LR Women’s History Month – Ruth May Wassell Gibb

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Ruth-May-Wassell-GibbOn August 27, 1944, Ruth May Wassell shattered a bottle on the hull of a new ship and christened it the U.S.S. Little Rock.  Mrs. Wassell, whose husband was Little Rock alderman Sam Wassell, had been designated as the official sponsor for the City of Little Rock by Mayor Charles Moyer.

Ruth May Wassell was more than the wife of a local political leader.  The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Wiley Singleton May, she moved from Gurdon to Little Rock with her family and graduated from Little Rock High School. She later graduated from Henderson-Brown College and received a law degree from the University of Arkansas.  In 1932, she was admitted to the Arkansas Bar and later was admitted to practice before the Arkansas Supreme Court, one of the first women to receive this designation.

Mrs. Wassell was active in business, serving as president of the Arkansas Lumber Company  and owner of a citrus farm in Texas.  She was also active in civic affairs through involvement with the Arkansas Democratic Women, Boys Club and Second Presbyterian Church.  From 1947 until 1951 she was First Lady of Little Rock when Sam Wassell was elected as Mayor.

Following the December 1954 death of Mayor Wassell, she subsequently married E. W. “Bud” Gibb.  She died in 1964.

On International Women’s Day, see the Dorthea Lange’s America at the Arkansas Arts Center

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Today is International Women’s Day. The Arkansas Arts Center currently features several exhibitions celebrating women artists.  One of them is Dorthea Lange’s America.  It is on display through May 8.

Dorothea Lange, American (Hoboken, NJ, 1895 – 1965, San Francisco, CA), Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936, gelatin silver print, Private Collection, © Dorothea Lange/Oakland Museum of California

Migrant Mother strikes the heart. Dorothea Lange’s iconic image of the Great Depression forces us to confront the humanity and strength of one woman struggling to get her family through the privations they face when there is no money. Dorothea Lange’s America brings together many of the photographer’s images made as she traveled across America during the 1930s documenting the suffering of unemployed or terribly underpaid agricultural workers and their families. Lange took these photographs as part of the photography program connected to the Farm Security Administration, a federal agency formed under the New Deal to assist poor farmers with loans and other programs.

Lange and her fellow FSA photographers recorded the lives of people coping with the dust bowl, bank and business failures, and the loss of their jobs and homes. We see the hopelessness of hungry men in breadlines and the shattered, abandoned cabin of a tenant farmer in the Mississippi Delta. But Americans did not give up. We also see the determination of men doing the grueling work of cutting lettuce for a pittance a day. And there is the radiant smile of an Arkansas mother who went to California to make a new start with her husband and eleven children. Such powerful images helped government agencies and representatives to understand the urgency of helping suffering Americans who had no other place to turn. 80 years later, these black and white documents of American endurance have not lost their impact.

Dorothea Lange’s America includes photographs made by Lange and her FSA colleagues, including Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Marion Post Wolcott. Depression-era photographs from photographers outside the FSA give a wider understand of the time. Here are striking visions by Mike Disfarmer, who worked as a portrait photographer in Heber Springs, Arkansas; and documentary images made from Oklahoma to Alabama by photographic artists including Lewis Hine, Doris Ulmann, and Willard Van Dyke. The exhibition continues with photographs Dorothea Lange made in the same spirit after the FSA was disbanded in 1943.

The Arkansas Arts Council seeking applications for Individual Artist Fellowships

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aaclogo_vertical_colorThe Arkansas Arts Council is accepting applications for its Individual Artist Fellowships. The deadline to apply is April 15, 2016.

The Individual Artist Fellowships annually recognize individual artistic ability and creative excellence to encourage the continuing artistic development of the selected recipients. To be eligible for a fellowship, an artist must be at least 25 years old and must have been an Arkansas resident for at least one year at the time of application.

Individual Artist Fellowships are unconditional, non-matching awards made directly to individual artists. Awarded annually, these fellowships recognize the artistic creative excellence of the recipient’s work and enable the selected artists to devote more time and energy to creating their art and mastering their craft. Funding categories change each year.

Up to nine Individual Artist Fellowships worth $4,000 each will be awarded to artists in the following categories:

  • Literary Arts – Poetry
  • Performing Arts – Music Composition (Folk/Gospel/Jazz/Pop)
  • Visual Arts – Painting (Paintings may include work on canvas, panel, or board, but not on paper.)

Click HERE to download an application, or contact the Arkansas Arts Council at (501) 324-9766. For more information, call Robin McClea at (501) 324-9348 or e-mail robinm@arkansasheritage.org.

The Arkansas Arts Council is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Little Rock Look Back: Count Casimir Pulaski

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On March 6, 1745, Casimir Pulaski was born in Poland. A Polish nobleman and military commander he has been called a “father of the American cavalry.”

Born in Warsaw, he followed in his father’s footsteps he became involved in the military and the revolutionary affairs in Poland. Pulaski was one of the leading military commanders for the Bar Confederation and fought against Russian domination of Poland. When this uprising failed, he was driven into exile.

Following a recommendation by Benjamin Franklin, Pulaski emigrated to North America to help in the cause of the American Revolutionary War. He distinguished himself throughout the revolution, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington.

Pulaski became a general in the Continental Army, created the Pulaski Cavalry Legion and reformed the American cavalry as a whole. At the Battle of Savannah, while leading a daring charge against British forces, he was gravely wounded, and died shortly thereafter.

Pulaski is one of only eight people to be awarded honorary United States citizenship. He never married and had no descendants.

Arkansas is one of several states to have a county named in honor of Count Pulaski.  Pulaski County was Arkansas’s fifth county, formed on December 15, 1818.

The Game’s Afoot at the Arkansas Arts Center

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AAC marathonGame On! The Little Rock Marathon is today.

As they have the past several years, the Arkansas Arts Center will have a cheering station set up as the runners go by the museum along Commerce Street.

Today (March 6) from 7am until 9am-ish.

Stop by and enjoy food, drinks, and entertainment while cheering on participants in the race.  Then hang out in MacArthur Park until the museum opens at 11am and enjoy the exhibits there as well as brunch at Best Impressions.

 

 

William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s ADMIRATION at the Arkansas Arts Center through May 15

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Now through May 15, the Arkansas Arts Center has a special piece of artwork on display!

William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s Admiration is in the Ted and Virginia Bailey Gallery.

Adoring young women gather around the youthful, winged figure of Cupid, the Roman god of love. The immortal boy playfully points his amorous arrow at a lovely maid who clasps her bosom as if the dart of love has, indeed, struck home. The beautifully crafted painting, its figures rendered with ideal proportions in flawless perspective, was clearly produced by a master. This painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau displays the results as his training in the highest academic manner of the mid-19th century at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and other academies.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, French (La Rochelle, France 1825 – 1905, La Rochelle, France), Admiration, 1897, oil on canvas, 58 x 78 in., Bequest of Mort D. Goldberg to the San Antonio Museum of Art, 59.46.

In 1850, the young artist won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome, the top academic art prize of the day, which enabled him to study classical art in Rome for four years. This began his career as the leading French academic artist of his day; he triumphantly exhibited year after year in the massive annual exhibition known as the Salon. While classical subject matter was supposedly the most proper and edifying material an academic artist of the 19th century could portray, Bouguereau’s success arose at least partially from his ability to infuse a sense of naughty fun into his classical nude figures. That is certainly on display in this delightfully sensual image, which was a success both at the Paris Salon of 1899 and the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900.

This great neoclassical painting comes as a special loan from the San Antonio Museum of Art in exchange for an earlier loan from the Arkansas Arts Center of its 1914 Cubist masterpiece, Dos Mujers, painted by Diego Rivera when the Mexican artist was working in Paris early in his career. Admiration will be accompanied by a related drawing by Bouguereau. The painting and drawing will be complemented by a selection of academic figure drawings from the Arkansas Arts Center’s acclaimed collection of original works on paper. These will allow viewers to see how academic artists drew to study the figure so they could achieve the mastery we see in Bouguereau’s painting.

Have Fun and Learn as SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE! takes stage at Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre

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AAC CT SchoolhouseThe Schoolhouse Rock cartoon may be decades old now, but this fresh, live-theatre adaptation will spark the wide-eyed wonder of new discovery in our youngest generation while inviting smiles of toe-tapping, lip-synching nostalgia from the rest of us. Get ready to relive those fun-filled afternoons in front of the TV; Schoolhouse Rock Live! is coming to the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre March 4-25.

From “Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction,”  “Interplanet Janet” and more, every song in this live musical performance of the classic, Emmy Award-winning cartoon series “Schoolhouse Rock” is sure to please.  With performances Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., March 4-25, and 2 p.m. matinee performances March 22-25, there are plenty of opportunities to see this show which makes learning grammar, science, math and history a delight!

The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! is directed by Katie Campbell. Costumes are designed by Erin Larkin, lighting design by Mike Stacks, scenic design by Miranda Young, choreography by Erin Fowler and Rivka Kupperman is the stage manager. Nicole Jovanovic and Cathleen Gleason are part of the run crew.

The cast includes:

  • Nick Spencer of Nashville TN. as Tom;
  • Jeremy Matthey of North Little Rock as George;
  • Samantha Harrington of Little Rock as Shulie;
  • Aleigha Morton of Beebe as Dori;
  • Geoffrey Eggleston of Sioux Falls, SD as Joe and
  • Paige Carpenter of Little Rock as Dina.

Schoolhouse Rock Live! was originally adapted and produced for the stage by Theatre BAM, from the series created by George Newall and Tom Yohe, based on an idea by David McCall; book by Scott Ferguson, George Keating and Kyle Hall. Music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, Kathy Mandry, George Newall and Tom Yohe.

Schoolhouse Rock and the accompany play have strong ties to Arkansas. Robert Dorough, born in Cherry Hill, Ark., wrote and performed many of the original songs for the cartoon and the play. Scott Ferguson is the original director and author of Schoolhouse Rock Live! Not only is he a native of Sherwood,, but he is also an alumnus of the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre.

Get ready for the ultimate Throwback Thursday event with Schoolhouse on the Rocks—an adults-only singalong performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! on Thursday, March 10. Before the play, enjoy a reception at 6 p.m. featuring themed cocktails, a cereal and Hiland Dairy milk bar with some of your favorite breakfast treats and a grownup spin on other classic childhood snacks. Tickets are $10 for members, $20 for non-members and include the reception and ticket to the show.

The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre will once again offer “Pay What You Can” preview performances. “Pay What You Can” tickets are available for the 7 p.m. Thursday preview performance of each Main Stage production. Tickets for the Schoolhouse Rock Live! preview on Thursday, March 3 must be purchased in person at the Arkansas Arts Center (501 East 9th Street) from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the Stephens Inc. Visitors Center, or from 6-6:45 p.m. at the Children’s Theatre Box Office, Lower Lobby Level. The maximum ticket purchase of six tickets per person. Additional tickets can always be purchased in person, online or by phone at regular ticket pricing.

Schoolhouse Rock Live!

March 4-25, 2016

Show times: Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Spring Break Matinee Performances:  March 22-25, 2016 at 2 p.m.

Ticket prices: $12.50 General admission, $10 for Arkansas Arts Center members, $10 per person for groups of 10 or more

Best enjoyed by all ages.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ArkansasArtsCenter.org/theatre.