FUN
“Hall of Heroes,” a new traveling exhibit, opens Saturday in the Hall of Wonder at the Mid-America Science Museum, 500 Mid America Blvd., Hot Springs.
The exhibit, up through Aug. 27, explores the history and science of superheroes through interactive programming, movie props, replicas and artifacts from past and present movies and television shows, including a full-scale “half” replica of the 1960s Barris Kustoms’ Batmobile. The exhibit also features an “Identification Station” at which guests can choose one of five superpower disciplines: “Powers of the Body,” “Powers of the Mind,” “Mastery,” “Gadgets” and the “Elements.”
Presenter is Visit Hot Springs with support from Allen Tillery and Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $12, $11 for 65 and older and military. $10 for children 3-12. Call (501) 767-3461 or visit midamericamuseum.org.
A full-scale “half” replica of the 1960’s Barris Kustoms’ Batmobile is part of the “Hall of Heroes” exhibit opening Saturday May 25 at the Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
FILM
Rooftop Cinema
Starting Thursday and monthly through October, enjoy a sunset followed by a movie under the stars at the Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s Rooftop Cinema, atop the parking deck at East Sixth and Scott streets, Little Rock.
The lineup:
◼️ Thursday: “Black Panther” (PG-13, 2018)
◼️ June 27: “Arthur the King” (PG-13, 2024)
◼️ July 25: “Creed III” (PG-13 2023)
◼️ Aug. 22: “Mad Max: Fury Road” (R, 2015)
◼️ Sept. 26: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (PG, 2023)
◼️ Oct. 24: “Ghostbusters” (the Downtown Partnership will hold a “Community Choice” poll via social media to pick a “Ghostbusters” film).
Screenings start at dusk. Admission is free. Attendees can take chairs or blankets; Stone’s Throw Beer and popcorn will be sold throughout each screening. Presenters are Rock City Yacht Club and Residences at Harbortown. Visit facebook.com/downtownlr.
THEATER
Schedule substitution
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St., Little Rock, is staging August Wilson’s “Jitney” on its summer season lineup, Aug. 6-18, replacing the previously announced “Into the Side of a Hill.” For ticket information, call (501) 378-0405 or visit TheRep.org.
The play, set in 1970s Pittsburgh, follows a group of men trying to squeeze out a living by driving unlicensed taxis. “When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss’ son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last,” according to a news release from the theater.
The theater is also expanding its “Pay What You Can” Rush program, making at least 10 tickets to every regular performance on a “pay what you can” (including free) basis, in-person at the box office, on a first-come, first-served basis, 30 minutes prior to each show.
It’s in addition to the theater’s “Pay What You Can” Previews program, sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, through which up to 100 tickets will be available to the first one or two performances of each production. Get those tickets, in-person at the box office, on a first-come, first-served basis, on the Saturday preceding each production’s initial performance.
ART
Young Artists Exhibition
The 63rd Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition, the oldest and only statewide art competition for young artists in grades K-12, is on display online — via arkmfa.org/art/exhibitions/63rd-young-arkansas-artists — and in part “in person” through July 7 in the Robyn and John Horn Gallery of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. Grand Juror Jeannie Hulen, studio art program director in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, handed out Best in Class awards last week to:
◼️ Kindergarten: Javale Reed-Williams (Wakefield Elementary, Little Rock), “Self-Portrait”
◼️ First grade: Ike Jones (Julia Lee Moore Elementary, Conway), “Snowy Birds”
◼️ Second grade: Meredith Middleton (Valley Springs Elementary), “One Cold Day”
◼️ Third grade: Nickolas Cubias (Theodore Jones Elementary, Conway), “Abstract Portrait”
◼️ Fourth grade: Courtney Fan (Anthony School, Little Rock), “Continuous Line Courtney”
◼️ Fifth grade: Bleu Chandler (Forest Heights STEM Academy, Little Rock), “Self-Portrait”
◼️ Sixth grade: Sylvia Hansen (Anthony School, Little Rock), “My Rainbow of Treasures”
◼️ Seventh grade: Maliha Zainab (Grimsley Junior High, Bentonville), “We Are Equal”
◼️ Eighth grade: Jackson Lord (Anthony School, Little Rock), “Ernie”
◼️ Ninth grade: Leina Cormier (Founders Classical Academy, Rogers), “Letting Go”
◼️ 10th grade: Elizabeth Lendel (Pulaski Academy, Little Rock), “Self Insecurity Presenting the Head of Itself”
◼️ 11th grade: Jax Niemann (North Little Rock High School), “Untitled”
◼️ 12th grade: Akiah Catron, Skyler Baird, Faith Woods, Aiden Saiz, Whitney Melick, Ian Tyree (Collaborative Project), “Catrina.”
Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday; the museum is closed this Friday. Admission is free.
Works by K-12 students are on display in the 63rd Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition through July 7 at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Works by K-12 students are on display in the 63rd Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition through July 7 at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Transformative structures
“Structures That Transformed Education – 1724 to 1974,” photographs by Mark Wittig of school properties that figured in the fight against segregation in education across the United States, is on display through July 31 at the William F. Laman Public Library Gallery, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. Wittig used a 4-by-5, large-format view camera and traditional darkroom techniques to create the photos. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Admission is free. Call (501) 758-1720 or visit NLRlibrary.org.
Mark Wittig’s gelatin silver print photo of Monroe School, one of two Kansas elementary schools associated with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark decision in Oliver Brown vs The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
ETC.
Six Bridges lineup
The Central Arkansas Library System has announced the first round for its lineup of authors for the 2024 Six Bridges Book Festival, Sept. 23-29.
Taking part in person:
◼️ Kamilah Cole, author of the young adult fantasy “So Let Them Burn.”
◼️ Garrard Conley, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir “Boy Erased” and the novel “All the World Beside,” published in March.
◼️ Edgar Award-winning author Eli Cranor, whose forthcoming novel is titled “Broiler.”
◼️ Brian Fairbanks, author of “Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever.”
◼️ Margot Livesey, the New York Times bestselling author of a story collection and nine novels, including “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” and “The Road from Belhaven.”
◼️ Bettina L. Love, author of the New York Times bestseller “Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal.”
◼️ Elliott West, author of “Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion,” a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
◼️ Crystal Wilkinson, author of the culinary memoir “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts.”
◼️ Phillip B. Williams, author of the novel “Ours.”
The library system will continue to announce additional authors throughout the summer.
The festival will conclude at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 29 with a special ticketed fundraiser, featuring novelist Ann Patchett and Robin Preiss Glasser, illustrator of the “Fancy Nancy” series, in conversation about creativity and collaboration. Tickets are $100; visit tinyurl.com/4wzm4c2m.
In its 21st year, the festival will feature panel discussions, readings, book signings and other programs, most of which will take place in Library Square in downtown Little Rock. Most festival events will be free and open to the public.
