learn with, and from each other.

Dr. Kirk Leach, Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs, joined UA Little Rock in 2017 and specializes in community development.  “My research focuses on non-profit management, collaborative governance, and nonprofits that are engaging with the private and public sector,” Dr. Leach said.

The program will begin at 6pm at the UA Little Rock Downtown Campus.