Tag Archives: Historic Arkansas Museum

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

Evenings with History return tonight with Dr. Edward Anson: The Augustan Transformation of Ancient Rome

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Ed-AnsonThe UALR History Institutes’ Evenings with History returns for a new year tonight.  This nationally recognized series has featured a variety of subjects.  The sessions take place at the Ottenheimer Auditorium of Historic Arkansas Museum. Refreshments are served at 7 with the program beginning at 7:30 pm. The cost is $50 for admission to all six programs.

Tonight’s program features Dr. Edward Anson speaking on “The Augustan Transformation of Ancient Rome.”

Augustus, grandnewphew, adopted son, and heir of Gaius Julius Caesar, founded the Roman Empire and was its first Emperor.  In this talk Dr. Anson shows how Augustus gained control of the state while at the same time appearing to maintain Republican traditions and serve the needs of the people.  His creation of institutions brought him power but at the same time also solved problems that had long festered during the Republic.  While his adoptive father brought about the end of the Republic, it was the adoptive son who created the governmental structure known as the Empire.

Edward M. Anson has authored or edited eight books, fifteen book chapters, and over fifty encyclopedia articles.  He is the editor of the Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World series for Lexington Books (Rowman and Littlefield), associate editor of the Ancient History Bulletin, and an Assessor for Classics for the Australian Research Council, an agency of the Australian national government that awards grants to researchers.  He received his PhD from the University of Virginia and is currently Professor of History, a faculty senator, and a former President of the University Assembly/Senate.

Friday, Eldredge, & Clark and the Union Pacific Railroad help make these lectures possible. Other sponsors are the Ottenheimer Library, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio—KUAR-KLRE; UALR public television; and Grapevine Spirits.

 

Sandwich in History today at the White-Baucum House

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ahpp White-Baucum HouseThe monthly architectural history program “Sandwiching in History” visits the White-Baucum House, located at 201 South Izard Street. The program begins at noon today.  A historian with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program delivers a brief lecture about the church before leading guests on a tour.

This Italianate-style house was built in 1869-1870 for Robert J. T. White, then-Arkansas secretary of state, and was enlarged in the mid-1870s by its second owner, businessman George F. Baucum. The White-Baucum House was recently rehabilitated using federal and state tax incentives to serve as office space.

Sandwiching in History is a program of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.  The AHPP is responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources. Other DAH agencies are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Old State House Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Historic Arkansas Museum.

2nd Friday Art Night at Historic Art Museum has Joe Barry Carroll exhibit

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HAM 0915Historic Arkansas Museum has a special 2nd Friday Art Night with the free opening reception of Joe Barry Carroll: Growing Up..In Words and Images. It includes a gallery talk at 6 pm followed by a book signing. Enjoy live music by The Gentlemen Jazz and #ArkansasMade brews as our Year of Arkansas Beer continues with Vino’s Brewpub. The Year of Arkansas Beer is presented by the Arkansas Brewers Guild and sponsored by the Historic Arkansas Museum Foundation.  

Joe Barry Carroll: Growing Up…In Words and Images 

NBA All Star Joe Barry Carroll’s story begins in Pine Bluff, shooting baskets through a scavenged bicycle rim he nailed to the backyard shed. In Growing Up, Carroll’s colorful and evocative paintings from his memoir of the same name peer into facets of what he refers to as “shared humanity” – childhood, dreams, family ties, southern culture and self-discovery. “The best parts of my character and moral fiber flow from my family, my people and my early life experiences in Arkansas.”

Carroll led the Purdue University Boilermakers to the Final Four in 1980, graduated with a degree in Economics and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. He is now a wealth adviser, philanthropist, painter and writer. 

 

New Deputy Director for Arkansas Heritage announced

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DAH Dep DirStacy Hurst, director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage (DAH), announced today that she has named Rebecca Burkes as the new deputy director for DAH. Burkes holds an M.S. in operations management from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a Juris Doctorate from the Baylor University School of Law.

“I am very happy to bring Rebecca on board to help lead and manage DAH,” said Hurst. “Her skills in managing organizations and people will be a tremendous asset to us. Our seven separate agencies, operating under the larger umbrella of Heritage, will benefit greatly from her skills.”

Burkes most recently was an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison. Previous to that, she lived in Northwest Arkansas, where she practiced law in Fayetteville (1993-95), was corporate counsel at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in Bentonville (1995-98) and was vice president and chief counsel for the Burkes Company, a diversified real estate development, construction and brokerage company (1998-2011).

The Department of Arkansas Heritage, through its seven agencies, seeks to recognize the state’s heritage and to enhance Arkansas’s quality of life through the discovery, preservation and presentation of the state’s cultural, natural and historic resources. The agencies are Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and Old State House Museum.

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.

 

Go to the “Suggin Territory” at Historic Arkansas Museum

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Graham-promoIn this heat, it is nice to be able to travel to a different time and place in the comfort of air conditioning.  Historic Arkansas Museum’s current exhibit “SUGGIN TERRITORY: THE MARVELOUS WORLD OF FOLKLORIST JOSEPHINE GRAHAM” offers a chance to visit a bygone era in Arkansas.

Josephine Graham (1915-1999) a.k.a. “Josus,” was a celebrated artist and folklorist of Arkansas’s White River culture. Her “Suggin” folk paintings depict the Depression-era folk history of the White River region.

Though professionally trained as a painter at Columbia University, Graham’s paintings are intentionally primitive in style, inspired by the stories and lives of “Suggins,” a playful term she used in reference to the people living along the White River.

Through more than twenty exhibitions, over 100 paintings, and a self-published cookbook, she shared the wonder and charm of her native region with the world. Graham was a founding member of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists and founder of the Suggin Folklife Society.

The exhibition continues through November 29, 2015.