June 2nd Friday Art Night – UA Little Rock Downtown features Mariah Hatta, Meagan Davis and TK Moore-Garrick

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UA Little Rock Downtown is proud to host artists Mariah Hatta, Meagan Davis, and TK Moore-Garrick for June Second Friday Art Night!

Mariah Hatta, a local ceramics artist and owner of House Of Terriers, a creative ceramics company, will have her signature line of ceramic pigs for sale, as well as a number of her other pieces. You can catch a sneak peek of her piggies on the House of Terriers Facebook Page, @HouseofTerriers!

Meagan Davis is a painter who you may recognize from her live paintings at different charity events in the Little Rock area. You can see Meagan’s live paintings and more on her @mdavisdrew Facebook Page.

TK Moore-Garrick is a talented ceramics artist who can create anything from your dog to your very own face!

 

June 2nd Friday Art Night at Historic Arkansas Museum

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Join Historic Arkansas Museum for June’s 2FAN! Jacob Flores Music will be the evening’s musical guest. Flyway Brewing will be the featured brewery.

In addition, there will be a couple of new objects to view in our galleries. While the Arkansas Arts Center is closed for renovations, institutions around Little Rock will host artwork from their collections. HAM is excited to display a delightful wooden mechanical toy created around 1960 by Arkansas artist Marvin Warren (1895-1994). Woman with Spinning Wheel and Man with Banjo is a humorous depiction of life in rural Arkansas, made in the Southern folk art tradition.
Also new in HAM’s exhibit Life in the Western Country is a portrait of prominent Arkansan Peter Hanger (1807-1895) painted by nationally-recognized portrait and landscape painter John Mix Stanley (1814-1872), who became well-known for his genre scenes of Native Americans. Stanley stayed in Van Buren (Crawford County) for a short time, where he painted a portrait of his host, Peter Hanger. The portrait is on loan to the museum from Kathy and Adam Ratcliffe, Peter Hanger’s descendants.

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.

Flag Day 2019

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Today is Flag Day.  Here are several photos of the Stars and Stripes taken in Little Rock over the past few years.

Flags mark graves at Mount Holly Cemetery

Flag at the Clinton Presidential Center

Flag at Robinson Center

The red, white and blue stand out against the night sky and limestone of the Arkansas State Capitol.

The flag on the Capital Hotel balcony at Christmastime

Submissions open for Arkansas Cinema Society Filmland: Arkansas 2019

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LogoThe Arkansas Cinema Society and its premiere event Filmland were created to build a film community in Arkansas where film lovers can watch films, share ideas, connect with each other and nurture the new and existing film talent within our state through increased exposure to filmmakers and their art.

Filmland returns this August to the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock, furthering ACS’s mission to promote local filmmakers with Filmland: Arkansas. Information and details on how to submit to Filmland: Arkansas can be found in the specific short film and feature film categories.

The past two years have included Academy Award nominated actor Adam Driver, five-time Oscar nominated Director Richard Linklater, Director David Lowery, Producers Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Actors David Arquette, WIll Forte and Ted Danson and Oscar winner and ACS board member Mary Steenburgen. Screenings also feature Q&A’s moderated by ACS Founder and Director Jeff Nichols and every night is topped off with a party for filmmakers and attendees.

Filmland 2019 will take place the weekend of August 23rd. The exact dates, events and other details will be announced once special guests are finalized.

Awards & Prizes

ACS Filmland is a non-competitive, curated event but there will be an audience award for the Filmland: Arkansas program.

Rules & Terms

Submissions are for Arkansas filmmakers who either made their film in Arkansas or for an Arkansas Filmmaker who is an Arkansas producer, director, or writer of a film. Films may also be considered if an Arkansas native was the lead or key role as an Actor, Supporting Actor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Sound Designer, Composer, Editor, Cinematographer, Animator, Visual Effects, Makeup and Hair or First Assistant Director. The Arkansas filmmaker(s) must be available to attend the screening for a conversation after the film.

More information (including a link to submission) can be found here.

CALS ONE OF 78 ORGANIZATIONS NATIONWIDE TO RECEIVE AN NEA BIG READ GRANT

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Image result for nea big readThe Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) is a recipient of a $14,900 grant to host the NEA Big Read: CALS. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

CALS is one of 78 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading. The NEA Big Read: CALS events will take place between March 16 and April 26, 2020.

“We are very excited to host Tim O’Brien and to explore his classic The Things They Carried throughout the library system and beyond,” said Mark Christ, CALS adult programming coordinator. “As an institution, we strive to improve literacy and encourage the exchange of ideas, social engagement, and cultural expression. We hope that additional partners will join with us before the NEA Big Read begins next March.”

The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery. The main feature of the initiative is a grants program, managed by Arts Midwest, which annually supports dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single National Endowment for the Arts Big Read selection.

“It is inspiring to see both large and small communities across the nation come together around a book,” said National Endowment for the Arts Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter. “We always look forward to the unique ways cities, towns, and organizations, like Central Arkansas Library System, explore these stories and encourage community participation in a wide variety of events.”

Planned events for the NEA Big Read: CALS include a lecture by Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried; book clubs, readings and exhibits at CALS branch libraries; an Operation Song event at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in Little Rock; a film and documentary series, panel discussions and dramatic readings at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater; readings and discussions of The Things They Carried by private book clubs in the area; Vietnam veteran oral history recordings by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies staff in the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art; performances by the Writeous Poets from Little Rock Central High School; special displays and discussions during the Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans event at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History, and other events.

Partners include the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, Arkansas State Library, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Little Rock Central High School, public radio station KUAR, the Jacksonville Museum of Military History, the Arkansas Educational Television Network, Central Arkansas Literacy Council, professors from Hendrix College, Arkansas State University and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and others.

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $20 million to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country. Over the past twelve years, grantees have leveraged more than $50 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 5.7 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 91,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit arts.gov/neabigread.

For more information about NEA Big Read: CALS, contact Mark Christ at (501) 918-3069 or mchrist@cals.org.

Little Rock Look Back: First Little Rock High School graduation

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The Sherman School at 7th and Sherman Streets, which contained Little Rock’s first high school. It is now the site of the Kramer School apartments.

On June 13, 1873, the first Little Rock High School graduation ceremony took place. Newspaper accounts do not indicate how many were in the class.

The ceremony took place at the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, North, which was located on Main Street in the 400 block.  (Part of the Little Rock Technology Park is now on a portion of that site.)

Miss Eva K. Smith, the class Salutatorian was unable to attend and bring opening remarks due to illness.  However, several other speeches by students were given including “Earth’s Battlefields” by Mattie A. Chrisman, “Arkansas, Her Past and Future” by Marcus Mentzer, “Turning the Leaves” by Mary W. Smith, and “Water” by Ella Wood.  Mr. Mentzer also delivered a valedictory address which was praised by those in attendance, according to newspaper accounts.

School Board President Frederick Kramer also made remarks as did the school’s principal, Mr. Helm, and General A. W. Bishop.  Mr. Kramer also passed out the diplomas.

While education opportunities had been offered in Little Rock since the 1820s, these had been with private tutors or private academies.  A one room public school was created in the 1850s and governed by the City of Little Rock. No records exist of anyone graduating from that school.  In February 1869, the Arkansas General Assembly authorized the creation of school districts in cities as separate entities.  Little Rock voters approved the establishment of a Little Rock public school system.  Classes began in the autumn of 1869.

The Sherman School was originally built as one of Little Rock’s elementary schools but also contained the first high school classes.  In 1885, high school classes moved to 14th and Scott Streets to the Scott Street School. In 1890, they moved to the Peabody School at Capitol and Gaines Streets where they were located until the new Little Rock High School opened in 1905. This building was constructed on the site of the old Scott Street School. Today it is the East Side lofts. It served as Little Rock High School until 1927 when what is now Little Rock Central High School opened.

In the 1860s and 1870s, African American students studied at Capitol Hill and Union schools, which both contained elementary and secondary classes. By the early 1900s, Gibbs High School had opened as a new elementary and secondary school for African American students. It would serve as the City’s African American high school until Dunbar opened in 1929.

Stained Glass windows focus of tonight QQA Preservation Conversation

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The Quapaw Quarter Association is hosting its next “Preservation Conversation” tonight.
Jay King’s talk will cover history of stained glass, the care and maintenance of antique windows, what a basic repair job entails as opposed to full scale restoration,and the commission process.
The program starts at 6pm, with a 5:30pm reception preceding it.  It will be in the Mixing Room at the Old Paint Factor in the East Village (1306 East 6th Street).
Jay King began his career in glass repairing antique stained glass windows in Chicago’s Old Town. In 1974 he moved to Austin, Texas where he learned the art of constructing windows while working at Renaissance Glass Co. and several other local studios. In 1988 he set his sites for Eureka Springs, AR, but found too much to fall in love with in Little Rock, so has been here ever since. He decided to start up his own stained glass studio, Arkansas Glassworks, in 1993.
As Arkansas Glassworks, Jay has built stained glass windows for numerous homes and churches around the state. These days, churches are his main focus, but he continues to both build and repair windows for homes as well. He still manages to make the occasional window that calls him to build, regardless of commission. He’s also known to teach his craft to the few who are still around who want to learn it.

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<