2023 Filmland to begin this weekend

KUAR | By Maggie Ryan

Local films are coming to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts this weekend, kicking off the 2023 Filmland festival.

The annual event is hosted by the Arkansas Cinema Society, a nonprofit dedicated to building a community of filmmakers and enthusiasts within the Natural State.

Kathryn Tucker is the executive director of the organization, and a native of Little Rock. She’s especially excited about the range of local films featured this week, which range in subject from the environment of the Natural State to human connections.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-10-04/2023-filmland-to-begin-this-weekend

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is bringing ‘something new’

by Roby Brock (roby@talkbusiness.net)

Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts executive director Dr. Victoria Ramirez is ready to wear a new hat. With renovation of the new museum in Little Rock’s MacArthur Park complete, Ramirez and her team are prepared to run an arts center instead of a construction site.

“Well, we were all ready to put our hard hats down. I will say that. We were ready to start to be museum professionals. For me, I feel like I’m back home. I’ve worked in museums my entire career, and I feel like we are finally focusing more intently on our mission-based work, which is serving the community and bringing exceptional visual and performing arts experiences to this community,” Ramirez said on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics. “We’re planning our programming and next exhibitions for the end of 2023. We’re looking at 2024. And as we keep saying to people, the best is yet to come because we’ve got a lot more to share in the future. So it feels good to be a museum employee again.”

The architecture of the new building is as much a piece of art as the collections it houses. Designed by world-renowned architect Jeanne Gang of Chicago-based Studio Gang, the 133,000 sq. ft. museum has a new north and south entrance, with the north entrance restoring an original art deco façade from the 1937 Museum of Fine Arts building that had been hidden for decades.

https://talkbusiness.net/2023/07/the-arkansas-museum-of-fine-arts-is-bringing-something-new/

A text message helped turn the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts into a masterpiece

by Roby Brock (roby@talkbusiness.net)

A text message received by Warren and Harriet Stephens during the week of Thanksgiving 2017 changed the scope of the major renovation of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, formerly known as the Arkansas Arts Center.

Recruited by friends and museum supporters to steer the capital campaign to raise money for mechanical upgrades to the arts center building, the Stephens had asked leaders of the Windgate Foundation to raise their initial commitment from $15 million to $25 million in hopes of doing something more transformational on the project.

The day before Thanksgiving, Warren Stephens recalls getting a text from Robyn Horn, an Arkansas sculptor and wood artist who leads the Windgate Foundation.

https://talkbusiness.net/2023/04/a-text-message-helped-turn-the-arkansas-museum-of-fine-arts-into-a-masterpiece/

Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts grand opening arrives after pandemic-related delays

KUAR | By Daniel Breen, Ronak Patel

After nearly four years of construction, the newly-reimagined Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is set to open in the coming days. The multi-million-dollar project was originally set to open in May of last year, but pandemic-related construction delays pushed the opening.

Harriet Stephens, chair of the museum’s capital campaign, credited the mix of public and private funds with helping the project become a reality.

“The public funding of $31 million was generated through a hotel revenue tax bond approved and voted for by the citizens of Little Rock. Then private support from Little Rock and beyond more than quadrupled the public contribution,” Stephens said.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-04-19/arkansas-museum-of-fine-arts-grand-opening-arrives-after-pandemic-related-delays

Talk Business & Politics

Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts board members and local officials flip a switch during a ceremony on a countdown clock for the reopening of the museum on April 22. Due to the pandemic, the grand opening of the museum was delayed.