Tag Archives: UA Little Rock

Sculpture Vulture: Michael Warrick’s GROWN

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Since June is a month in which people spend a lot of time in gardens, the Sculpture Vulture will focus on sculptures found in a garden. In this instance it is the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden, located in Riverfront Park. Over 30 sculptures are located in this garden, which opened in 2009.

Today’s is Michael Warrick’s Grown which was installed in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick creates a framework to evoke the lower-half of a human. What initially looks merely like an abstract series of strips is, in fact, sculpted to resemble twigs and branches. The sculpture is approximately four feet tall, making it roughly 25% larger than life.

Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.

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Happy 100 to WR

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One hundred years ago today, Winthrop Rockefeller was born in New York.  After moving to Arkansas in the early 1950s, he would establish himself as a positive force for the development of the state.

Perhaps his most obvious impact was helping to transform the provincial Little Rock Museum of Fine Arts into the first rate Arkansas Arts Center.  He and his family were generous donors of money and art to this effort.

Through the effort of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, many cultural institutions have received funds for programming which has reached into every county and every corner of this state.  For instance, one of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s string quartets is the Rockefeller Quartet.

Mr. Rockefeller at the groundbreaking for the Arkansas Arts Center

It is hard to quantify what impact his efforts had on cultural institutions which did not even exist in his lifetime.  Without the elevation of the arts and the understanding of their impact, it is doubtful that endeavors such as the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Opera Theatre (now Wildwood Park for the Arts) and Ballet Arkansas would have had success with donors in their nascent days.

In 2012, a year-long Celebration is planned to highlight the legacy of Winthrop Rockefeller in the state 40 years after he left office as the state’s 37th governor.  His leadership in political, economic, and cultural arenas as well as in his philanthropic endeavors had a significant impact on the development of Arkansas. This celebration is intended to promote an understanding of these accomplishments to an audience that may know little of his deeds as an historical figure or his contributions to the evolution of the state.

Over the next year, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Winrock International, the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the Arkansas Arts Center will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Winthrop Rockefeller’s birth by reaching out from Petit Jean Mountain, the home he created in his adopted state, to the rest of Arkansas and the United States.

This Centennial Celebration will offer a variety of programs that will honor his legacy, bringing it alive to a new generation. These programs will convene some of the nation’s leading thinkers and innovators to explore his contributions and take a contemporary look at the issues about which he cared so deeply. Alongside celebratory events, the Celebration will include an assortment of academic conferences, public forums, art exhibits, and educational programs.

Ark. Arts Center Conversation this Sunday

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The Arkansas Arts Center will present a “conversation” with Mia Hall as part of the Friends of Contemporary Craft annual lecture series on Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 6 p.m. in the Arkansas Arts Center Lower Lobby.

Mia Hall is an artist and educator based in Little Rock, where she is heading the Furniture Design Department at UALR as well as producing one-of-a kind works that are exhibited locally and nationally. She works with both conceptual, self-narrative sculptural forms and formal sculptures based on observations in nature, as well as functional furniture with an interest in concrete.

Though born in Sweden, Hall studied and graduated from the San Diego State University with degrees in Applied Design and Furniture Design. She has taught workshops at Arrowmont, OCAC and Marc Adams
and has been an artist-in-residence at the Oregon College of Art in Portland, OR.

Tickets to attend the “conversation” are $15 for FOCC members and $20 for nonmembers.

A light dinner will be served. Reservations are required. Call 501-372-4000 or email FOCC@arkarts.com to make reservations.

Friends of Contemporary Craft are Arkansas Arts Center Members share an interest in contemporary craft media. To become an Arkansas Arts Center member and to join the FOCC, contact 501-372-4000 or visit http://www.arkarts.com.

UALR to Honor Sotomoras at FINALE

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UALR will honor Eileen and Dr. Ricardo Sotomora at the seventh annual Finale at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, April 28 at the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the UALR Fine Arts Building.

Reservations to the black-tie optional event are $150 with $110 being deductible.

Finale celebrates the arts in Central Arkansas and is the premier fundraising event for UALR’s fine arts programs. The dinner gala features performances and artwork by students.

Dr. Sotomora is the only pediatric cardiologist in private practice in Arkansas. He is the exclusive provider of cardiology services for children at Baptist Health Medical Center and St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, in Little Rock, and Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock. His cardiology practice is managed by Eileen.

The Sotomoras were instrumental in founding the American Heart Association’s annual “Heart Ball,” in Arkansas, a debutante ball that not only raises proceeds for the organization but strives to teach girls about volunteerism and health. In 2006, Dr. Sotomora received the “Worthen Cornett Award,” the highest honor given to a person for work on behalf of the American Heart Association in Central Arkansas.

In 2008, they chaired the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Opus XXIV. Currently, Dr. Sotomora is a trustee of the Arkansas Arts Center Board and a member of the development committee. Both of the Sotomoras are members of the Director’s Circle.  The Sotomoras are supporters of the Venezuelan “El Sistemia,” a government-funded program that currently assists nearly one million Venezuelan children in learning classical music.

“Eileen and Ricardo are amazing leaders in the Central Arkansas community,” said Deborah Baldwin, dean of the UALR College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. “We are honored that they would assist us in raising awareness about how arts programs enrich the communities in which we live.”

Finale 2012’s performance will feature UALR music students performing scenes from the Broadway musical, “Into the Woods,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. Craig O’Neill of Today’s THV will serve as master of ceremonies. This is his fourth year to host the event.

In the live auction, Finale will feature a designer jewelry piece created by Sissy’s Log Cabin.

Presenting sponsors of the 2012 event are Glazer’s Distributors of Arkansas and Sissy’s Log Cabin. Premier sponsors include Pediatrix, Terri and Chuck Erwin, and Chip and Cindy Murphy. Sustaining sponsors are Simmons First National Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield, East-Harding, Inc., Entergy, US Bank, and HBO/Time Warner.

Arts organizations from around the region lend their support to Finale each year. This year’s participating arts partners are Accademia dell’Arte, Arkansas Arts Center, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Reservations to Finale are $150 each. Call Rivka Kuperman at (501) 765-9636 or at rekuperman@ualr.edu for more information.

Piano Duo at UALR tomorrow evening

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On Saturday, April 7, piano duo Tatiana Roitman and Kristina Marinova, will present “Arete”. The program will include Lutoslawski’s “Paganini Variatrions,” Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” and more.

Both pianists are members of the UALR Music Department faculty.

Tatiana Roitman has appeared as a soloist and recitalist across North America and Europe. The BBC hailed her performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue as “formidable…both accurate and with rarely seen joy.”

As a performer of contemporary works, she’s premiered works at the American Composer’s Forum and performed For Don by Milton Babbitt, with the composer in attendance in celebration of his 90th birthday at Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival. She’s performed regularly with the San Diego Symphony, and has been featured as a soloist in Stravinsky’s Petrushka, and on SDSO’s innovative Symphony Exposed Series.

As the recipient of the Peggy Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship at Tanglewood, she worked with James Levine, Dawn Upshaw, Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Rosen and Claude Frank. Roitman holds a PGDip. in Performance and a Licentiate in Pedagogy from the Royal Academy of Music in London, an M.Mus. in Performance from Manhattan School of Music, and a DMA from the University of Minnesota, USA. Her principal teachers include Prof. Tatiana Sarkissova, Dr. Marc Silverman, and Prof. Alexander Braginsky.

Kristina Marinova, a native of Bulgaria, holds a BM in piano performance from UCA and a Masters in
piano performance from the University of Michigan.

She is winner of international piano competitions as well as a participant in several major festivals. Currently she is the accompanist for the UALR Concert Choir, Community Chorus and Opera Theater.

UALR Evenings In History concludes 2011-2012 series tonight

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The UALR Evenings with History program concludes the 2011-2012 series tonight with Edward Anson’s “Counter-Insurgency: The Lessons of Alexander the Great.”

During Alexander the Great’s conquering expedition, which took him from Greece to Egypt to the Punjab, he only endured one serious insurrection against his once established authority.  This talk shows how he dealt with the peoples of the areas he conquered, mollifying them through the retention of basic political, cultural, and religious institutions and establishing close bonds with local elites. Why, then, did his policy fail in the one instance that produced an insurgency? The talk assesses that failure and examines the brutal counter-insurgent measures employed by Alexander to deal with this resistance to his authority.

Edward M. Anson has authored or edited five books, including Eumenes of Cardia: A Greek Among Macedonians (Leiden, Boston, Tokyo: E. J. Brill, 2004), more than thirty articles in journals, including Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, The Journal of Cuneiform Studies, The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Classical Philology, Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte,  Phoenix, Classical Journal, Greece and Rome, Ancient Society, Ancient History Bulletin, The Ancient World, and The American Journal of Philology; ten book chapters, and over fifty encyclopedia articles.  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.

The Evenings with History take place in the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street. Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

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. Also thanks for support and gifts in kind from the Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio–KLRE-KUAR; and Grapevine Spirits

Frank Thurmond at WordsWorth this Saturday

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Little Rock native Frank Thurmond, an instructor at UALR as well as an author and musician will have a book signing and reading at WordsWorth Books tomorrow (Saturday, March 31) at 1pm.

Thurmond’s book, Before I Sleep: A Memoir of Travel and Reconciliation was published by Et Alia press.  Here is how they describe it:

Before I Sleep begins with a telephone call: Absent for three decades, Thurmond’s birth father phones from his death bed, offering his son a chance for reconciliation. During those decades of absence, the son has passed through childhood in the rural South to fulfill his dream of studying abroad at Oxford University. Along the way, his travels take him from Dallas to Madrid to Soviet Moscow. The people he meets are larger-than-life, including Allen Ginsberg, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Queen Elizabeth II. Recounting life-shaping events and the insights they yield, Before I Sleep brings Thurmond’s physical, intellectual, and spiritual journeying vividly to life. Readers will find this an engaging and deeply inspiring memoir.

Thurmond will also be featured at the Arkansas Literary Festival in April.