Tag Archives: University of Arkansas

Legacies & Lunch Looks at Slavery in Arkansas

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legaciesSlave resistance in Arkansas is the topic of Legacies & Lunch in January. Kelly Houston Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arkansas, will present “A Rough, Saucy Set of Hands to Manage,” a discussion of her research on slavery in Arkansas.

This work was the lead essay in the Spring 2012 issue of Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Making extensive use of legal documents and carefully reading oral histories, Jones sought “to recover the slave point of view in examining explicit resistance.” She concludes that “slaves’ resistance in Arkansas seems to have had more to do with making their lives a little easier than with a continuing, self conscious effort to undermine the slave regime.”

Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and supported in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. The program is held from noon-1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month in the Main Library’s Darragh Center. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert will be provided.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). It was founded in 1997 to promote the study and appreciation of Arkansas history and culture. The Butler Center’s research collections, art galleries, and offices are located in the Arkansas Studies Institute building at 401 President Clinton Ave. on the campus of the CALS Main Library.

For more information, call 918-3086.

Architecture and Design Network presents HIGHLIGHTING HILLCREST: History, Architecture and a Sense of Community

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HillcrestThe monthly Architecture and Design Network lecture takes place tonight. This month’s topic is “HIGHLIGHTING HILLCREST: History, Architecture and a Sense of Community.”  The program begins at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center following a 5:30pm reception.

In 1891 two young  Michigan attorneys purchased 800 acres of land northwest of the city of Little Rock. Within a year, ten blocks were platted on a section of that acreage by the Pulaski Heights Land Company. Other suburban developments, including Hillcrest, followed.

A diversity of housing styles prevailed in those turn-of-the-century neighborhoods. A generous sampling of the area’s homes, including Colonial Revival and Craftsman style dwellings as well as vernacular  “pyramid cottages”, survive. Hillcrest’s historic housing stock includes  a variety of architecturally significant structures, built between 1893-1940. All are part of the Historic Hillcrest District, an area of the city listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The story of Hillcrest, a popular Little Rock neighborhood, distinguished by its history, its architecture and its unrivaled  community spirit, will be explored by Rachel Silva, Preservation Outreach Coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Tommy Jameson, an architect whose firm focuses on the restoration, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings, and Jim McKenzie, executive director of Metroplan and a  founder of the Hillcrest Residents  Association.

While demographics may provide information about an area’s population and its proclivities, it is the mindset of people who live in a particular section of town that determines the parameters, both social and physical, of a neighborhood.

Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network include the Arkansas Arts Center, the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and the Central Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Architect Eric Höweler to Present Lecture on November 12th in Little Rock

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Howeler_November_12thc713d7Eric Höweler will present a lecture titled FAIL FAST on Tuesday, November 12th at the Arkansas Arts Center at 6 p.m., in the Center’s lecture hall, following a 5:30 p.m. reception. His talk is free and open to the public. Asked about the title he chose for his lecture, Höweler said FAIL FAST was part of a longer phrase, “Launch early, fail fast, iterate”, which, he believes, could easily serve as his firm’s motto.

Born in Cali, Colombia, Höweler (AIA, LEED AP) received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Masters of Architecture from Cornell University. He is currently an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and principal at Höweler + Yoon Architecture/MY Studio in Boston.

Prior to forming Höweler + Yoon Architecture, a multidisciplinary practice, operating in the space between architecture, art, and landscape, he was a senior designer at Diller + Scofidio and an associate principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. He is the co-author of Expanded Practice, Höweler + Yoon Architecture/MY Studio (Princeton Architectural Press 2009) and author of Skyscraper: Vertical Now (Rizzoli/Universe Publishers in 2003).

Awarded the Audi Urban Future Award in 2012, the Architecture League’s Emerging Voices award and Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard in 2007 for its efforts, the firm has participated in numerous exhibitions. Among their venues are the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), and the National Art Center (Tokyo). Höweler has lectured both nationally and internationally.

The Art of Architecture lecture series is sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network, a nonprofit organization. Supporters include the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Arkansas Arts Center and the Fay Jones School of Architecture. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Award winning architect speaking Tuesday, October 15

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Kevin_McClurkanTuesday, October 15 at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, award-winning architect and Arkansas native Kevin McClurkan, AIA, will make a presentation entitled THREADS: Ennead Architects’ Recent Works.  This is part of the monthly Architecture and Design Network lecture series.

A founding partner and management principal of  Ennead  Architects, New York-based architect Kevin McClurkan, has Arkansas roots and  continuing connections. An alumnus  of Pine Bluff High School, McClurkan earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where, in 1983, he received the Edward Durell Stone Award for Excellence in Design.

McClurkan has  continued to earn awards – a prestigious national American Institute of Architects Honor Awards among them. His  commitment  to design excellence, supported by  technical innovation,  is the hallmark of his work.  Little Rock’s William J.  Clinton Presidential Center; the Newseum/Freedom Forum Foundation World Headquarters, Washington D.C.; New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts  and  the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law are among the firm’s recent award-winning projects.

Ennead is the name of the firm formerly known as Polshek Partnership Architects. The firm’s  2010 renaming emphasizes  its identity as a group of architects rather than that of a single design leader.  The new name,  which means a group of nine,  reflects the democratic and collaborative culture of the partnership.

Currently working with Little Rock’s  Polk Stanley Wilcox on the redesign of the city’s  Robinson Auditorium, McClurkan  is a member of the  the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture’s Professional Advisory Board.  Of interest to the whole community,  his April talk is  free and open to the public.

For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Orval Faubus, Language of Segregation – topic of UALR talk this evening

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ualr logoDr. Lisa M. Corrigan, Assistant Professor of Communication and Chair of the Gender Studies Program at the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas will be the features speaker this evening at the UALR Cooper Honors and Gender Studies Program Lecture.  She will deliver a lecture entitled “Orval Faubus and the Language of Segregation:  Sexualized Violence and Racial Anxiety during the Little Rock Crisis.”

Dr. Corrigan uses the Orval Faubus Collection at the University of Arkansas to examine the rhetorical strategies embraced by the former Arkansas governor during the desegregation of Central High School.  In examining Faubus’ public speeches and private correspondence at the height of the desegregation crisis, her lecture will cover how he sought to control the rhetorical situation in Little Rock and how racial anxiety was articulated as sexual anxiety.

The program will take place at 6pm in the Dickinson Hall Auditorium on the UALR campus.  At 5:30 there will be a reception.

The Memphis Sound is topic of September Legacies & Lunch today at noon

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cals_int_sponsor_butlerCivil rights, the cold war, and the transformation of the plantation economy. It is in light of these historical topics that Jeannie Whayne, University of Arkansas history professor, will frame her talk, “The Memphis Sound and Northeastern Arkansas in the 1950s and 1960s,” at Legacies & Lunch, a free monthly program hosted by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, on Wednesday, September 4, at noon in the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street.

whayne-j-12Whayne will talk about growing up in northeast Arkansas and picking up Memphis radio and television broadcasts. She will address this experience in the context of regional and world events. One example is Sputnik Monroe, a Memphis wrestler who seemed to personify the Russian menace but in fact supported civil rights by promoting matches between black and white wrestlers at a time when the sport was highly segregated.

Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and supported in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. The program is held from noon – 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month in the Main Library’s Darragh Center. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert will be provided.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). It was founded in 1997 to promote the study and appreciation of Arkansas history and culture. The Butler Center’s research collections, art galleries, and offices are located in the Arkansas Studies Institute building at 401 President Clinton Ave. on the campus of the CALS Main Library.

For more information, call 918-3086.

Sidney Moncrief at Children’s Library today

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moncriefThe new Children’s Library and Learning Center will welcome Little Rock Hall and Arkansas Razorback basketball standout Sidney Moncrief today at 2pm.  Moncrief, of course, went on to an oustanding NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks and has been a coach and businessman since retiring as a player.

He will be discussing his books Passport to Reinventing You and Your Passport to Becoming a Valuable Team Player.  Moncrief will be available to sign books after the presentation. All are welcome. Takes place in the theater.

The Central Arkansas Library System’s Children’s Library and Learning Center is located at 4800 W. 10th St.  Set on a six-acre site, the $12 million, 30,000 square foot Children’s Library includes a computer lab with fourteen computers, teaching kitchen, large activity area, individual and group study rooms, theater, and community room in addition to a collection of more than 21,000 books, DVDs, and CDs.