Tag Archives: Arkansas Arts Center

Ark Arts Center opens new exhibit on art of tattoos

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The Arkansas Arts Center kicks off the 2012-2013 exhibition season with Tattoo Witness: Photographs by Mark Perrott on Friday, June 22. A reception for AAC members will take place tonight. The exhibit is organized and toured by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA.

Perrott’s photographs, which document 25 years of tattoo culture, highlight the artistry of the tattoos as well as the individuals who have stories to tell. Tattoos are one of the oldest subjects in art, dating back over 5000 years.

The exhibit features 25 large-scale black and white photos of men and women and their tattoos.
It grew out of a project which Perrott began in 1979 when he started hanging out at a tattoo parlor in Pittsburgh. That led him to continue to explore the artform in a widening area. Between 1995 and 2003 his continued curiosity compelled him to visit ten American mid-career tattoo masters at their studios, scattered across the country.

Mark Perrott – TONY, 1992

Mark Perrott has worked as a professional photographer for the past 40 years. In addition to his commercial work, which includes portraiture and photography for annual reports, Perrott has taken photographs that document Pittsburgh’s citizens and its rich industrial landscape. His photographs are included in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including Carnegie Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Baltimore Museum of Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition will showcase a collection of murals painted by local tattoo artists including Robert Berry from 7th Street Tattoo in Little Rock, Richard Moore from Backroads Tattoo in Russellville, Caleb Pritchett from Electric Heart Tattoo in Little Rock, Chris Thomas from Golden Lotus Tattoo Studio in Sherwood, Brooke and Ryan Cook from Lucky Bella in North Little Rock, Nancy Miller from Main Street Tattoo in Jacksonville and Scott Diffee from The Parlor in North Little Rock.

A section in the exhibition called Arkansas Tattoo Witness Corner will feature a selection of videos created by local individuals telling the stories behind their tattoos. To be included in the Arkansas Tattoo Witness Corner section of the exhibition, people can submit videos telling their tattoo story. Videos should be three minutes or less in length. People can upload their videos through the Arkansas Arts Center web site at http://www.arkarts.com. Videos will be accepted throughout the run of the exhibition.

RELATED PROGRAMS
The lecture TATTOOED: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art by Michael Atkinson, Ph.D. will be held Thursday, June 21, 2012. A reception will be held at 5:30 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 6 p.m. Dr. Michael Atkinson, sociologist and tattoo enthusiast, authored the book Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of Body Art. In this lecture, Dr. Atkinson will discuss the change in tattoo culture in North America in the past decade including the role of women and other influences. Admission to the lecture is $5. Arkansas Arts Center Members attend free.

The Arkansas Arts Center will offer free public tours of Tattoo Witness: Photographs by Mark Perrott by docents on Saturdays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 1 and 2:30 p.m.

Live demonstrations will reveal the art and technique of tattooing by local tattoo parlors from 2 to 4 p.m. on the following dates (visitors cannot receive tattoos at the Arts Center):

June 24: Golden Lotus Tattoo Studio, Sherwood
July 15: Lucky Bella, North Little Rock
August 5: 7th Street Tattoo, Little Rock
August 26 : Electric Heart Tattoo, Little Rock

Ark Arts Childrens Theatre 2012-13 Season

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The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre has announced the 2012-2013 season.

The season will kick off with Madeline and the Gypsies from September 21 through October 7.  In this adaptation of Ludwig Bemelmans classic children’s story, the irrepressible Madeline and her friend Pepito are stranded during an outing at the rousing gypsy circus.

Bunnicula will be on stage October 26 – November 11, 2012. Bunnicula by James Howe has been a hit with kids and their parents since the book was published in 1979.

The season continues with the holiday show City Mouse, Country Mouse, Christmas House on stage November 30 – December 16, 2012. A Children’s Theatre premiere, this musical is based on Aesop’s fable about a country mouse who is invited to visit her cousin in the city for Christmas.

The Three Little Pigs and Three Billy Goats Gruff will be on stage January 25 – February 10, 2013. The Children’s Theatre will present these classic stories back to back in a witty musical production.

The Princess and the Pea, a Children’s Theatre premiere, will come to life on stage March 8 – 24, 2013. This classic tale of royal courtship is told in a fresh new way.

The 2012-13 season will end with Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, on stage April 26 – May 12, 2013.

Performances are held Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. City Mouse, Country Mouse, Christmas House will have an additional performance on Saturdays at 1 p.m. as well as 3 p.m. The Princess and the Pea will have special Spring Break matinees in addition to the normal performance times.

Tickets are $12 for children and adults. Season ticket packages are available. The season is sponsored by Landers Fiat and Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. Bradley Anderson is the Artistic Director of the Children’s Theatre; Todd Herman is the Executive Director of the Arkansas Arts Center.

Call 501-372-4000 for more information.

Arkansas Arts Center a Blue Star Museum

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The Arkansas Arts Center is a proud participant in the Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families through Labor Day 2012. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

“Through Blue Star Museums, the arts community is extending a special invitation to military families to enjoy over 1,500 museums this summer,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This is both an opportunity to thank military families for their service and sacrifice, as well as a chance to create connections between museums and these families that will continue throughout the year. Especially for families with limited time together, those on a limited budget, and ones that have to relocate frequently, Blue Star Museums offers an opportunity to enjoy one another and become more fully integrated into a community.”

“As we enter the third consecutive year of the Blue Star Museums program, we are happy provide an opportunity for our nation’s service members and their families to connect with our national treasures,” said Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet. “Through this distinctive collaboration between Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts and more than 1,500 museums across the United States, military families have an unparalleled opportunity to visit some of the country’s finest museums for free.”

This year, more than 1,500 (and counting) museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative, including more than 300 new museums this year. Museums are welcome to join Blue Star Museums throughout the summer. The effort to recruit museums has involved the partnership efforts of the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers. This year’s Blue Star Museums represent not just fine arts museums, but also science museums, history museums, nature centers, and 70 children’s museums. Among this year’s new participants are the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia, the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM, the Cleveland Botanical Garden in Cleveland, Ohio, the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, California, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, and the World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

2012 Little Rock Film Fest Day 2

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Russell

 

The Little Rock Film Fest continues on day two with programming at two Little Rock cultural institutions.

At 4pm Little Rock Zoo hosts a zoo keeper chat about elephants. This will be followed at 4:30pm by the documentary The Eyes of Thailand.

At the Riverdale cinemas the first two films will be shown this evening: at 7pm, Richard Linlater’s Bernie will be shown while Daryl Wein’s Lola Versus will start at 7:30.

The Arkansas Arts Center plays host to a reception honoring filmmaker Jay Russell, an Arkansas native. Following the 7:30 reception, Philip Martin will moderate a discussion with Russell at 8pmThe program will also feature clips from some of Russell’s movies. Beginning at 9:15, the Arkansas Arts Center will host a Garden and Gallery party for filmmakers, Gold and Silver pass holders.

Art in Motion at Arkansas Arts Center TONIGHT

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The Arkansas Arts Center will host a special arts program titled Art in Motion: An Evening of Inspirational Dance on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, at 6:30 p.m.

The evening will feature choreographed works inspired by artwork in the Arkansas Arts Center’s permanent collection. Students from UALR’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present short studies based on works in the current exhibition Building the Collection: Art Acquired in the 1990s.

Working with AAC Curator of Education Louise Palermo, Associate Professor Stephanie Thibeault incorporated the project into this semester’s Choreography II course. Guests will enjoy an exciting evening of art in its many forms. Admission is free.

For more information, call 501-372-4000 or visit http://www.arkarts.com.

Happy 100 to WR

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One hundred years ago today, Winthrop Rockefeller was born in New York.  After moving to Arkansas in the early 1950s, he would establish himself as a positive force for the development of the state.

Perhaps his most obvious impact was helping to transform the provincial Little Rock Museum of Fine Arts into the first rate Arkansas Arts Center.  He and his family were generous donors of money and art to this effort.

Through the effort of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, many cultural institutions have received funds for programming which has reached into every county and every corner of this state.  For instance, one of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s string quartets is the Rockefeller Quartet.

Mr. Rockefeller at the groundbreaking for the Arkansas Arts Center

It is hard to quantify what impact his efforts had on cultural institutions which did not even exist in his lifetime.  Without the elevation of the arts and the understanding of their impact, it is doubtful that endeavors such as the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Opera Theatre (now Wildwood Park for the Arts) and Ballet Arkansas would have had success with donors in their nascent days.

In 2012, a year-long Celebration is planned to highlight the legacy of Winthrop Rockefeller in the state 40 years after he left office as the state’s 37th governor.  His leadership in political, economic, and cultural arenas as well as in his philanthropic endeavors had a significant impact on the development of Arkansas. This celebration is intended to promote an understanding of these accomplishments to an audience that may know little of his deeds as an historical figure or his contributions to the evolution of the state.

Over the next year, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Winrock International, the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the Arkansas Arts Center will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Winthrop Rockefeller’s birth by reaching out from Petit Jean Mountain, the home he created in his adopted state, to the rest of Arkansas and the United States.

This Centennial Celebration will offer a variety of programs that will honor his legacy, bringing it alive to a new generation. These programs will convene some of the nation’s leading thinkers and innovators to explore his contributions and take a contemporary look at the issues about which he cared so deeply. Alongside celebratory events, the Celebration will include an assortment of academic conferences, public forums, art exhibits, and educational programs.

Architeaser – April 30

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was a cross-shaped shadow cast on the floor of the Arkansas Arts Center atrium.  The panes in a window at the top of the atrium caused the cross-shape.

Continuing with shadows, here is today’s.