Tag Archives: UA Little Rock

First 2nd Friday Art Night of 2014

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2nd Friday Art NightThe first 2nd Friday Art Night of 2014 takes place tonight.  Among the participating locations are Historic Arkansas Museum, the Central Arkansas Library System and Old State House Museum.

Historic Arkansas Museum will feature live music by Phil G. and Lori Marie from 5pm to 8pm.  It will also host the opening reception for Chasing the Light: Photography by Brian Chilson, in the Second Floor Gallery through March 10.  Arkansas Times photographer Brian Chilson has had a front row seat to some of the most exciting, entertaining, eventful and sometimes poignant events in Arkansas, as well as those smaller moments of everyday life. This collection of photographs taken over the past decade, from 2003 to 2013, serves as a sort of retrospective of life in Arkansas in the arenas of fashion, sports, politics and human interest.

At the Central Arkansas Library’s Butler Center a new exhibit will open.  Unusual Portraits: New Works by Michael Warrick and David O’Brien features explorations in portraiture by two accomplished Little Rock artists. Featured musician for the evening is Das Loop, a Little Rock duo that creates instrumental compositions using live loops and “layers of poly-rhythmic bliss.” The featured artist is Jacquelyn Kaucher, a painter who works with watercolor and acrylics, and she is a long-time teacher of watercolor and experimental watercolor painting in Little Rock.

The Old State House will host Second Friday Cinema: “Broncho Billy Anderson: Arkansas’s First Movie Star” at 6:00 pm. Born Max Aronson in Little Rock, Ark., Gilbert M. Anderson was a motion picture pioneer, who appeared in the groundbreaking film The Great Train Robbery in 1903. Anderson partnered with George Spoor to form the Essanay (S and A) Studios, where he wrote, directed, and starred in hundreds of one-reel westerns and comedies, the most popular featuring a character Anderson created for himself, Broncho Billy. “Broncho Billy” Anderson became Hollywood’s first western star, and Essanay one of the most successful studios of the early motion picture era.

The screening will include three short movies featuring Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson:   The Great Train Robbery (1903) Broncho Billy’s Fatal Joke (1914) The Son-of-a-Gun (1919).  Ben Fry, General Manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the films and lead a discussion.

Artists’ Self Portraits the Focus of Exhibit at Arkansas Arts Center

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Ian Ingram, (American, Atlanta, Georgia, 1974 – ), Easter Island, 2011, charcoal, pastel, silver leaf on paper, 82 1/2 in. x 51 in., Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection: Purchased with a gift from Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr., in honor of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke

This exhibition is organized by the Arkansas Arts Center and sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Merritt Dyke and Metropolitan National Bank. The surface quirks and deeper truths of the self emerge in the self-portrait, these are the subjects of the exhibition Face to Face. The artist invites the viewer to share what he or she has discovered in the mirror, and far more.

Long-time Arkansas Arts Center supporters Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr., are fascinated by these visual exposes. They are engaged in assembling one of America’s great collections of graphic self-portraiture, which they are gradually transferring to the Arkansas Arts Center. Their keen portrait collecting eyes search for works from across America and Europe, and throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. From the walls of New York galleries to the back alleys of Budapest, the Finches find amazing revelations of individuals.

Guest Curator Brad Cushman of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has assembled these striking self-images into pairs, encouraging contemplation of what unites and divides each pairing. In bringing the works together, he allows us to explore both what is universally human and what is utterly individual.

This exhibition is sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Merritt Dyke and Metropolitan National Bank.

It runs through February 9, 2014 at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Artspree features Nikita Mndoyants

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Coming from the family of professional musicians, pianist Nikita Mndoyants began to play piano and compose music at a very young age. He entered Central Music School in Moscow in 1995, and gave his first public recital two years later, when he was eight years old. In March of 1999, the ten-year old Nikita appeared at the Sibelius Academy Concert Hall in Helsinki. His extraordinary performance there was recorded and issued on a CD in 2001.
Nikita Mndoyants graduated from the Moscow Central Music School with honors as a pianist and composer in 2006.

In 2011 Nikita graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire where he studied with Professor Alexander Tchaykovsky (composition), Prof. Alexander Mndoyants and Prof. Nikolay Petrov (piano).
During his studies at school, he won several national and international piano and composition competitions.
He took part in master-classes in Verbier Festival and Academy (2004).

In summer of 2005 N. Mndoyants studied in the Tel-Hai Piano Master-classes in Israel. He won the 1st prize of The Concerto competition, that took place there. In November of 2007 he won the First prize of The VII International Paderewski Piano Competition in Poland and also special prize for the best semi-final recital. Following his successful recital in Helsinki, during the last decade Nikita toured throughout Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia, China, Switzerland, Israel, France, and the United States.

Nikita took part in numerous music festivals, including “Musical Kremlin”, “Moscow Autumn”, 14th Piano Festival in Liepae (Latvia), International Keyboard Institute & Festival (New York) and the 63rd Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdroj (Poland), festival dedicated to World Economic Forum in Davos, (Switzerland).

Nikita appears with recitals in the best concert halls in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Cortot Hall and Louvre Auditorium in Paris, Warsaw Philharmonic. In 2004, he appeared with the famous Borodin Quartet, performing Quintet by Shostakovich.

Evenings with History Continues Tonight: Moira Maguire

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moiraThe Evenings with History series, sponsored by the UALR History Institute kicks off the 2013-2014 series tonight.  This year’s series will focus on how the study and writing of history is done.

The six sessions of the 2013-2014 Evenings with History series will be on the first Tuesday of October, November, and December of 2013 and February, March, and April of 2014.

They are held at the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street in Little Rock. Historic Arkansas’s downtown location and the museum’s adjacent parking lot at Third and Cumberland make the sessions convenient and pleasant to attend.

Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

An individual subscription to the series, at $50 annually, includes admission to all six lectures.

Tonight, Moira Maguire discusses “From Kerry Babies to Precarious Childhood:  The Evolution of Research Agenda”

Dr. Maguire’s presentation traces the evolution of one research agenda, from the graduate student essay that formed the basis of a doctoral dissertation to the commissioned research project that led ultimately to the publication of her new book, Precarious Childhood in Post-Independence Ireland. Focusing on issues such as unwed motherhood, neglected and abused children, adoption, and family dysfunction and pointing up the gap between the rhetoric of government and the Catholic church and their policies, her study addresses questions at the forefront of public discourse in Ireland. Producing such a relevant work means that “doing” history also may inform public policy. Her talk will show how her research has figured in the work of two Irish commissions examining the treatment of women and children in state-run institutions in the first half of the twentieth century.

Dr. Maguire came to UALR in 2003. After receiving her Ph.D. from American University in Washing, D.C., she spent six years engaged in teaching and research at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth. She is in charge of the department’s assessment program. Her book, Cherished Equally? Precarious Childhood in Independent Ireland, is under contract with Manchester University Press.

Corporate sponsors for the 2013-2014 season include Friday, Eldredge, & Clark; Union Pacific Railroad; Wright, Lindsey, and Jennings; and the Teaching American History Program of the Little Rock School District.

Support and gifts in kind are provided by the UALR Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio—KUAR-KLRE; UALR public television; and Grapevine Spirits.

UALR Rhetoric & Writing featured Tuesday at Tales from the South

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talesfromsouthTomorrow night’s edition of  ”Tales from the South” is UALR Rhetoric and Writing Show I – featuring Holland Colclasure, Jasmine Williams, Roger Doyne. Music is by Amy Garland and blues guitarist Mark Simpson.

“Tales From the South” is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

The program takes place at Starving Artist Café.  Dinner is served from 5pm to 6:30pm, the show starts at 7pm.  Admission is $7.50, not including dinner.

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.  Tonight’s episode will air on October 3.

Guitarist Rovshan Mamedkuliev at Artspree today

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Rovshan MamedkulievArtspree continues today at 3pm on the UALR campus.
Rovshan Mamedkuliev was born on 12th May, 1986 in Baku, Azerbaijan, laureate of All-Russia and international competitions. He started his studies in classical guitar at the age of 11. Graduated from school of art №7 and Music College named after M. A. Balakirev in Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) as a higher achiever.
In 2004, he entered the Nizhniy Novgorod Conservatoire (academy) named after M.I. Glinka and in 2009, with honours completed his education at the classical guitar for an associate professor, laureate All-Russia competition of Aleksey Petropavlovsky. He also is currently in graduate school. As evaluated by a teacher, R.Mamedkuliev possesses such important for musician qualities, as an “excellent ear, tenacious memory, developed sense of rhythm and form, bright artistry”, which contributed to his rapid professional growth. Since September 2009, a graduate student of Nizhniy Novgorod Conservatoire, he teaches in the Department of folk instruments, as well as in the Arzamas Music College.

Participating from 1999 in the creative contests of All-Russia and international level, Rovshan Mamedkuliev has won more than twenty Awards, including: First Prize on the 6th International competition of the performers on the national instruments «Cup of the North» (Cherepovets, Russia, 2006), Finalist and Special prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Francisco Tarrega on the 41th International competition of performers on a classic guitar “Francisco Tarrega” (Benicasim, Spain, 2007), First Prize and Special Prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Leo Brouwer on the 10th International Guitar Competition L. Brouwer (Paris, France, 2009), First Prize, Prize of Public and Special Prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos on the 1st International Guitar Competition “Heitor Villa-Lobos” (Spain, 2011), First Prize on the II International competition of named after A.Frauchi (Moscow, Russia, 2011). In 2012 Rovshan Mamedkuliev won one of the most prestigious classical guitar competitions – XXX Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition (GFA) (Charleston, USA).

For high achievements in the art of Rovshan Mamedkuliev received an award from the President of Russia (2006), grants the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region and the Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.

Final Weekend of THE WAITING ROOM at UALR Theatre

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WaitingRoom-400pxwideUALR’s first theatre production of the 2013-14 academic year continues through this weekend.

Performances of The Waiting Room by Lisa Loomer will run until Oct. 6. Thursday and Friday shows are at 8 p.m., Saturday shows are at 7 p.m., and Sunday shows are at 2:30 p.m.

Performances will be at Haislip Arena Theatre in the Center for the Performing Arts at UALR. Ticket prices are $10 for the general public and $5 for UALR students, faculty, and staff, and for seniors.

For more information or tickets call 501.569.3456.

The story involves three women from three different centuries who meet in a modern-day doctor’s waiting room.

The story of the women is wrapped in the sexual and social politics of a male-dominated medical industry. The issues range from cultural aesthetics to breast cancer treatment.

The female characters include an 18th-century Chinese woman whose bound feet are literally falling apart; a 19th-century woman who has been so tightly corseted she is suffering from what was called “hysteria”; and a contemporary American woman suffering the side effects of silicone breast implants.