Today is Groundhog Day. In honor of prognostication based on shadows, some photos showcasing shadows.
Lorri Acott’s “Peace” sculpture at 2nd and Main
Windows and barres casting shadows in a Ballet Arkansas studio
The footbridge between Riverfront Park and the Old State House Museum.
A bird looking at its shadow in the River Market parking deck.
The Broadway Bridge balustrade.
According to an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a fund has been set up to ensure long-term sustained support of the paper’s Pops on the River music and fireworks spectacle. The Pops on the River Charitable Fund has been established at the Arkansas Community Foundation. The first gift was a donation of $100,000 by the Hussman Foundation.
The state’s largest Fourth of July celebration, Pops on the River is a day-long observance that draws around 30,0000 people to the River Market district and First Security Amphitheater in downtown Little Rock. Fireworks and a free concert by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra highlight the celebration. The celebration was started in 1983 by the then-Arkansas Democrat just as Riverfront Park was first developing.
“The idea is to try to set up an endowment fund over the years that will generate enough income so that it could pay for Pops on the River,” Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr. said in the article. He envisions that the fund will build year by year toward a goal of $1 million. The goal amount would generate $50,000 per year to cover the costs of Pops on the River. Though the Hussman Foundation plans on annual donations of $100,000 as economically feasible, the fund is set up to take donations from other foundations as well as corporations and individuals.
On January 16, 1916, future Little Rock Mayor Martin Borchert was born in Stuttgart. After graduating high school he moved to Little Rock. He started work at ACME Brick and spent 21 years there before engaging in other business interests. Among these businesses were Martin Borchert Co., ASCO Hardware, Dtection Systems Inc. and Component Systems Inc. In 2005 he was inducted into the Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame.
Mayor Borchert was elected to the Little Rock City Board of Directors in 1964 and served from January 1965 through December 1968. He chose not to seek a second term. In 1967 and 1968 he served as Mayor of Little Rock. During this time, he laid out the vision for what has become Riverfront Park along the Arkansas River.
Other civic achievements included being a member of the Board of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, being on the Governor’s Citizens Advisory Committee, a member of the Pulaski County Quorum Court, vice chairman of the Arkansas Planning Commission, and being on the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council. In 1967 he served on the President’s National Advisory Council to the Small Business Administration. Mayor Borchert served on the Little Rock Water Commission, including a tenure as chairman. In 1985, he was chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Policy Board and as chairman oversaw the transfer of the Central Arkansas Transit system to the Central Arkansas Transit Authority. One of the achievements of which he was very proud of was that he was one of the very first in Arkansas to receive an Adopt the Highway road.
Mayor Borchert was married for 57 years to Rosemary “Biddy” Branch Borchert. They had two children, a son, John “Topper” Borchert and a daughter, Leslie Borchert Wilson. He died on May 11, 2007.
First Security Amphitheater in Downtown Little Rock will be transformed into a winter wonderland of lights this holiday season. You can enjoy a ten minute light show choreographed to music throughout the holiday season. Over 50,000 lights make up the show. The display also features the tallest real decorated tree in Arkansas.
Happy Thanksgiving. Today’s entry comes from the Culture Turkey, not the Culture Vulture.
One of the newest sculptures in Riverfront Park is “Lord Featherwick” by Herb Mignery. It is sited near the Belvedere in the park.
“Lord Featherwick” is part of Mignery’s anthropomorphic series. It whimsically depicts a turkey with a top hat, jacket, spats, umbrella and monacle.
He is probably very relieved to have made it through another Thanksgiving.
Through The Looking Glass prior to installation
Today at 11:30 a new piece of sculpture will be dedicated in Riverfront Park.
The City of Little Rock, Little Rock Parks and Recreation and the Sculpture at the River Market Committee will install and dedicate a new monument-size sculpture in the Vogel-Schwartz Sculpture Garden, directly behind the Little Rock Marriott.
Titled “Through the Looking Glass,” the sculpture stands at 12-feet wide and eight-feet tall. The stainless steel piece by sculptor Mark Leichliter features complex hexagons with a mirror finish. The ceremony will also feature the dedication of a new playground area,
Jane Rogers is a Little Rock native who has had a hand in developing two different cultural entities in her hometown. She helped organize the first Riverfest to be held in Riverfront Park in 1983. Continuing her involvement, she later served as the first full-time executive director of Riverfest. Under her leadership the festival experienced significant growth. This, in turn, brought more people down to the banks of the Arkansas River and the new Riverfront Park. Because of this, more people were familiar with the area which helped the fledgling River Market take hold in the mid-1990s.
Shortly after he became Governor, Mike Huckabee tapped her to lead the Department of Arkansas Heritage. In that capacity, she oversaw the Arkansas Arts Council, Old State House Museum, Historic Arkansas Museum, Delta Cultural Center, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program and Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. She served as Director for two years.
In 2003, she was appointed to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. In that capacity, she has been involved in efforts to strengthen cultural offerings and facilities at the various campuses in the University of Arkansas system.
Her most recent cultural endeavor has been as a founder of Sculpture at the River Market. In 2007, she helped recruit volunteers to create Little Rock’s first nation-wide sculpture invitational show and sale. Since that time, Sculpture at the River Market has built a $2,000,000+ collection of public sculpture placed in beautiful surroundings along the banks of the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock. As a result of pieces of these efforts, the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden was created in Riverfront Park.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 