Tag Archives: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Second Friday Art Night

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Tonight is the monthly Second Friday Art Night.  Among the many stops on the way is Historic Arkansas Museum, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

In keeping the May being Heritage Month, HAM is opening an exhibit tonight which showcases three Arkansas artists who celebrate Arkansas’ history. In the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists the exhibit is called Creating the Elements of Discovery: Tim Imhauser, Jason Powers and Emily Wood.

The exhibit will run through August 5. Each artist’s approach makes way for a subtle discovery, into object, person and place.

Little Rock sculptor Tim Imhauser’s wood pieces reveal the nature of the wood’s grain as he, through sculpting, enhances those patterns to tell its story. Ozark artist Jason Powers’ graphite drawings capture the small expressions of human emotion, while he continues to pursue diversity in the subject matter and media of his art. Little Rock artist Emily Wood expresses a sense of a place in her landscapes, drawing inspiration from her southern Arkansas upbringing.

Down the street from HAM at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, two exhibits will be highlighted:  Arkansas Arts Educators State Youth Art Show 2012 plus Small Town: Portraits of a Disappearing America.

The Arkansas Art Educators State Youth Art Show 2012 includes the Best of Show winners from art competitions held in seven different regions in the state: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Eastern, Southwest, Southeastern, and Western. The artwork was created by talented students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

The photographic exhibition Small Town: Portraits of a Disappearing America will also be opening.

 

Marching along 2nd Friday Art Night

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History takes front and center at this month’s 2nd Friday Art Night.

First up, the Butler Center Galleries of the Arkansas Studies Institute are featuring the new exhibit “Making a Place: Jewish Experience in Arkansas.”  This exhibit explores the development of the Jewish community in Arkansas focusing on immigration, isolation and assimilation.

Over at Historic Arkansas Museum, the Smittle Band will be entertaining visitors who are looking at the temporary and permanent exhibits of art and history.  The evening will also feature a sample of wines hosted by downtown’s very own Zin Wine Bar.

The Old State House Museum will be open so that visitors can see the new exhibit “Things You Need to Hear: Memories of Growing up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980.”

Another exhibit with a history flavor will be at studioMain. The March exhibition is “The History of Our Downtown.”

These and other stops of 2nd Friday Art Night will be open from 5pm to 8pm.  While on-street parking is available near most sites, a free trolley makes stops at each of the venues.  The Arkansas Times is a sponsor of 2nd Friday Art Night.

2nd Friday Art Night – At the Heart of Art in Little Rock

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For art lovers, 2nd Friday Art Night is a great way to explore the visual arts in Little Rock.  This month there are twelve stops the free trolley will be making between the hours of 5pm and 8pm.  Some highlights of this month’s offerings include:

Christ Episcopal Church (500 Scott Street) is highlighting its new exhibit: “The Cross” which features interpretations of the cross in a variety of mediums by several artists including Wes McHan, Melverue Abraham, Sister Maria Liebeck, Janet Copeland, Susan Peterson, Lynn Frost, Betsy Woodyard, Jai Ross and Mark Alderfer.

Hearne Fine Art (1001 Wright Avenue) is featuring “Southern Spirit: An Exhibition of Southern Folk Art” through March 3.  This gallery has consistently championed African American artists for two decades in downtown Little Rock.

Historic Arkansas Museum (200 East Third Street) will be featuring the opening of new exhibits by Bryan Massey, Tom Richard and Doug Stowe.  Serenading visitors will be award-winning musician Bonnie Montgomery.

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (501 West Ninth Street) will be a first time participant in 2nd Friday Art Night. The featured exhibit is Daufe 1 by LaToya Hobbs.  Visitors can also explore the many other galleries and exhibits in Little Rock’s newest history museum.

studioMAIN (1423 South Main Street) will have its grand opening.  This design collective focused on encouraging collaboration in the creative fields  including architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, urban design, furniture design and public art will have exhibitions during each 2nd Friday Art Night. This month is an exhibit of Pettaway Park designs.

Other locations include Old State House, Butler Center Galleries, Canvas Community, Courtyard by Marriott, The Green Corner Store, Dizzy’s Gypsy Grill and Copper Grill.

Friday the 13 is LUCKY for art lovers

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It is time again for 2nd Friday Art Night.  Though it may be Friday the 13th, attendees will be lucky because they’ll still have time to catch Tessaract Dancing (the art of Brett Anderson and Emily Galusha) at Historic Arkansas Museum.

Opening tonight at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) Women to Watch series. The exhibition includes the work of artists who were selected for consideration for the NMWA’s Body of Work exhibit as part of its biennial Women to Watch series. This series features emerging or under-represented artists from the states and countries in which the museum has outreach committees.

Continuing at the Butler Center through February 25 is ARK. In the Dark: An Exhibition of Vintage Movie Posters about Arkansas. The Butler Center and Ron Robinson are co-hosting an exhibition of vintage Arkansas-related movie posters to be shown in Concordia Hall of the Arkansas Studies Institute. The show features 35 posters from films covering the years 1926 to 2009.

On the second Friday of each month, the Butler Center Galleries participate in 2nd Friday Art Night, when galleries, museums, and businesses in downtown Little Rock are open from 5 to 8 p.m. for an after-hours gallery walk.

Clinton School presents “A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America” at Butler Center

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In a collaboration between the Clinton School of Public Service and the Butler Center of Arkansas Studies, author Greg Robinson will discuss his book A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America on Thursday, November 10.

The book looks at the transnational history of the wartime confinement of people of Japanese ancestry. Winner of the 2009 History Book Prize for Asian American Studies, the book offers newly uncovered material that extends existing accounts of the camp experience of Japanese Americans during World War II and breaks new ground by examining those events alongside the treatment of ethnic Japanese in Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. An associate professor of history at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Robinson is also author of By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies will host a pre-reception at 5:00 p.m. in Concordia Hall at the Arkansas Studies Institute, where The Art of Living, an exhibit featuring art from the World War II Japanese American internment camp in Rohwer, Ark., is currently on display.

Thursday, November 10, 2011
5:00 p.m.-Pre-reception at Concordia Hall in the Arkansas Studies Institute (across the street from the CALS Main Library)
6:00-7:00 p.m.-Lecture at the Darragh Center at the Main Branch of the Central Arkansas Library System

*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu, or calling 501-683-5239.

Arts & Humanities Month: Rowher Art Exhibit at Arkansas Studies Institute

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The Arkansas Studies Institute (ASI) is a collaboration between the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Rohwer Camp #23 artist unknown

In addition to being a repository for historical collections, the ASI houses four art galleries, , featuring the work of Arkansas artists and art related to the state. The exhibit galleries feature rotating exhibits including works from the CALS permanent collection.

Currently on display is the multi-media exhibit entitled “The Art of Living: Japanese American Creative Experience at Rowher.”  Curated by Butler Center staff from the Mabel Rose Jamison Vogel/Rosalie Santine Gould Collection, it showcases art created by internees at the Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County and tells the story of creativity in the face of dire circumstances. It is on display through November 26.

 

Also on display at the ASI are the following exhibits:

  • Thomas Harding, Pinhole Photography – October 14 – December 31
  • Arkansas Pastel Society’s National Exhibition – October 14 – January 14
  • Leon Niehues: 21st Century Basketmaker – October 14 – January 28

Designed by the architectural firm of Polk Stanley Wilcox, the ASI campus is comprised of three buildings from three different centuries which were combined seamlessly.  In recognition of this effort, the Arkansas Studies Institute (ASI) received the 2011 AIA/ALA Library Building Award—one of only five awards given worldwide. The award, presented every two years by the national American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association, honors excellence in the architectural design and planning of libraries.

“We worked diligently to design a facility that would both connect the public with Arkansas’s rich history and enliven the streetscape, drawing people in,” said Reese Rowland, project design principal with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects. “This national recognition is a testament to the public’s trust and continued investment in one of our community’s most critical assets, the public library. Our firm takes great pride in contributing to that trust. It’s always an honor to work with the visionary leadership at CALS.”

Arts & Humanities Month: Central Arkansas Library System

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Just over 100 years ago, a Carnegie library was founded in Little Rock as the first Public Library. After ebbing and flowing in two different locations on Louisiana Street in downtown, it has now blossomed into the Central Arkansas Library System.

In addition to the Main Library, which was a catalyst for the redevelopment of the River Market District, there are currently eleven other branches in Little Rock, other parts of Pulaski County, and one in neighboring Perry County.

Not content with merely being a place for people to check out books, CALS also houses the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, the Cox Creative Center, the Darragh Center, the Arkansas Studies Institute, Butler Center Books and the Arkansas Literary Festival. Among the annual programs presented by CALS are the Rabbi Ira Sanders Lecture, and the Booker Worthen Literary Prize.

Under the leadership of Dr. Bobby Roberts, CALS has become a living, breathing entity with dynamic programming for patrons from pre-school to well-seasoned. A perfect example is that on October 27 at the Main Library there is a Halloween costume contest for kids as well as a lecture entitled “Was There Really a Female Pope?”