Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile to visit Cherokee Village Town Center

Mobile art museum tours state with “A Feast for the Eyes” exhibition

The Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile, one of only a handful of mobile art museums in the nation, will roll into Cherokee Village Town Center from April 30-May 4.

A Feast for the Eyes, the Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile’s 2017-2018 traveling exhibition, presents a visual survey of the evolution of food from fuel to fine dining.

Food is a thread that has woven together cultures for thousands of years. Beyond a basic necessity of life, food is often the centerpiece of our ceremonies and celebrations. Recipes are cherished traditions handed down through generations; shared meals cement personal and professional bonds. Since the dawn of civilization, vessels laden with edible goods have crossed vast distances, bringing with them the exchange of knowledge and cultural practices. Images of food have long served as indicators of time and place as both locally-sourced ingredients and exotic imports represent the geographic, economic, technological, and environmental aspects of a land and its people. The Artmobile exhibition brings viewers into communion with works from the Arkansas Arts Center’s collection and offers a satisfying buffet of various artistic methods and techniques.

The Arkansas Arts Center’s Artmobile has been serving the state for over 50 years as one of the nation’s few mobile art museums. This one-of-a-kind space features curated exhibitions of works from the Arkansas Arts Center’s permanent collection. Works from diverse media are carefully selected each touring season for their artistic integrity and educational value. An educator is on-hand to guide viewers through their exploration of the artworks.

By reaching people in their own communities, the Artmobile has allowed the Arkansas Arts Center, the state’s premiere center for visual and performing arts with a renowned collection of international art, to fulfill its mission of providing quality art experiences to the entire state.

“The Arkansas Arts Center is proud to be welcomed into the Cherokee Village Town Center to offer Arkansans a quality visual arts experience and the wonderful opportunity to introduce the fine arts in such a unique manner,” said Arkansas Arts Center Executive Director Todd Herman. “The Artmobile allows us to foster community connections and encourage creative and expansive thinking.”

Introduced in 1962, this mobile art museum had attracted more than 77,000 visitors even before the Arkansas Arts Center’s dedication in 1963. The original Artmobile was a 40-foot trailer modeled after a similar program at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The design was adjusted to better accommodate rural Arkansas roads. Through generous support from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Arkansas Arts Center contracted for the construction and purchase of a new, significantly updated mobile museum in 2002 which features advanced lighting arrangement, a sophisticated climate control system, hardwood floors and security. Pat Salmon and Sons have kept the Artmobile “on the move” by providing a tractor to transport the mobile gallery.

The Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile is sponsored by Anthony Timberlands, Inc.; Entergy Arkansas, Inc.; Union Pacific Foundation; Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation; Bemis Company Foundation; Kum & Go; Sheridan Garrison Foundation. This program is supported in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts with special appreciation to the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

The Artmobile will be open to the community at the Cherokee Village Town Center on Thursday, May 3 from 5:30-7:30 pm. For more information about the Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile, contact Jessica Wright, Sr. Education Specialist for State Services at: 501-396-0350 or jwright@arkansasartscenter.org. For more information about this community event, contact: Graycen Bigger, Spring River Innovation Hub Executive Director, 870-335-7409 or graycencolbert@gmail.com.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

Contact: 501-372-4000

Location: Arkansas Arts Center – 9th and Commerce, Little Rock, AR 72202

Gallery Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday – Saturday
11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday
Closed Monday & Major Holidays

 

Local partners for this event include the Cherokee Village Community Developer, the Spring River Innovation Hub, Highland School District and the Arts Center of North Arkansas.

Arkansas Arts Center programs are supported in part by: the City of Little Rock; The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau; The City of North Little Rock and the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.