Tag Archives: Wildwood Park for the Arts

KUAR – Radio Flyer

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KUAR FM 89 will celebrate Arkansas Heritage Month with its sixth performance of Arkansas Flyer, the live variety show highlighting the best of Arkansas culture and music, at 6 p.m. Friday, May 4, at Wildwood Park for the Arts.

Hosting the festivities will be Little Rock singer-songwriter Amy Garland. The Salty Dogs, purveyors of original honky-tonk twang, will be the house band, and Velvet Kente, rock-n-roll with an Afro-beat, will be the featured act. The Flyer’s own Invisible Radio Theater returns with old-fashioned radio humor.

Arkansas Flyer returns to the 625-seat Lucy Lockett Cabe Theatre at Wildwood Park for the Arts in west Little Rock, and KUAR will host a barbecue dinner beginning at 6 p.m. The show starts at 7.

Advance online tickets for Arkansas Flyer cost $20 – $25 at the door – and include the dinner and libations. Admission for ages 12 and younger is $10. Arkansas Flyer will be broadcast on KUAR FM 89 at 7 p.m. on May 14 and 1 p.m. on May 28, Memorial Day.

Arkansas Flyer is made possible in part by a grant from the Department of Arkansas Heritage, funded by the 1/8 cent conservation tax, Amendment 75.

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.

Wildwood Azalea Walk

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Wildwood Park for the Arts invites people to celebrate Spring, take a stroll and sip on some bubbly today.

Wildwood is blooming! The colors and aromas of spring are upon us, and to celebrate, Wildwood’s Board of Trustees is hosting the Park’s premiere Champagne Azalea Walk on Saturday, April 7, from 1-4 pm.

With champagne in hand stroll the park, enjoy hors d’oeuvres, listen to live jazz and smell the sweet aroma of Wildwood’s famed azalea blossoms.

The cost of the Azalea Walk is $30 per person.

Enhance the experience and include a garden luncheon specially prepared for you and your friends, as well as an up close seat to the live jazz trio. Garden Luncheon: $60 per person

LEAP DAY – Preview of Ballet Arkansas’ “Beyond Category”

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Since it LEAP DAY it seems appropriate to preview Ballet Arkansas‘ upcoming program Beyond Category.

On March 9, 10 and 11, Ballet Arkansas will explore various musical genres, which, when combined with various dance genres, make for an exciting and very eclectic concert program. The show transitions from classical ballet pieces performed to Tchaikovsky and Granados, to an act devoted to the great musical genres of jazz and blues, then finishes with a contemporary ballet to classic rock. With choreography by Michelle Jarvis, Bud Kerwin, Keisha Ilama-White and Arkansas native Leslie Schickel – this concert promises to be just what the title suggests – beyond category.

Performances are

  • March 9, 2012 – 8:00pm – Opening night and reception
  • March 10, 2012 – 8:00pm
  • March 11, 2012 – 2:00pm

Performances will be at Wildwood Park for the Arts, 20919 Denny Road.

To order tickets, click here.

 

Wildwood’s LANTERNS continues tonight

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LANTERNS!, Arkansas’ only deep-winter outdoor festival, illuminates Little Rock for a fourth year of family fun and glowing entertainment. Admission includes live entertainment, family activities and a cultural experience like no other in Central Arkansas!  The event concludes tonight from 6pm to 10pm.

LANTERNS! celebrates the first full moon of the lunar year with a variety of indoor and outdoor entertainment. Visitors will take a mystical stroll along paved pathways lit by fire pits and luminaries into Wildwood’s winter woodlands to visit eight cultures around the globe.

From Asia to the Moon, LANTERNS!, is a magical evening designed to delight children and adults alike. This year’s vistas include:

  • China: the Lunar New Year celebrations in this country are the inspiration for the entire festival!
  • Paris: featuring FREE performances of dance (with Ballet Arkansas!), french art song and more on stage in the Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre, as well as dessert crepes and champagne for purchase in the lobbies
  • Rio de Janeiro: featuring delicious edibles for purchase from Cafe Bossa Nova, live Bossa Nova music and dancing!
  • India: featuring tasty delights for purchase from Star of India Restaurant and fabulous mango smoothies from Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
  • Shakespeare’s England: featuring fabulous performances by the Arkansas Shakespeare Festival and food for purchase, including Lear’s (Turkey) Legs!
  • Venice: featuring wishing lanterns and splendid desserts for purchase!
  • American Baseball: featuring giveaways from the Arkansas Travelers, baseball games on the radio and hot dogs for purchase from Little Rock favorite Hot Dog Mike!
  • and even The Moon!

General Admission:
$10.00 for adults
$5.00 for children ages 6 to 12
FREE for children ages 5 and under

Member Pricing:
$5.00 for adults
FREE for children 12 and under
Find out More about Membership!

Wildwood Park for Arts: Holiday Tour of Homes

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Wildwood Park for the Arts celebrates not only performing arts but also gardening, culinary and design.  This weekend, the focus is on design as Wildwood presents the Holiday Tour of Homes.

Little Rock’s interior design legend Tom Chandler and regionally known design expert Chris Olsen have organized this visit to six houses in the Little Rock area.

Tickets are $25 plus a $1 service fee.  On Friday evening, there is a special preview which includes a seventh house.  Tickets for that are $66.

Homes being showcased range from Little Rock’s newer neighborhoods in the west to the oldest suburbs in Pulaski Heights.  The streets are:

 

  • Livree Lane in Chenal Downs
  • Spring Valley Lane in Valley Falls Estates
  • Bella Rosa Court
  • Woodbrook Court
  • Country Club Boulevard
  • Valley Club Circle in Pleasant Valley

 

For a complete listing and ticket information, visit Wildwood’s website.

Last Chance for 80s Blast

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The 80s come to an end tonight with the final performance of That ‘80s Show.  The Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s Summer Musical Theatre Intensive (SMTI) has been affectionately nicknamed “Smitty.”  Since 2005, SMTI has been offering Arkansas youths the opportunity to experience a two week summer conservatory which culminates in a staged performance.  Many of the SMTI youth then return for the production during the school year.

This fall, The Rep’s Young Artists are performing That ‘80s Show” which they have subtitled “We Built this “SMITTY” on Rock and Roll!” (Some might argue that not only is the pun a groaner, but the song title it references is one of the 1980’s nadirs.) Though none of the performers were even born in the 1980s (some probably weren’t even born in the 1990s), these scores of kids will sing, dance and charm the audiences.  Nicole Capri, who recently received the Governor’s Arts Award for Arts Education, has again devised and directed this musical, which features musical direction by Karen Q. Clark.

Performances are NOT on stage at the Rep this year.  Instead they are at Wildwood Park for the Arts in the Lucy Lockett Cabe Theatre.

So hop in your DeLorean or Chrysler K-Car, flip up the Izod collar, slip into the vans, put the Ray-Ban Wayfarers on and relive the decade of New Coke, cassette tapes, TRS-80 computers, Reaganomics, This Can’t Be Yogurt, Dynasty, The Preppy Handbook, Yuppies and MTV actually playing music.