MUSIC
‘River Market Live’
The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau opens a new entertainment series it’s calling “River Market Live” in Little Rock’s downtown River Market District, Aug. 10, with a performance by rock group the Karla Case Band.
Shows will take place 7-9 p.m. Thursdays through August in the outdoor River Market pavilions, 400 President Clinton Ave. The rest of the lineup:
◼️ Aug. 17: SynRG (R&B)
◼️ Aug. 24: Gravel Yard (bluegrass/country)
◼️ Aug. 31: DJ Nick Hud & Friends (hip-hop/funk disco).
Admission is free. Alcoholic and soft drinks will be sold. Attendees are encouraged to support Little Rock restaurants before and after. Chairs will be available, but you can take your own. Visit littlerock.com/river-market/events.
El Dorado MusicFest
MusicFest 2023, Oct. 6-7, on East Elm Street in downtown El Dorado, celebrates its 35th anniversary with performances by national headliners plus local and regional talent, food vendors, beer gardens, craft/sales vendors and community booths.
Friday-night performers on the Standard Lithium Main Stage will be TONIC; “Payback: A Tribute to James Brown”; Mad Hatters Dueling Pianos; and DJ Knox. And on Saturday night: The Cadillac Three, Lorrie Morgan and Jesse Keith Whitley.
Acts on the PJ’s Coffee and Canfor Southern Pine Acoustic stages include Grayson May, Crutchfield, the Taylormade Band, Brody McKinney, Blane Howard, the Side Street Steppers, Jimmy Lewis and 8 Second Ride, BlackStrap, Jayy Tune, Los de la Hacienda, Chris Loggins, Brooklyn Fogle, Jordan Sheppard, J.T. Lee, Cavin Kemble and several school bands, orchestras and choirs.
Tickets are $35-$60. Visit musicfesteldorado.com.
ART
Mural project
Conway artist Katie Wilson will apply an Artistic Innovations grant of more than $5,500 from the Mid-America Arts Alliance toward the Recovery Mural Project, a 16-foot-by-25-foot collaborative mural on the side of a building at 924 Main St. in downtown Little Rock. The grant is in partnership with Natural State Recovery Centers, which is turning the building into a new outpatient facility.
A team of area artists, including Hamid Ebrahimifar, who is supplying foundational art knowledge and a mural-painting lesson for individuals receiving treatment from Natural State Recovery who will also be part of the painting team, and Matt McLeod, who will be doing post-painting touch-ups, will begin work on the mural in September.
The nonprofit will use the completed mural as “an integral part of an outreach campaign titled #MyRecoveryStory,” according to a news release; People can take and post selfies in front of the completed mural and share their recovery stories on social media.
ETC.
Worthen Prize
The Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is awarding the annual Booker Worthen Literary Prize to Elizabeth Findley Shores for her biography of Charles J. Finger, “Shared Secrets: The Queer World of Newbery Medalist Charles J. Finger,” published by the University of Arkansas Press.
Finger, an Englishman who eventually settled in northwestern Arkansas, was primarily a magazine writer/publisher in the first quarter of the 20th century who won the 1925 Newbery Medal for “Tales from Silver Lands.”
CALS established the $2,000 Worthen Prize and in 1999 in memory of William Booker Worthen, a longtime supporter of the library system and a 22-year member of its board of trustees. It goes each year to the best work by an author living in Arkansas that has been published in the previous three years.
Arts fellowships
The Arkansas Arts Council has named the 18 recipients of $5,000 Individual Artist Fellowship grants to Arkansas artists and performers for 2023 in six categories:
Multisensory Art
◼️ Photographer and educator Aaron Turner of Fayetteville
◼️ Elby Mann of Eureka Springs, who creates interactive sculptures infused with lights and music.
◼️ Yanique Mitchell Graham of Bentonville, a Jamaican-born artist who creates works “that explore the human experience and universal consciousness,” according to a news release.
Community Engagement
◼️ Shine Benkim of Springdale, from Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands, who uses traditional weaving, song and storytelling to share knowledge with youth and preserve Marshallese culture
◼️ Simone Cottrell of Fayetteville, owner of Rachhana Creative Consulting, who has recently been an Ozarks cultural researcher and presenter with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage.
◼️ Rachel Reynolds of Fox, a community organizer
Contemporary Craft with Metal Component
◼️ Blademaker and teacher Jerry Fisk of Nashville
◼️ Lin Rhea of Prattsville, also a bladesmith, recently named the 2023 Arkansas Living Treasure
◼️ Paula Casey McGee of Dover, who designs and creates soft-sculpture fantasy art using hand-stitched fibers and mixed media.
Visual Art: Oil or Acrylic Painting on Canvas
◼️ Joelle Storet of Fayetteville, an acrylic artist who teaches portraiture and languages at a nonprofit that supports adults with learning challenges.
◼️ Neil Callander of Fayetteville
◼️ Shabana Kauser of Fayetteville, an oil painter whose works are influenced by her shared experiences as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants to the United Kingdom and as an immigrant to the United States.
Literary Arts: Written Theater Monologue
◼️ Adrienne Dawes of Fayetteville, writer, producer and teaching artist who studied sketch writing and improvisation at the Second City Training Center in Chicago
◼️ Playwright and television writer Mary Sue Price of Fayetteville
◼️ Playwright Sarah Loucks of Fayetteville.
Performing Arts: Stand-up Comedy
◼️ Jordan Williams of Fayetteville
◼️ Joseph Molinaro of North Little Rock
◼️ Charles Nicholas Moore of Maumelle.
An Oct. 16 reception at the Old State House Museum, 300 W. Markham St., Little Rock, will honor the recipients.
