- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Arkansas Arts Council Selects Yamada for Individual Artist Fellowship

John Hill — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 14:27:59 +0000

The and the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism has selected Kensuke Yamada, an assistant professor of ceramics at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, as a recipient of the 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship Award. Individual Artist Fellowship awards are unconditional, non-matching awards made directly to individual Arkansas artists. An independent panel annually selects nine artists in rotating categories to receive fellowships of $4,000 each. “Being selected for the Arkansas Arts Council fellowship is an absolute honor,” Yamada said. “I’ve spent about seven years working and living in Arkansas. This fellowship makes me feel like I’m a part of the Arkansas arts community, and that’s a wonderful thing.” This year, artists from around the state submitted applications for the fellowships in three categories: cinematic arts, poetry and contemporary crafts. Yamada, of Little Rock, earned a fellowship for contemporary crafts. The Arkansas Arts Council honored the fellowship recipients during a virtual evening program on Oct. 6 in conjunction with ArtLinks 2021, the virtual, statewide arts conference sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council. “Arkansas Arts Council fellowships showcase the wide range of arts our state has to offer,” said Stacy Hurst, secretary of the department. “From music and dancing to painting and sculpture, art is a driving economic force in Arkansas, and we take pride in knowing that these grants help artists pursue their projects, which in turn enhance the lives of all of us.” A native of Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, Yamada earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and a master’s degree in studio art at University of Montana, Missoula. Originally, Yamada took a very different path from art.

Professor Kensuke Yamada is surrounded by his artwork.

“When I was in Japan, I studied speech pathology, and I did a residency at a hospital for a year,” Yamada said. “I was so young to commit my life to one job, and I came to America to try to find what I liked to do. I took a ceramic class, and I had a great teacher, and I got hooked. I used to be the kind of person who didn’t want to wake up to go to school in the morning. With ceramics, I feel like I found something. From the very first time, I felt like I was so excited that I just wanted to create.” Before joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2018, Yamada previously worked as a visiting artist at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and Center College in Danville, Kentucky. He has exhibited his work extensively throughout the United States. He has participated in artist residency programs at The Archie Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Oregon College of Art and Craft, and was an invited guest to make a sculpture at Chihuly, Inc. and Ox-Bow. His most recent exhibit, “Collectively Alone,” was displayed earlier this year at Historic Arkansas Museum. The work of Yamada and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock photographer Ben Krain converged around the artists’ observations and thoughts surrounding the loneliness of creating during the COVID-19 era. Yamada is currently working on a ceramic sculpture for the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Massachusetts that will be completed in summer 2022.

ASBTDC, Rock It! Lab and Arkansas Arts Council are set to host ARtist Reboot! on Nov. 10

John Hill — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 13:14:11 +0000

The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, based at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, will hold a one-day conference to teach artists how to start a business effectively, in partnership with Rock It! Lab and the Arkansas Arts Council. Update: This event has been postponed until further notice. ARtist Reboot! will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, at the Central Arkansas Library System Rock It! Lab, 120 River Market Ave., Little Rock. Artists will learn how to start a business the right way, protect their intellectual property, identify their target customer, organize their business, and manage their finances. Musicians, visual artists, graphic designers, photographers, and anyone else who considers themselves to be an artist and wants to learn how to start a business around their art are encouraged to attend. to attend the free event. Pre-registration is required. “Attending a day-long conference where you learn how to turn your passions into profits is an investment you won’t regret,” said Pamela Reed, inclusion and diversity specialist for ASBTDC. The tentative schedule for the event: 9:10 a.m. – Welcome – Patrick Ralston, Director, Arkansas Arts Council/Artists Resources 9:30 a.m. – Your Art, Your Business – Pamela Reed, ASBTDC 10:45 a.m. Finance Best Practices & Pricing Your Product – Dr. Bruce James, Economics Professor, Philander Smith College 1 p.m. – Protecting Your Intellectual Property – Kim Vu Dinh, Professor, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law 2:30 p.m. – Finding Your Target Customer/Marketing Strategy – Speaker TBD 3:30 p.m. – Business Planning Resources – Pamela Reed, ASBTDC 4:15 p.m. – Q&A with an Artist Musician, photographer, and poet Joshua Asante (Velvet Kente) will also lead a session. The location for this event is the new , a collaboration of CALS and Advancing Black Entrepreneurship. The lab has three maker spaces for use by creative entrepreneurs.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Student Competitive Winners Will Be Announced April 9

John Hill — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 17:32:39 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s 2021 Student Competitive Exhibit is on display in the Brad Cushman Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design through April 12.�� The annual competition features artwork created by students taking studio art and design classes in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Art and Design. The winners will be announced during at 5 p.m. April 9 via Zoom. The artists whose work is on display include Carley Brown, Jessica Fuller, Rebekah Wilson, Annika Wade, Bailey Holley, Taylor McKinney, Daleesha Hood, Morgan Morrow, Rachel Stuckey, Concera Davis, Andrea Benbrook, Ashlee Stanley, Felecia Bearden, Sarah Lassiter, Caleb LaFevre, Reece Henderson, Andrew Chun, Hannah May, Logan Hunter, Courtney Wilson, and Yelena Petroukhina. Works representing the variety of studio disciplines being taught at the university are considered for the exhibition, including drawing and design, painting, printmaking, graphic design and illustration, photography, textiles, metals and furniture design, sculpture and ceramics. Melissa Wilkinson, associate professor of art and painting at Arkansas State University, will serve as the juror/curator for the 2021 Student Competitive exhibition. She received her BFA in painting from Western Illinois University and her MFA from Southern Illinois University. Her work has been featured in three editions of New American Paintings. She received a grant for painting in 2012 and a “Woman to Watch” award in 2016 from the Arkansas Arts Council. The 2021 Student Competitive exhibit can be viewed virtually through the The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Patrons may call or email to confirm a visit to campus to view the exhibitions. For more information, contact the main office at 501-916-3182 or email Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu.

Krain, Yamada featured in exhibit that explores aloneness of creativity during COVID-19

John Hill — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 18:41:06 +0000

Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock employees are featured in a new art exhibit at the Historic Arkansas Museum that converges around the artists’ observations and thoughts surrounding the aloneness of creating during the COVID-19 era. The exhibit, is curated by the Arkansas Arts Council and reflects on the experiences, moments, and thoughts of beauty and individuality. Whether in crowds or in solitude, some people have always been living in their own world. The featured artists included Benjamin Krain, university photographer at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, and Kensuke Yamada, assistant professor of ceramics at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.

Kensuke Yamada’s Bud Series

“This exhibit is going to be about the reflection on the people and myself in everyday life,” Yamada said. “This idea can transfer somewhat to our life and time during the pandemic era. I think 2020 had many events, including the pandemic, to make us think about people, community, and myself. I requested to lift the pedestal up higher to eye level to ensure that people can experience the face-to-face moment and conjure reflection.” While he’s spent decades photographing news events, disasters, and wars, Krain’s photos in the exhibit represent moments of everyday life that “are accessible to anyone with a camera and a desire to explore.” “The more challenging photographs are those of everyday life,” Krain said. “The simple exploration of nothing. The moments in-between the moments. I find these unplanned encounters the most interesting. The content is not about the news. It is about the human spirit. These are the photographs in this exhibit. They can be taken by anyone. There is no special access or credential required other than just being present.” A graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Krain spent more than 20 years as a photojournalist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette before joining the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Office of Communications and Marketing. He has won numerous state and national awards, and his work has been featured in publications like Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times.

Vertigo by Ben Krain

A native of Japan, Yamada came to the U.S. to attend Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and later a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montana. He has traveled widely for professional residencies including Resident Artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana and the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, as well as guest and adjunct positions at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and more before joining the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty in 2018. The exhibit will be housed in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists at the Historic Arkansas Museum until March 26, 2021. The exhibit can also .

Arkansas Arts Council honors Warrick as 2020 Arkansas Living Treasure��

John Hill — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 21:07:49 +0000

The Arkansas Arts Council has selected Michael Warrick, a professor of art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, as the 2020 Arkansas Living Treasure for his work and dedication to the craft of metalworking. Warrick will be honored during a virtual event on and at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8. The virtual event will include videos of Warrick’s work and a discussion about his methods. Speakers will include Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism, among others. “We are excited to be able to offer a virtual event to honor a master of metalworking,” said Patrick Ralston, director of the Arkansas Arts Center. “It is important, especially during these troubling times, to recognize the leaders, educators, and master craftsmen and women who keep Arkansas’s rich cultural and arts heritage alive.” The annually recognizes an Arkansas artist who excels in the creation of a traditional craft and who actively preserves and advances his or her craft through community outreach and educating others. “I’m pretty excited about being named the 2020 Arkansas Living Treasure,” Warrick said. “I’m turning 70 this year. I’ve been working at my craft and trade for more than 50 years. It’s nice to be recognized for that.”

Michael Warrick’s latest sculpture, “Mockingbird Tree with Oranges.”

Warrick is known as a dedicated instructor who teaches multiple metalworking courses. He has remained committed to maintaining and advancing his craft through mentoring, teaching, lecturing, demonstrating, and building through teamwork. “I love ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,” Warrick said. “I love the students and the challenges. It’s always evolving. I’ve got some great colleagues to work with and a great new building to work in. This is my 30th year of teaching at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, but I’ve never stopped learning, and I’m still excited about teaching.” Thomas Clifton, chair of the Department of Art and Design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, described Warrick as an active and involved faculty member with a great passion for art and teaching. “I am often amazed at his energy and determination,” Clifton said. “This combination of traits has allowed him to amass an unparalleled national exhibition records of 42 solo exhibits and 174 competitive and invitational exhibits over the course of his career. Michael’s prolific career has made it challenging to walk through Little Rock without coming across one of his sculptures. Michael is well represented throughout our city, like no other artist I know. His record of accomplishments is without equal.” Warrick’s work has appeared in exhibitions and public installations locally and worldwide. He regularly does commission work, including a piece he created in 2017 for the Little Rock Sister City Commission to give to the City of Hanam in South Korea to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the sister cities partnership. A video about that project is available via . Through his partnership with artist Aaron Hussey, Warrick created the in 2001. Warrick began learning metalworking in 1967, when he took an industrial arts class in high school that included welding. He became a certified welder in 1972 and worked on large-scale mining equipment trucks, industrial fixtures, and railroad cars. He attended Illinois State University as an art student in 1976. There, he learned metal casting and sculpting, and as a graduate student, he learned to work with cast iron. By 1995, he had picked up the technique of ceramic shell casting, which allowed him to cast finer and thinner bronze works. Warrick is constantly learning, experimenting, and evolving. In 2015, he learned 3D printing with polylactic acid plastic (PLA) and used the new technology in tandem with traditional lost wax casting for his metalwork. The resulting large-scale, 21-by-15-by-15-foot sculpture sits today outside the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The sculpture is a fascinating mix of stainless steel, bronze, glass, and concrete that celebrates the Louisiana Purchase. “I am a firm believer that there is much value to learning traditional methods for creating in cast metal,” Warrick said. “I am also curious about contemporary techniques in the production of objects and how they might be enhanced by joining old and new techniques.” Since joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in the fall of 1990, Warrick has been instrumental in securing grants, including one to build a foundry and kilns for metal casting for the university. Another grant allowed him to bring in renowned lecturers in metalworking. He also sat on a committee that brought public sculptures to the university to “embellish the culturally rich environment.” “Creating and teaching are very important to me,” Warrick said. “I have made it a personal goal to help others learn and create through the craft of metalworking. In my own creative metalwork, it is my hope that I can bring elements of our humanity and history through the craft.”

Arkansas Literary Festival features ��Vlog��ý Little Rock poet, Equinox launch

Janea Snyder — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 21:57:32 +0000

��Vlog��ý Little Rock poetry professor H.K. Hummel published her first poem when she was just 21 after winning the grand prize in a love poetry contest.��She has since published numerous poems, co-founded an online poetry journal, and written a creative writing guide now being used in college classrooms across the country. This weekend, she’s one of the featured authors at the 2019 . On Saturday, April 27, Hummel will present a writing workshop based on her book Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology beginning at 11:30 a.m. at The Bookstore at Library Square, 120 River Market Ave., in downtown Little Rock. The text is an introduction to the art and craft of extremely compressed works of imaginative literature in which Hummel and co-author Stephanie Lenox introduce both traditional and innovative approaches to the short-form and demonstrate how it possesses structure, logic, and coherence while simultaneously resisting expectations. The book covers prose poetry, flash fiction, micro memoir, lyric essay, cross-genre/hybrid writing, and more. Hummel uses many of the writing prompts in her text to engage her students. Her class recently experimented with flash fiction, a form of writing that can be as short as a page, or a paragraph, or even a sentence. “They love it because it’s fun, and it’s unintimidating,” she said. “It’s easier to say ‘I’m going to write a paragraph’ than ‘I’m going to write 20 pages. The trick then is to make every word in that paragraph count.’” In addition to teaching creative writing at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Hummel, along with Professor Jeffrey Condran, are the faculty advisors for Equinox, a journal of contemporary literature at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The journal is celebrating its new issue with a launch party on the last day of the literary festival, on Sunday, April 28, from 2-4 p.m. at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave. There will be live music, a student reading, and an awards ceremony. Hummel has a full-length poetry collection, Lessons in Breathing Underwater, which will be released in November by Sundress Publications. She is currently working on a new collection of poems inspired, in part, by a research trip she took last summer along 1,500 miles of the U.S. Civil Rights trail, thanks to a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty research grant. Hummel earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of California, Davis; a Master of Arts in English literature from Eastern Washington University; and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing (poetry) from University of Southern Maine. She co-founded the online poetry journal , which is now housed at Washington State University, and continues to serve on its advisory board. She received a fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council and an Emerging Writer-in-Residence fellowship from the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre, and her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Department of English and the Cooper Honors Program, in partnership with the , are silver-level sponsors of the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival. The 2019 can be found online. Events related to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock include the following: Friday, April 26 – Author! Author! event honoring this year’s authors, 7-9 p.m., Main Library, 100 S. Rock St. Books will be available for purchase. Tickets are $25 in advance at or $40 at the door and include hors d’oeuvres and libations. Saturday, April 27 – Reading by poet Jericho Brown, 11:30 a.m., , 100 River Market Ave. Dr. Laura Barrio-Villar, associate professor in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock English department, will moderate. Saturday, April 27 – Discussion of “Short-Form Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology” by H.K. Hummel, 11:30 a.m., 120 River Market Ave. Sunday, April 28 – 2019 Equinox launch, student readings, and music by the band Dazz and Brie, 2-4 p.m., ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave. Flash fiction flash of insight, or flash of a sight�� For just a moment, you see the world. Imaging it’s nighttime and a lightening bolt light up everythin.g Flash fiction a like aflas of insight or a momentary vision. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock poetry professor H.K. Hummel compares creative writing flashes to harnessing a lightning bolt. She is the author of “Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology” and will be featured at the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival.��Photo by Benjamin Krain

��Vlog��ý Little Rock alumni, employees chosen for Arkansas Artist Fellowships

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 14:20:17 +0000

Three University of Arkansas at Little Rock alumni and employees from the Department of Art and Design have received a $4,000 fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council.�� The winners include Sofia Gonzalez of Little Rock, adjunct professor of textiles at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Kerrick Hartman of Stuttgart, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate and furniture design technician at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; and Hannah May of Hensley, director of art and design at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock and a 2012 graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with a bachelor’s degree in studio art with an emphasis in ceramics. Awarded annually, the ��recognizes individual artistic ability and creative excellence in literary, performing, and visual arts. The fellowships enable artists to set aside time for creating their art and improving their skills. “It is a great honor to receive an Individual Artist Fellowship for Contemporary Craft from the Arkansas Arts Council,” Gonzalez said. “As a transplant to Arkansas from California, it means a lot to be acknowledged and recognized for the textile work I have created since moving here in 2014.” Gonzales will use the fellowship to buy supplies for a new series of sculpture pieces for her upcoming show in 2018. “The award will allow me to say no to part-time jobs I often take on to supplement my teaching income and will make it possible for me to spend dedicated days in the studio,” she said. “In addition, I hope to use the funds to purchase fabric, natural dye equipment, and commission help to create various frames and supports for my textile sculptures.” Three artistic disciplines are selected each year as categories for the awards. The three categories for this year are Literary Arts: Creative Nonfiction Writing; Performing Arts: Cinematic Arts – Director of a Narrative or Documentary Film; and Visual Arts: Contemporary Craft. A jury of professional artists, writers, and performers selected the recipients. Gonzales, Hartman, and May were all selected for fellowships in the Visual Arts: Contemporary Craft category. Additional fellowship winners include Caroline Beimford of Fayetteville, Jennifer Coffy Davis of Little Rock, Paige Martin Reynolds of Little Rock, Amman Abbasi of Little Rock, Russell Leigh Sharman of Fayetteville, and Charles Eric White of Little Rock. In the upper right photo,��Sofia Gonzalez is shown working on her art in her ��Vlog��ý Little Rock office. Photo courtesy of Arkansas Arts Council.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock