THEATER
‘Grease’ in Argenta
Argenta Contemporary Theatre, 405 Main St. in North Little Rock’s Argenta Arts District, stages “Grease” (book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and July 30-Aug. 3 and 2 p.m. July 28. Miles Tillemans plays Danny Zuko, with Sascha Bass as Sandy Dumbrowski, heading a cast of 20 other teen actors from high schools and colleges across Arkansas, half of whom come out of the theater’s Pre-Professional Company (a partnership with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre), plus a couple of adults. (The “Teen Angel” will likely be an area celebrity “and will be a surprise to audiences,” according to a news release.) Tickets are $28-$88. Visit argentacontemporarytheatre.org.
Violinist Maria Ioudenitch and pianist Kenny Broberg play chamber music Friday at Bentonville’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Andrej Grilc) Broberg (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Lee Clifford)
MUSIC
Cliburn concert
Violinist Maria Ioudenitch and pianist Kenny Broberg team up for a chamber music concert, 7 p.m. Friday at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville. It’s part of the museum’s Van Cliburn Concert series. Broberg, who won the silver medal at the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a bronze medal at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition, will be performing on the Steinway & Sons piano that once belonged to Cliburn.
The program: Sonatina g minor, D.408, by Franz Schubert; the Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, op.78, by Johannes Brahms; Nocturne by Lili Boulanger; an arrangement of Nadia Boulanger’s song “Soleils couchants”; the Violin Sonata, FP 119, by Francis Poulenc; and the Violin Sonata No. 2, “Blues,” by Maurice Ravel.
Tickets are $45, $36 for members, $10 for students and teachers; call (479) 657-2335 or visit crystalbridges.org/calendar/van-cliburn-kenny-brober-maria-ioudenitch.
Arkansas PBS will also livestream the concert as part of its Arkansas Live initiative at myarpbs.org/arkansasliveplaylist.
ART
Ceramics exhibitions
“Alchemy7: Enamelist Society Juried Exhibition,” combining the 19th Biennial International Juried Enamel Exhibition and the 15th International Juried Student Enamel Exhibition, opens Monday in the Brad Cushman Gallery in the Windgate Center in the Windgate Center of Art and Design at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. The exhibition remains up through Sept. 6; there will be a reception, 5-7 p.m. Aug. 29, in the Windgate Center. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Admission is free. Call (501) 916-5117 or email byoung2@ualr.edu.
“Shift” by Tammy Harrington, “Gigi” by Virmarie DePoyster and “Purple Heart” by Monica Moore go on display Friday at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Fort Smith exhibitions
Three exhibitions open with a 5-7 p.m. reception Friday at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, 1601 Rogers Ave., Fort Smith:
◼️ “Quiet Moments,” personalized figural compositions influenced by the Chinese folk art of paper cut by Tammy Harrington of Russellville, on display in the museum’s Marta Jones Gallery.
◼️ “Art of Living Artists,” items the museum acquired and added to its permanent collection through a three-year grant from the Windgate Foundation, in the Sandi and Sandy Sanders Gallery for the Permanent Collection.
◼️ “The Hearts Project — A Covid-19 Memorial,” an installation by Fayetteville-based artist Monica Moore of 2,700 (out of a total of 13,068) hand-cut paper hearts, one for each Arkansan who lost their life to covid-19, on display in the lobby stairwell.
Museum hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission to the galleries and the reception are free (donations are always welcome). Call (479) 784-2787 or visit fsram.org.
“Anomura,” ceramic work in copper, enamel and silver by Sarah Perkins, is part of the “Alchemy7” ceramics exhibition opening Monday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
AT THE PODIUM
Leadership Scholars
A panel of three alumni of the Presidential Leadership Scholars program will discuss how the program expanded their ability to make a difference in the world at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. It’s part of the Clinton Presidential Center Presents series and will also be available online.
The panelists:
◼️Katherine Pickus, class of 2023, vice president of sustainability and global impact at Tyson Foods, who formerly worked at the U.S. State Department to advance democratic institution-building programs worldwide; as a United Nations election monitor in South Africa and as special assistant for national security affairs to the vice president of the United States.
◼️ Jamie Scott, class of 2017, executive director for Pulaski County Youth Services, a North Little Rock native, owner of a small business, a philanthropist and a state representative for Arkansas House District 72.
◼️ Alison Williams, class of 2020, founder of willco consulting, who served as chief of staff to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson from 2016 to 2023 and who worked in the public and private sectors for more than a decade in the Washington, D.C., area.
◼️ Mike Hemphill, director of the Presidential Leadership Scholars program and the Clinton Foundation’s director of leadership development, will moderate.
Admission is free. Register at clinton-foundation.org.
Preservation talk
Amanda Edwards, lead architectural conservator and associate principal at MTFA in Arlington, Va., will give a virtual talk at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday as part of Preserve Arkansas’ “Women in Preservation” virtual speaker series. Edwards’ experience includes historic material research and condition assessments for the preparation of condition assessments, treatment plans, historic structure reports and construction documents. She is also a professional associate with the American Institute for Conservation.
The series features women from a variety of backgrounds who are working to save historic places in Arkansas and across the country. “Admission” is free; support for the series comes from DEMX Architecture. Register at tinyurl.com/yy5y45a3 or view the talk live on the nonprofit’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/@preservearkansas1577/streams.
ETC.
Nominations open I
Sept. 6 is the deadline to submit nominations to the Arkansas Arts Council for the 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards, which recognize individuals, organizations and businesses for their influence on the arts in Arkansas.
Nominations are open in seven categories: Arts Community Development, Arts in Education, Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts, Folklife, Individual Artist, Patron and Lifetime Achievement Awards. Nominees must be current Arkansas residents or Arkansas-based corporations or organizations; “outstanding artists, arts patrons, corporate sponsors, arts education coordinators and local leaders in arts development are all eligible,” according to a news release. An independent panel of arts professionals will choose the finalists; award winners will be honored at a spring ceremony.
Make nominations and get more information at arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-art-council/aac-programs/governor’s-arts-awards; for more information, email cheri.leffew@arkansas.gov.
Nominations open II
Aug. 31 at 5 p.m. is the deadline to submit nominations to Preserve Arkansas for the 2024 Arkansas Preservation Awards, which “recognize outstanding preservation achievements, people who make a difference in their communities and projects that inspire others to protect Arkansas’ special historic places,” according to a news release.
Submit nominations, via preservearkansas.org/what-we-do/nomination-instructions, for eligible projects in 13 categories:
◼️ Outstanding Service in Neighborhood Preservation
◼️ Outstanding Work by a Craftsperson
◼️ Excellence in Preservation through Rehabilitation
◼️ Excellence in Preservation through Restoration
◼️ Outstanding Achievement in Adaptive Reuse
◼️ Excellence in Personal Preservation Projects
◼️ Outstanding Achievement in Preservation Advocacy
◼️ Outstanding New Construction in a Historic Setting
◼️ Outstanding Preservation Reporting in the Media
◼️ Ned Shank Award for Outstanding Preservation Publication
◼️ Outstanding Achievement in Preservation Education
◼️ W.L. Cook Award for Excellence in Heritage Preservation (this award comes with a $2,000 cash prize)
◼️ Parker Westbrook Award for Lifetime Achievement.
◼️ Winners will be honored at a ceremony in January 2025 at the Robinson Center in Little Rock. Call (501) 372-4757 or email rpatton@preservearkansas.org.
