Tag Archives: Arkansas Arts Center

#5WomenArtists – Elsie Bates Freund

Posted on by

 

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 first is Elsie Bates Freund.

Born in Missouri in 1912, she was active as an artist in both Eureka Springs and later Little Rock. She died there in 2001.

Freund drew inspiration from her home in the Ozarks and applied it to painting and ceramics. As a painter and ceramicist and she signed all of her jewelry as “Elsa” and her paintings as “Elsie.”  Her work can be found at many museums including the Smithsonian, Arkansas Arts Center and Historic Arkansas Museum.

Freund is one of the 5 Women Artists being highlighted by Historic Arkansas Museum this month as part of its #5WomenArtists effort.

Artists announced for 61st Annual Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Posted on by

The Arkansas Arts Center’s 61st Annual Delta Exhibition will feature work by 49 exceptional artists from the Mississippi Delta region. The exhibition will be on view May 3 through June 30, 2019.

Guest juror Kevin Cole selected 50 artworks by 49 artists, representing 10 states. The works were chosen from more than a thousand entries by 408 artists.

Showcasing artists living and working in Arkansas and its border states, the Annual Delta Exhibition presents a vision of contemporary art in the American South. Founded in 1958, the exhibition features work in an array of media to provide a snapshot of the Delta region now – while reflecting on the region’s strong traditions of craftsmanship and observation.

The 61st Annual Delta Exhibition will be the last major exhibition on view before the Arkansas Arts Center’s upcoming renovation and expansion project. Groundbreaking on the transformational renovation project is scheduled for this fall. Continuing its long and illustrious history, the Delta Exhibition will pop up at locations across Central Arkansas and beyond while the Arts Center’s MacArthur Park building is under construction.

Cole, the show’s juror, is an Atlanta-based artist best known for sculptural works, paintings, and intentional use of color. An Arkansas native, Cole’s work was featured in the 42nd Annual Delta Exhibition (1999) at the Arkansas Arts Center. Cole was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2018.

Artists featured in the 61st Annual Delta Exhibition include:

  • John Alhen of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Joshua Asante of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Carrie Ballinger Porter of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Loren Bartnicke of Auburn, N.Y.
  • Kenneth Baskin of Lake Charles, La.
  • Zachary Blair of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Kim Brecklein of Harrison, Ark.
  • Cynthia Buob of Columbus, Miss.
  • Debra Callahan of Jonesboro, Ark.
  • Olevia “Libby” Caston of Russellville, Ark.
  • Julie Darling of Memphis, Tenn.
  • Karen DeJarnette of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Virmarie DePoyster of North Little Rock, Ark.
  • Dylan Eakin of Seattle, Wash.
  • Ivy-Jade Edwards of Memphis, Tenn.
  • Scinthya Edwards of Helena, Ark.
  • DebiLynn Fendley of Arkadelphia, Ark.
  • Bryan Frazier of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Janet Goodyear of Eureka Springs, Ark.
  • John Green of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Alice Guffey Miller of Monticello, Ark.
  • Heather Christine Guenard of Cabot, Ark.
  • Pam-ela Harrison of Dallas, Texas
  • Carol Hart of Fayetteville, Ark.
  • Amber Imrie of Sunnyvale, Calif.
  • Sherry Leedy of Kansas City, Mo.
  • Mark Lewis of Tulsa, Okla.
  • Jason McCann of Maumelle, Ark.
  • Keith Melton of North Little Rock, Ark.
  • Daniella Napolitano of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Dale Newkirk of Hammond, La.
  • Kevin O’Brien of Ocean Springs, Miss.
  • Mark Payne of Pine Bluff, Ark.
  • Rashawn Penister of Pine Bluff, Ark.
  • Yelena Petroukhina of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Jason Rankin of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Zachary Roach of Memphis, Tenn.
  • Jay Sage of Oklahoma City, Okla.
  • Ray Scott of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Sandra Sell of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Hunter Stamps of Lexington, Ky.
  • Laura Terry of West Fork, Ark.
  • Holly Tilley of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Mabry Turner of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Katelyn Vaughan of Monroe, La.
  • Michael Warrick of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Lauren Welshans of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Nancy Wilson of Little Rock, Ark.
  • Emily Wood of Little Rock, Ark.

The 61st Annual Delta Exhibition is sponsored (at this time) by Isabel and John Ed Anthony; Bank OZK; Philip R. Jonsson Foundation; Mrs. Lisenne Rockefeller; Dianne and Bobby Tucker; Terri and Chuck Erwin; Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP; the AAC Contemporaries; Phyllis and Michael Barrier; Robert Chandler; Sandra and Bob Connor; East Harding Construction; Barbara Rogers Hoover; and Don A. Tilton, The Capitol Group. Reception support is provided by Catfish Farmers of America. The Grand Award is supported by The John William Linn Endowment Fund. The exhibition is supported by the Andre Simon Memorial Trust in memory of everyone who has died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Little Rock Look Back: Studio Gang announces plans for re-imagined Arkansas Arts Center

Posted on by

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.

Little Rock Look Back: Byron Morse

Posted on by

On February 23, 1917, future Little Rock Mayor Byron R. Morse was born.

A founder of the real estate firm of Rector-Phillips- Morse, he was long active in civic affairs of Little Rock.

Mayor Morse was first elected to the City Board of Directors in November 1960. In 1963, he was chosen as Little Rock Mayor. After serving two years as Mayor, he chose to not seek re-election to the City Board. Long active in civic affairs, in 1968 he chaired the fundraising drive to keep the Arkansas Arts Center’s doors open.

In 1980, he was appointed to the City Board to fill out an unexpired term. He was later asked to fill another unexpired term but declined.  In 1983, he was elected national president of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. Mayor Morse also served as president of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, the Little Rock United Way, the Little Rock Red Cross, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Little Rock Boy’s Club. He was a member of the Fifty for the Future.

On July 25, 2001, Mayor Morse died.

Rock the Oscars 2019: John Houseman

Posted on by

Image result for john houseman paper chaseIn March 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.

After sporadic acting appearances, he was cast in 1973’s The Paper Chase. It was for this performance, as a demanding contract law school professor, that Mr. Houseman won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.  The film was directed by University of Central Arkansas alum and Arkansas native, James Bridges. The two had known each other from Houseman’s UCLA theatre days. When several name actors declined the role, Mr. Houseman was approached and set up an audition.

Happy Birthday George Washington

Posted on by
George Washington (Lansdowne portrait) by Gilbert Stuart, oil on canvas, 1796

George Washington (Lansdowne portrait) by Gilbert Stuart, oil on canvas, 1796 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Acquired as a gift to the nation through the generosity of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

Though Monday the 18th was the Federal George Washington Birthday holiday, today is his actual birthday.

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland, Virginia. He is one of only two American Presidents to not have any authority over the land now known as Little Rock. Washington never ventured west of the Mississippi River, so never visited Arkansas.

As the first President and Father of his Country, he has many things named after him. In Little Rock, Washington Street is named in his honor.

The Washington Inaugural Bible

In 2013, two Little Rock museums highlighted George Washington artifacts. Historic Arkansas Museum displayed the Washington family Bible for several months. At the start of that time, they also showcased the Bible on which Washington swore his first oath as President (the inaugural inaugural?).

A few months later, the Clinton Presidential Center featured Washington’s personal annotated copy of the 1789 “Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America.” This artifact had been purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in 2012.

In 2004, the Arkansas Arts Center exhibited the 1796 Gilbert Stuart Landsdowne Portrait of Washington. This was on display a few months before the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center.  In 1976, they had an exhibit dedicated to 18th and 19th century portraits of the Washington, Custis and Lee families. Five years earlier, the museum had displayed prints of Washington in April 1971.

Late Night at Arkansas Arts Center features Art of Motion and Music: Movement and Frida

Posted on by

Art of Motion and Music: Movement and Frida

Artifact Dance Project Artistic Director Ashley Bowman will discuss her quest to portray Frida Kahlo through movement. The program will begin at 6pm tonight (February 21) at the Arkansas Arts Center Lecture Hall.  A wine reception at 5:30 precedes it.  As part of the Late Night at the Arkansas Arts Center, all galleries, the museum shop, and Watercolor restaurant are open until 9:00 p.m.

Frida Kahlo suffered great physical and emotional pain throughout her life that manifested through her art. Because of her many surgeries, she was often committed to long periods of bed rest and healing time. Portraying Frida through movement is a challenging task because the artist was bound by her body and made that clear throughout her journal and self-portraits. Bowman will discuss how dance became the perfect artform to communicate the inner-workings of an artist who could barely move at times.

Following the lecture, guests are invited to view the galleries, shop in the Museum Shop or enjoy dinner at Watercolor in the Park.