Tag Archives: Department of Parks Heritage and Tourism

Black History Month Spotlight – Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

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The new Arkansas Civil Rights History Audio Tour was launched in November 2015. Produced by the City of Little Rock and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock allows the many places and stories of the City’s Civil Rights history to come to life an interactive tour.  This month, during Black History Month, the Culture Vulture looks at some of the stops on this tour which focus on African American history.

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and Museum collects, preserves, interprets and celebrates Arkansas’s unique African American political, economic, and social achievement from 1865 to 1950. The Center resides in the footprint of the original Mosaic Templars of America National Headquarters and Annex Buildings.

The permanent museum exhibits depict historic West Ninth Street as a thriving commercial and social hub, focusing on the black entrepreneurship, Templars organization, and the legacy of black legislators. Between 1868 and 1893, eighty-five African Americans served in the Arkansas General Assembly. The majority served in the House, with nine in the Senate. Election laws passed in 1891, together with a poll tax in 1832, ended the election of African Americans to the legislature. No black person served again until the General Assembly in 1973.

In addition to community educational programs, the Center offers a genealogy research room, an art collection created by local talent, and a well-stocked store. The Center’s third floor features a replica of the original Headquarters Building auditorium and the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame galleries.

The Center is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and admission is free.

The app, funded by a generous grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council, was a collaboration among UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the City of Little Rock, the Mayor’s Tourism Commission, and KUAR, UALR’s public radio station, with assistance from the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.

African Americans in the arts is topic of Mosaic Templars lunchtime program

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mosaictemplarsThe Mosaic Templars Cultural Center “It’s In the Bag” quarterly lunch series offers a variety of topics meant to educate, entertain and inspire.

Today (2/2) at noon, the topic is African Americans in the arts.  It will feature guest panelists: poet Chris James, founder and executive director, House of Art; filmmaker Brian Lee; and Theresa Timmons-Shamberger, executive director, Timmons Arts Foundation.

Bring your lunch and MTCC will provide the drinks!

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

Enjoy the Winter Fair today at the Old State House Museum

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osh_img_OSH_Winter_Fair_logo_copyThe Old State House Museum invites people to break out of the winter doldrums and join them for their Winter Fair!

They will have crafts, games, music, and refreshments for the whole family to enjoy. Learn how to make a snow globe, play games on the Old State House lawn, visit with living history interpreters, and watch a puppet show and make your own puppets.

You can also watch a master ice carver create a magical sculpture from a block of ice. Refreshments, including hot cocoa and kettle corn, will be served, as well as festive music throughout the afternoon.

The event runs from 1pm to 4pm today (January 30).  Drop in any time, admission and refreshments are free!

The Old State House Museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Evolution of Jazz and its place on 9th Street focus of forum by Clinton School, Oxford American and Mosaic Templars

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jazz forumTonight (January 14) at 6pm at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Clinton School Speaker Series is presenting a forum on Jazz.  “Jazz: Evolution of an American Art Form and Its Place on 9th Street,” Jazz Symposium will be presented in partnership with the Oxford American and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

This panel discussion will be moderated by musician and lifelong jazz enthusiast, Chris Parker, and feature panelists Amina Claudine Myers (born in Blackwell, Ark.), a New York-based jazz singer and pianist; John Cain, a Little Rock-based activist and 9th Street historian; and Nathan Hood, a Hot Springs-based baritone saxophone player. The panel will share personal experiences as jazz musicians and lovers of the genre, as well as the art form’s historical context within the African American microeconomics that existed in U.S. cities prior to the Civil Rights movement.

At 7:30 p.m. — following the 60-minute symposium — a jazz ensemble led by Chris Parker will play a 60-minute set of music. Featured members of the ensemble will include bassist Bill Huntington, drummer Yvette ‘Babygirl’ Preyer, and saxophonist Nathan Hood. Parker, Huntington, Preyer, and Hood have worked with an impressive and wide range of musicians, including Ellis Marsalis, Dr. John, Benny Powell, Art Pepper, Isaac Hayes, and Harold Ousley, among others. Admission for the performance is $10 regular or $5 for students/artists.

Free field trip programs to Historic Arkansas Museum for any Arkansas school in 2016, funded by Bill Worthen Future of History Fund

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Historic Arkansas Museum is celebrating its 75th diamond anniversary by offering free educational field trip programs to any school in Arkansas that comes to the museum in 2016. This project will be funded by the Bill Worthen Future of History Fund which is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of Arkansas history lovers.

Historic Arkansas Museum provides a variety of engaging and interactive field trip programs throughout the year in addition to popular annual programs such as the Spring and Fall School Fairs and the Before Freedom program in February during Black History Month.

Educators can begin the reservation process by submitting a field trip request form.  To learn more about participating in this program, educators are invited to contact the museum’s director of education, Joleen Linson or call 501-324-9351.

Each year schoolchildren from around the state come to the museum and experience history first hand. Some churn butter—with amazement, as they learn that butter doesn’t come from the grocery store. Others imagine themselves as early Arkansans, travelling west and deciding what to bring with them, in our Packing to Go program. Students leave knowing more about their own history and they leave inspired.

Museum History

What is now a showcase for Arkansas’s history, art and heritage began as a diamond in the rough—a half-block of dilapidated historic structures. Thanks to the efforts of pioneering preservationist Louise Loughborough the museum opened on July 19, 1941, as the Arkansas Territorial Capitol Restoration. Click here to watch the museum’s 75th Anniversary film produced by Cranford Co.

Following Loughborough’s foundational leadership, prominent architect Ed Cromwell led the museum through an era of growth that made the museum an anchor of a once declining downtown Little Rock. In 1972, the museum hired its first professional staff and Bill Worthen was hired as the first executive director, a title he has held for more than 40 years. Worthen made his first goal gaining museum accreditation— a complicated and rigorous process that he and museum staff pursued for nine years, achieving accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 1981 making the museum the first accredited history museum in Arkansas.

Worthen also developed and expanded the log house farmstead on museum grounds that has been central to education programs and he led the museum through its most profound expansion which culminated in the 2001 opening of the Museum Center, a project which doubled the size of the previous visitor reception space with 10,000 square feet of exhibits, a theater, a hands-on history classroom, an entrance atrium with views of the historic grounds and other amenities. Other developments under Worthen’s leadership include but are not limited to: development of the ongoing #ArkansasMade research project, the museum’s popular Living History Program, Giving Voice dedicated to those enslaved on what is now museum property, the growth of popular events such as the Christmas Frolic, Territorial Fair, Frontier Fourth of July and 2nd Friday Art Night exhibit openings, and the museum’s achievement of Smithsonian Affiliate status which made possible the opening of the Smithsonian partnership exhibit, “We Walk in Two Worlds: The Caddo, Osage and Quapaw in Arkansas.”

Countless visitors have witnessed Bill Worthen’s passion for Arkansas history and even more across the world have been impacted by his scholarly research and publications, often in partnership with deputy director and chief curator Swannee Bennett, on the subjects of Arkansas-made material culture, the Arkansas Traveler, the Bowie knife and more. As Worthen plans his retirement for the end of 2016, the Bill Worthen Future of History Fund seeks to pass on his passion for Arkansas history to future generations for decades to come.

Memory Share

The museum is seeking stories and memories from visitors as a part of the 75th anniversary celebration. Everyone is invited to share their memories and stories of their experiences at the museum by emailing Chris Hancock, tagging Historic Arkansas Museum on Facebook, or tagging @HistoricArk on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #HAM75.

Currently on exhibit:

Historic Arkansas Museum is open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 – 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to the galleries and parking are free; admission to the historic grounds is $2.50 for adults, $1 for children under 18, $1.50 for senior citizens. The Historic Arkansas Museum Store is open 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Historic Arkansas Museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, which was created in 1975 to preserve and enhance the heritage of the state of Arkansas. Other agencies of the department are Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and Old State House Museum.

 

2015 In Memoriam – Ozell Sutton

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1515 Sutton

In these final days of 2015, we pause to look back at 15 who influenced Little Rock’s cultural scene who left us in 2015.

Ozell Sutton was a writer and eyewitness to history, while making some of his own too.

Born in Gould, he moved with his family to Little Rock and graduate from Dunbar High School and Philander Smith College. In 1950, he became the Arkansas Democrat‘s first African American reporter.

He was at Central High when the Little a Rock Nine integrated, marched with Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in 1963 and was with Dr King when he was assassinated in 1968.

He served as an aide to Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller from 1968 to 1970. From 1972 to 2003 he work for the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service in Atlanta. In that capacity he was often on the forefront in efforts to diffuse racially tense situations.

In 1962, he received an honorary doctorate from Philander Smith in recognition of his political activism in the civil rights movement. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Department of Justice in 1994.  He also was awarded the Medallion of Freedom by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In 2012, he was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition for his being one of the first African Americans to serve in the Marine Corps. His book “From Yonder to Here:” A Memoir of Dr. Ozell Sutton was published in 2009.  In 2013, he was honored by inclusion on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage This designation came for his work in 1963 to desegregate downtown Little Rock’s businesses.

Ozell Sutton was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2001.

15 Highlights of 2015 – Ballet Arkansas performs the Balanchine-Gershwin “Who Cares?”

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WhoCares-220x300Ballet Arkansas made Arkansas history in April 2015, when it became the first Arkansas-based dance company licensed to perform a work by George Balanchine.

It took place during Ballet Arkansas’ annual spring mixed repertory show.  The headlining piece, Who Cares?, was choreographed by the father of American ballet George Balanchine and is set to music of the incomparable George Gershwin.  “We at Ballet Arkansas are honored to be able to bring such a wonderful work to our state. This accomplishment speaks volumes for artistic and technical abilities of our twelve professional dancers” noted Artistic Director Michael Bearden. This piece was chosen for its fun, high-energy choreography and audience catching tunes that will delight fans of all dance styles.

The show also includes Hilary Wolfley’s expanded piece, Façade. Hilary, from Orem Utah, was the winner of our August 2014 Visions Choreographic Competition. Excerpts from the tragic tale and classical ballet Raymonda, choreographed by the Marius Petipa which was premiered January 19th, 1898, Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg will be performed as well as the pas de deux from Lady of the Camellias by Val Caniparoli. Lady of the Camellias is set to the music of Chopin and is based on the 19th century French novel by Alexander Dumas. Former Hubbard Street Dance company member Greg Sample has choreographed a contemporary piece titled Rerouting which will round out the show’s line-up.

Ballet Arkansas is supported in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.