Tag Archives: Arkansas Arts Center

Now’s the time to nominate museums and libraries for National Medal for Museum and Library Service

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National MedalLittle Rock is blessed to have a dynamic library system and over a dozen exciting museums.  Let’s face it, the words “dynamic” and “exciting” are not always synonymous with libraries and museums.

Each year, the Institute of Museum and Library Services presents select museums and libraries with the nation’s highest honor, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service.  IMLS is now accepting nominations for the 2016 award which recognizes libraries and museums that make significant and exceptional contributions in service to their communities. Nomination forms are due October 1, 2015.

All types of nonprofit libraries and library organizations, including academic, school, and special libraries, archives, library associations, and library consortia, are eligible to receive this honor. Public or private nonprofit museums of any discipline (including general, art, history, science and technology, children’s, and natural history and anthropology), as well as historic houses and sites, arboretums, nature centers, aquariums, zoos, botanical gardens, and planetariums are eligible.

Winners are honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC, host a two-day visit from StoryCorps to record community member stories, and receive positive media attention. Approximately thirty finalists are selected as part of the process and are featured by IMLS during a six-week social media and press campaign.

Winning the medal elevates an institution’s profile and can positively impact fundraising, programming, and outreach activities.

Anyone may nominate a museum or library for this honor, and institutions may self-nominate. For more information, reach out to one of the following contacts.

Program Contact for Museums:
Mark Feitl, Museum Program Specialist
202-653-4635, mfeitl@imls.gov

Program Contact for Libraries:
Katie Murray, Staff Assistant
202-653-4644, kmurray@imls.gov

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums. Their mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Get INSPIRED BY NATURE while indoors at Arkansas Arts Center

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AAC NatureThe Arkansas Arts Center offers a way to appreciate nature while still remaining in climate controlled settings.  The exhibit INSPIRED BY NATURE by David Paul Cook, Victoria Harvey and Catherine Rodgers, is on view through October 18 in the Museum School Gallery.

“We are pleased to host works by our very own Museum School instructors who work tirelessly to teach students of all ages and skill levels to become artists,” said Arkansas Arts Center executive director Todd Herman. “These faculty members created wonderful works of art by working in the open air – influenced by nature and the environment around them.”

David Paul Cook has been the Museum School’s Watercolor Landscape and Plein Air (outdoor) Instructor since the fall of 2002. He also works with beginning students on watercolor techniques and brush handling and helps more advanced students with landscape composition and design. David is an avid outdoor painter of Central Arkansas scenes, rendered in a realistic style. His colorful and unique sketchbook-journals have been recently featured in articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Maumelle Magazine.

Victoria Harvey is a landscape painter in the medium of oils on canvas. A juried member of Oil Painters of America and Landscape Artists International, her work is represented in many notable collections around the country and is shown in Artworks Gallery on Nantucket. She teaches Beginning Painting and Landscape Painting and is the coordinator for Plein Air Painters of Arkansas and resides in Little Rock and in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Catherine Rodgers attended summer workshops at the Arkansas Arts Center as a child. Her works are held in hundreds of private collections in Arkansas and across the United States. Recent exhibits include the55th Annual Delta Exhibition, the Inaugural Exhibit of the Mississippi River Museum and The Erudites Exhibit at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

57th Annual Delta Exhibition Winners Announced by Arkansas Arts Center

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arkartsThe Arkansas Arts Center, the state’s premiere center for visual and performing arts, announces awards for the 57th Annual Delta Exhibition, on view through September 20, 2015 in the Jeannette Edris Rockefeller and Townsend Wolfe Galleries.

“Each year, this exhbition  provides unique insight into the incredible work from artists in Arkansas and throughout the Delta region,” said Todd Herman, executive director of the Arkansas Arts Center. “We’re excited to share this exhibition with the community and encourage everyone to take time to visit the Arts Center.”

Artists awarded in the 57th Annual Delta Exhibition include:

Grand Award

Mark Lewis of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for his work titled, Under the Oak (Woodward Park)

Delta Awards

Lisa Krannichfeld of Little Rock, for her work titled, Shirt (in gold), dressed series

Neal Harrington of Russellville, for his work titled, Feather Signal

Honorable Mentions

Michael Preble of Hot Springs, for his work titled, Unintended Consequences

Robyn Horn of Little Rock, for her work titled, Sideways

Aaron Calvert of Arkadelphia, for his work titled, Giving Figure

John Salvest of Jonesboro, for his work titled, Cage A

Laura Terry of West Fork, for her work titled, Ozarks Landscape, Late Summer

David Underwood of Jefferson City, Tennessee, for his work titled, Abandonded Schoolhouse

 

Contemporaries Delta Award

Mark Lewis of Tulsa, for his work titled, Under the Oak (Woodward Park)

Contemporaries Honorable Mention

Neal Harrington of Russellville, for his work titled, Feather Signal

 

“Originality is difficult to come by, and I believe it is the result of the intelligence and sensitivity of the artist. I also believe good art can inspire, surprise, move and sometimes even shock people in a way that they might see the world in a different light,” said guest juror George Dombek. “There are a number of wonderful works of art in this exhibition, and I believe if observers will give serious and careful attention to them, there is opportunity for ample rewards.”

Guest juror George Dombek is an internationally acclaimed watercolorist and previous annual Delta Exhibition exhibitor and award winner. Through a blind jury process, Dombek selected 72 works by 68 artists to be featured out of 882 entires from 380 artists. Of the 68 artists selected, 48 are from Arkansas; in all, eight states are represented in the exhibition.

As one of the most anticipated Arkansas Arts Center exhibitions of the year, the 57th Annual Delta Exhibition provides a unique snapshot of the Delta region by showcasing innovative and provocative two-and three-dimensional works in all media. The exhibition represents the dynamic vision of the artists of the Mississippi Delta region, including Arkansas and surrounding states, and offers visitors a glimpse into the contemporary art scene.

The exhibition is sponsored by Mrs. Lisenne Rockefeller, Bourbon & Boots, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, Dianne and Bobby Tucker, Janet and Sam Alley and the Capital Hotel. 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).

Good Intentions make for Best Impressions in tonight’s Tales from the South at the Arkansas Arts Center

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talesfromthesouthThe road to Hell may be paved by good intentions.  But they also make fodder for great stories.

Tonight, Tales originates at Best Impressions at the Arkansas Arts Center. The storytellers for this edition are the 3Ms – Mary Lester, M.B. McQueen, and Marjorie Lacy.

Music is by Brad Williams and blues guitarist Mark Simpson.

“Tales From the South” is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

Dinner is served from 5pm to 6:30pm, the show starts at 7pm.  Admission is $15.  Dinner can be purchased separately.

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show.

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.  This program will air on July 30.

Last Chance to see 30 AMERICANS at Arkansas Arts Center

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30amer30 Americans, the current exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center, closes on Sunday.

30 Americans showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades. This provocative exhibition focuses on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture while exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations.

“This exhibition presents a sweeping survey of artwork by many of the most influential African-American artists of the last four decades,” said Arkansas Arts Center executive director Todd Herman. “For years, I’ve searched for an exhibition of this kind but couldn’t quite find what I was looking for – an exhibition with powerful interpretations of cultural identity and artistic legacy. When I came across 30 Americans, I knew this was exactly what I wanted patrons and visitors of the Arts Center to experience. These themes are universal in nature and speak to the larger human experience.”

30 Americans features work by such early and influential artists as Barkley L. Hendricks, Robert Colescott and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and those of younger and emerging artists, such as Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu and Shinique Smith. Often provocative and challenging, 30 Americans explores what it means to be a contemporary artist through an African-American point of view – whether addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality, politics or history.

Drawn from the collection of Mera and Don Rubell, 30 Americans contains 41 works in a variety of media – paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, digital videos and photographs – by 30 of the leading contemporary African American artists. The Rubells began acquiring contemporary art in the late 1960s, often forging close friendships with living artists, particularly young artists.

The Rubells collected both backwards and forward, out of which emerged a pattern of intergenerational influence. Consequently, the works that comprise the exhibition afford viewers the opportunity to observe a stylistic dialogue among artists working throughout the past four decades. Now in collaboration with their two grown children, the Rubells continue to assemble one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in the world, which they currently house in a 45,000 square foot former DEA warehouse-turned-museum in Miami, Florida.

 

Art as Activism discussion tonight

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30americansIn conjunction with the Arkansas Arts Center’s 30 Americans exhibit, tonight at 6:30, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will host a panel on the topic of Art as Activism.

As part of the “501 to 501 Partnership Program”, Dr. Ila Sheren, author of “Art as Activism” and professor at Washington University in St. Louis will host a discussion with Thomas Allen Harris, filmmaker of “Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People,” Dr. Deborah Willis, Tisch School of the Arts Photography and Imaging Department Chair, Charley Palmer, mixed media artist, and Delita Martin, artist, Black Box Press studios.

This event will be held at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 W. 9th Street (9th and Broadway).

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

The event is free and open to the public.

2nd Friday Art Night ‘neath the June Moon

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2FAN logo Font sm2Tonight at Historic Arkansas Museum during 2nd Friday Art Night, there will be a reception celebrating Arkansas artists Heather Condren & Miranda Young.  It will feature live music by Handmade Moments.  Historic Arkansas Museum’s Year of Arkansas Beer* continues with Core Brewing Company of Springdale, AR.

Heather Condren uses repurposed books to create low relief portraiture illustrating that “books don’t have to tell a story through writing, they can also tell a story through form.” Condren (Conway) earned her BFA with an emphasis in Graphic Design at the University of Central Arkansas.

Miranda Young combines her experience working with diverse media in this exhibition of linocuts and quirky ceramic sculptures mounted like taxidermy. Animal imagery in Young’s work explores the spiritual and emotional meanings that humans associate with animals. Young (Little Rock) is a Printmaking Instructor and Scenic Designer at the Arkansas Arts Center. She earned her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute.

The exhibition continues in the Second Floor Gallery through August 9, 2015.

 

At the Old State House Museum, live music will be the artform that is celebrated.  Join musicians Bonnie Montgomery and Geoff Robson will play on the lawn of the Old State House Museum on Friday, June 12, to kick off a weekend celebrating 179 Years of Arkansas Statehood. Bring your picnic blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy the music and weather. This event is free.