Tag Archives: Christ Episcopal Church

October 2015 2nd Friday Art Night!

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2FAN logo Font sm2It is time again for Second Friday Art Night!

On the second Friday of Arts & Humanities Month, it is a great way to experience the richness the arts and humanities bring to Little Rock.  Among the offerings this month are:

Historic Arkansas Museum’s free opening reception of “Kat Wilson’s Layers”

Arkansas photographer Kat Wilson is widely known for her Habitats series inspired by the hard-working people living in her blue-collar Arkansas town. Wilson’s work has continued to evolve as she has exhibited across Arkansas at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Arkansas Arts Center among others, and across the nation through exhibitions in Reno, NV, and Chicago, IL. Her work has received national and international recognition.

In a new series, Wilson’s technical process of layering photographs draws out a painterly quality typically absent in the glossy surface of a photograph. Wilson gathers images from varying degrees, often pulling information in a complete 360. She then layers them in an effort to tell a broader story of the scene.

 

CALS Butler Center opening of “Photographic Arts: African American Studio Photography from the Joshua & Mary Swift Collection”

This is the first exhibition of works from the Joshua & Mary Swift Collection, featuring photographs of African American people, created in a studio setting during the 1860s-1940s. Many of the featured photographs were hand colored, which created artful and unusual effects on otherwise formal portraits.

Other exhibits at the Butler Center are “Disparate Acts Redux: Bailin, Criswell, Peters” – an exhibition created by three artists who have found community with each other during the past thirty years’ “Weaving Stories & Hope: Textile Arts from the Japanese American Internment Camp at Rohwer, Arkansas” – a collection of decorative patterns, landscapes, and still life compositions created on muslin and denim; and “Gene Hatfield: Outside the Lines” – an exhibition characterizing the life and vitality of his life’s works.

 

Christ Church opening of solo exhibit of mixed media works by Diane Harper.

Little Rock artist Diane Harper translates images from a military childhood into new works of art in painting, printmaking, and mixed media in what she calls a “posthumous collaboration” with her father. His was a colorful career as a forensic photographer in the U.S. Military Crime Lab, and later in the Arkansas State Crime Lab. He taught himself photography by taking volumes of photos of his family and their adventures together.

The driving motivation behind this collaborative work is not only for Harper to gain a sense of place, but to position herself behind her father’s lens to see how he saw her, his family, and the rest of the world

Dave Anderson’s ONE BLOCK at Christ Church

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IMG_0596In recognition of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Little Rock is showing a collection of Dave Anderson’s One Block photos.

Little Rock photographer Dave Anderson followed the reconstruction of a single block in New Orleans from 2006 to 2010. This delivers a powerful portrait of the storm’s ongoing physical and psychological impact on a neighborhood and its residents.

Using portraiture, still lifes and abstract images, Anderson’s photos document the evolution of both the street and its houses as residents literally rebuild their lives, exploring the very nature of community while testing its resilience. Anderson’s compassionate treatment of the neighborhood’s straitened financial circumstances and its courageous reconstruction has drawn comparisons to coverage of the Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and other Farm Security Administration-funded photographers.

Seventy years later, between the devastation left by Katrina and the current housing crisis, the stability and permanence of the American home are once again in jeopardy, lending Anderson’s record a heightened, timely pertinence. One Block is an extension of Anderson’s optimistic belief that the good within each of us is what unites us, as well as his hope that this commonality will afford us the grace to both endure and emerge from our current turmoil.

Copies of Anderson’s book One Block are available for purchase at the church.

A Rowdy Faith tonight at 8 at The Undercroft

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Undercroft Rowdy FaithAppropriately for a music series serving beer which takes place in a church, The Undercroft welcomes A Rowdy Faith tonight at 8pm.

Alisyn Reid & Cate Davison make up this folk/Americana singing duo. As their official bio states they dabble in “singing, songwriting, storytelling, vocal harmonies, awkward on-stage rambling: the whole package.” Catch their act Friday, Aug. 28 at 8 pm. Tickets are $5 at the door. And there’s homebrew from Undercroft Beers.

Reid and Davison Cate first sang together ten years ago on a beach in South Carolina. They went their separate ways, wrote their separate songs, but have brought their voices together again as A Rowdy Faith. They consider their music folk/Americana, but each have distinct influences—Reid’s music has elements of country and rock and roll, while Davison’s has evidence of jazz and blues.

The Undercroft is in the lower level of Christ Church. Access it through the street level red door on Capitol Avenue, just to the east of Scott Street.

Arts Abound Tonight at 2nd Friday Art Night

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2FAN logo Font sm22nd Friday Art Night proves there is a cure for the Summertime Blues.  It offers visual art, music, food and drink!  You can eat, drink, learn, appreciate, and be merry!

At Historic Arkansas Museum from 5 to 8 pm there will be a free opening reception for two new exhibits: Katherine Rutter & Ginny Sims in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists and PopUp in the Rock: The Exhibit in the Second Floor Gallery. Enjoy live music by John Willis and the Late Romantics and #ArkansasMade brews from Moody Brews. Delicious appetizers provided by Boulevard Bread.

Down the street, the Old State House Museum will be offering musical performances by traditional folk artists Mockingbird from 5-8 p.m. The Old State House Museum will be open for self-guided tours and Mockingbird will play in the acoustically-rich 1836 Arkansas House of Representatives chamber. The room is one of the most historically significant rooms in the state, and this is a fun way for you and your family to see and experience it.

A few blocks south, Christ Church will be featuring the works of John and Judy Shantz Honey and their exhibit “Reflections on Abstraction.”

  • John Honey is a member of Mid-Southern Watercolorists and Arkansas League of Artists. He has studied the use of water-based mediums and collage under several nationally recognized artists. He is constantly challenged to find a different approach for including the elements of design in his paintings. He favors abstraction over realism as a means of expression. John’s work has been seen in juried exhibitions at the Arkansas Art Center.
  • Judy Shantz Honey enjoyed an interest in art as a child, and this interest continued through her studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and in the Museum School at the Arkansas Arts Center. She has also studied with nationally recognized art instructors in art workshops around the United States and in Mexico.  Watercolor, acrylic, and collage are her primary mediums, with work on paper and on canvas. She is a member of Mid-Southern Watercolorists, the Arkansas League of Artists and the Arkansas Arts Council.

 

Little Rock Look Back: Mayor William Ashley

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W E Ashley signature

On August 6, 1823, future Little Rock Mayor William Eliot Ashley was born in Little Rock.  He would go on to become the first Little Rock Mayor to be born in Little Rock.  Ashley was the son of Mary and Chester Ashley; his father would later serve as a U. S. Senator from Arkansas.  He was the second of the couple’s seven children.

Though he was raised in Little Rock, he did receive some schooling out of state. The State History Commission has correspondence between eleven year old William, studying in New York, and his father. Part of the letter is a request for money.

On October 26, 1846, he married Frances Eliza Grafton at Christ Episcopal Church.  They were the first Little Rock residents to be married in that church.  The couple had five children, including triplets.  Only one of the children, Frances (who was one of the triplets) survived to adulthood.

Ashley was first elected Mayor of Little Rock in 1857. After completing a two year term, he was succeeded by Gordon N. Peay (another scion of a prominent Little Rock family).  In 1861, Ashley returned to the office of Mayor.  He was reelected to a third term in 1863.  In September 1863, following the defeat of Confederate troops by the Union forces at the Battle of Little Rock, the City of Little Rock ceased operations.  On September 21, 1863, Little Rock municipal government closed its doors, stopped collection of taxes and disbanded.  Thus Ashley’s third term ended.

In addition to his interest in local government, Ashley was a member of St. John’s College Board and a director of the newly-formed Little Rock Gas Company.

William Eliot Ashley died on August 16, 1868, at the age of 45.  He was buried in Mt. Holly Cemetery (which sat partially on land that had once belonged to his family). His parents, wife and children are all buried in Mt. Holly as well.

Interestingly, for someone who grew up in a prominent family, there does not appear to be a surviving likeness of Mayor Ashley – either in painting or photograph.  Several exist of his parents, but none of him.

Tonight at 8 in The Undercroft – Fret & Worry

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llsom fretFret & Worry will be bringing their unique brand of music tonight to The Undercroft. It is located on Capital Avenue just east of Scott Street, in the undercroft of Christ Church.  The entrance is through the sidewalk-level red door on Capitol Avenue east of Scott Street.

The concert starts at 8pm, with doors opening at 7pm. The cover charge is $8 at the door. A donation will get you a fresh brew from Undercroft Beers.

Fret & Worry (Uncle Joe Meazle on guitar and RJ Looney on harmonica) sing songs that celebrate Arkansas and cover the subjects of trains, ladies of the evening, wrongful deaths, and moonshine.

25th Anniversary of Nichols & Simpson organ at Christ Church celebrated tonight with Evensong and Organ Recital

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Kleinschmidt

Kleinschmidt

Nichols & Simpson, Inc., Organbuilders has a stellar world-wide reputation as a manufacturer and tuner of organs.  And they are located in Little Rock.

Many of the churches in Central Arkansas have Nichols & Simpson organs.  One of those is Christ Church at Capitol and Scott Streets. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the dedication of that organ, the church has scheduled a Evensong service to be followed by an organ recital featuring Michael Kleinschmidt.

The choir of Christ Church will sing Evensong. The music will include the “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis,” “Collegium Regale” by Herbert Howells, and “Psalm 150” by César Franck.

Michael Kleinschmidt, canon musician at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, will be the organist. An organ recital by Mr. Kleinschmidt will follow the service.  From 2010 until March of this year, he served as canon for cathedral music at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon.  He previously served at Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston, All Saint’s Parish in Boston and St. Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York. He holds degrees from Eastman School of Music and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Kleinschmidt is an accomplished organist, having played in recital across the world, including an All-Bach concert at Saint Mark’s on the Flentrop Organ in 2012. He also has a keen appreciation for the ministry of music in children, and serves on faculty of Royal School of Church Music summer courses.

A festive reception will follow the Evensong and recital.