Tag Archives: Historic Arkansas Museum

Art and Dance HAM It Up at 2nd Friday Art Night

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Dance and Art intersect at Historic Arkansas Museum during the monthly 2nd Friday Art Night. 

At Historic Arkansas Museum, there will be a reception for Tesseract Dancing: Brett Anderson and Emily Galusha, a new exhibit opening in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists. Outside the north entrance, at 6 pm, the pARTy for Peg sculpture will be lit; and a blacksmith will demonstrate his trade in the new Shop on the Log House grounds. Throughout the evening, in various locations, Arkansas Festival Ballet will preview upcoming performances.

Started in 2005, this downtown art gallery walk in the River Market District vicinity showcases a variety of museums and galleries.  In addition to viewing art, there are refreshments and usually live music at the various stops along the way.  There is also a free art shuttle to take visitors from location to location. The event runs from 5pm to 8pm.

Among the various participating sites are Arkansas Studies Institute, Christ Episcopal Church, Hearne Fine Art, Mediums Art Lounge, Copper Grill, Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Lulav and Third Street merchants of the River Market District.

UALR History Institute Continues Evenings with History

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The 21st year of the UALR History Institutes’ Evenings with History continues on November 1.

Tonight’s presenter is Dr. Story Matkin-Rawn, a special guest from the University of Central Arkansas.  Her talk is entitled “From Land Ownership to Legal Defense: The World War I Watershed in Black Arkansan Organizing.”  The session takes 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.

Dr. Matkin-Rawn examines the time period around The Great War and how that affected blacks in the South, especially Arkansas.  A rise in farm commodity prices during World War I should have helped many black farm families break the cycle of sharecropping.  But due to fraud and exploitation, it did not.  This caused hundreds of black farmers to organize Progressive Farmers and Householders Union.  The Elaine Massacre destroyed their movement and claimed scores of black Arkansan lives. Though the organization was ended, the movement and quest for economic stability was far from over.

Matkin-Rawn

Matkin-Rawn

This talk traces how a rising generation of activists regrouped from broken wartime promises and white terrorism to create new strategies, new networks, a new vision, and indeed, a new generation who would confront white supremacy through a constellation of statewide political, civic, and legal justice campaigns.

Dr. Matkin-Rawn is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at UCA.  She received her Ph D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Her specialty fields are Southern and African American History, 20th Century US History and the history of Education.

The corporate sponsors for the 2011-2012 season are Delta Trust, Union Pacific Railroad, the Little Rock School District—Teaching American History Program; the law firms of  Friday, Eldredge & Clark and Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. Support and gifts in kind have been provided by the UALR Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio–KLRE-KUAR; and Grapevine Spirits.

Arts & Humanities Month: Big Boo!-seum Bash

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For the 16th year, a number of Little Rock museums have joined together to present the Big Boo!-seum Bash.  The 2011 edition takes place tonight. This annual, free event is hosted by members of the Greater Little Rock Museum Consortium and sponsored by the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau. The hours are from 6pm to 8:30pm.

Big Boo!-seum Bash is one giant story-telling, trick-or-treating, fun and games evening that is safe and accessible for children and their families.

This year’s locations are the Historic Arkansas Museum, Heifer Village, Central High School National Historic Site, Old State House Museum, EMOBA, Clinton Presidential Center, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Visitors can drive to each location, where free parking is available. Game cards will also be issued at each site. Visit five of the eight participating locations to qualify for a prize drawing collected from the participating museums or visit seven of the eight participating locations to qualify for the grand prize drawing.

Visitors are encouraged to support the Arkansas Foodbank by brining non-perishable food items to enter for a chance to win prizes.

Arts & Humanities Month: Historic Arkansas Museum

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Arkansas’ frontier history is on display at Historic Arkansas Museum in downtown Little Rock.  A museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, Historic Arkansas Museum (or HAM as it affectionately known) works as both a history and a historic site musem to preserve and interpret the early history of Arkansas.  Bill Worthen, whose roots in Arkansas go back to the 18th century, serves as Executive Director of HAM.

A centerpiece for HAM is the tours of four restored early 19th century structures.  Guided tours are offered daily on the hour, except noon.  The structures are the Hinderliter Grog Shop, the Brownlee House, the Woodruff Print Shop and the McVicar House.  Across the street from the original block, there are also the Plum Bayou Farm House and the 1850s Farmstead.  The newest structure is the Blacksmith Forge.

While perhaps best known for its historic houses, HAM is home to a variety of galleries with exhibits. Among its galleries are exhibits of Arkansas Art (in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists), the Sturgis Children’s Gallery, the Knife Gallery and the Horace C. Cabe Gallery.  Currently the Cabe Gallery is host to Reel to Real: Gone with the Wind & The Civil War in Arkansas which examines not only artifacts from the Academy Award winning film, but juxtaposes them with artifacts from Arkansas life during the Civil War.  The exhibit We Walk in Two Worlds tells the story of the first Native Arkansans, the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw Indian tribes from early times to today.

On Saturdays in October, HAM is playing host to “Step Back Saturdays: At the Forge.” The Step Back Saturdays program takes place each Saturday from March through October.  This month’s theme is “At the Forge.”  Programs are at 10:45, 11:45, 1:45, 2:45 and 3:45.

On Sunday, October 23, HAM will offer its members a Pie Party from 2pm to 3:30pm.  For more information on becoming a member and supporting all of HAM’s endeavors, call 501-324-9351.

Historic Arkansas Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday from 1pm to 5pm.  There is no cost to tour the galleries, but tours of the historic structures range from $1 to $2.50.

Arts & Humanities Month: 2nd Friday Art Night

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As proof of how fast time passes, it is again the second Friday of the month which means “2nd Friday Art Night.”

Started in 2005, this downtown art gallery walk in the River Market District vicinity showcases a variety of museums and galleries.  In addition to viewing art, there are refreshments and usually live music at the various stops along the way.  There is also a free art shuttle to take visitors from location to location. The event runs from 5pm to 8pm.

Among the various participating sites are Historic Arkansas Museum, Arkansas Studies Institute, Christ Episcopal Church, Hearne Fine Art, Mediums Art Lounge, Copper Grill, Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Lulav and Third Street merchants of the River Market District.

Arts & Humanities Month: UALR History Department’s Evenings with History

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This year marks the 21st year for the History Institutes’ Evenings with History.  This nationally recognized series has featured a variety of subject.  This year, the first three evenings comprise a mini-series focused on African-Americans in Arkansas.  The other evenings will take listeners around the world in geography and chronology. 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 Carl Moneyhon speaking on “Freedom: Black Arkansans and the End of Slavery”

On November 1, Story Matkin-Rawn of the UCA History Department will present a program entitled “From Land Ownership to Legal Defense: The World War I Watershed in Black Arkansan Organizing”

John Kirk presents December’s program on the 6th: “A Movement is more than a Moment: Arkansas and the African American Civil Rights struggle since 1940”

The Evenings in History return on February 7 with Jeff Kyong-McClain’s “The Heavenly History of the Han, or How a Liberal Baptist from Green Forest, Arkansas Taught Racial and Ethnic Nationalism to the Chinese”

On March 6, Charles Romney will address “A Brief History of Human Rights”

The 2011-2012 sessions will conclude on April 3 with Edward Anson’s “Counter-Insurgency: The Lessons of Alexander the Great”

The corporate sponsors for the 2011-2012 season are Delta Trust, Union Pacific Railroad, the Little Rock School District—Teaching American History Program; the law firms of  Friday, Eldredge & Clark and Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. Support and gifts in kind have been provided by the UALR Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio–KLRE-KUAR; and Grapevine Spirits.