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

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock /news-archive/tag/penland-school-of-crafts/ ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:17:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Former art student bequeaths $40,000 for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock art scholarships /news-archive/2018/10/10/mj-robbins/ Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:17:32 +0000 /news/?p=72191 ...]]> Mary Jane Stotts (MJ) Robbins loved creating art. It’s what drew her to Little Rock and then to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to study art. Robbins passed away last year at the age of 67. On Wednesday, Oct. 10, Robbins’ birthday, her estate announced a $40,000 gift to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to establish two new scholarships funds in her honor. The MJ Robbins Memorial Endowed Scholarship will provide assistance for education-related expenses for students pursuing or furthering a degree or continuing education in the Department of Art and Design in the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The second scholarship – the MJ Robbins Annual Penland School of Craft Scholarship – will provide scholarships for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock art and design students to attend a two-week summer workshop of their choice at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. “MJ Robbins’ contribution to the arts in Little Rock and our university will continue due to the generosity of her estate,” said Sarah Beth Estes, interim dean for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences. “Her gift will provide transformative experiences to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students for years to come.” Robbins, a native of Lake City, Arkansas, retired from FedEx in 2003 and moved from Memphis to Little Rock, where she immersed herself in the central Arkansas arts community. She was a member of the Arkansas Arts Center, a student of the Museum School, and an early supporter of the ACANSA Arts Festival. Her interest in fine metalsmithing led her to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. In the Department of Art and Design, former faculty member and metalsmith David Clemons became Robbins’ teacher and mentor, helping her advance in her metalworking and later encouraging her to study at the . “The creative community is where she forged the majority of her central Arkansas friendships, and at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock she further developed her artistry and began greater production of her art,” said Robbins’ niece, Tracy Stotts Weed of Little Rock. Weed remembers her aunt as a “person always in motion” with many creative talents. Robbins could sew, knit, work with metal and clay, and made stone and metal jewelry. “She had a great appreciation for education and a lot of varied interests,” Weed said. “There was no limit to her skills or her willingness to be adventurous and try something new.” In the top right photo, MJ Robbins works on an art piece.]]> ��Vlog��ý Little Rock alumna lends artistic touch to NYC exhibit /news-archive/2018/07/19/sandra-sell/ Thu, 19 Jul 2018 20:51:36 +0000 /news/?p=71150 ...]]> Little Rock artist never stops looking for new ways to collaborate on art. And that is precisely how the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock alumna recently found herself in New York City’s Times Square helping install “Wake,”one of conceptual artist Mel Chin’s new works. “Wake,” commissioned by is a 60-foot-tall animatronic sculpture that resembles a cross between a shipwreck and the skeletal remains of a marine mammal that rise up from Times Square. On the ship’s bow is the figurehead of Jenny Lind, an opera star known as the “Swedish Nightingale” and for whom the USS Nightingale tea clipper and slave ship were named. Chin’s other piece, “Unmoored,” is a digitally interactive mixed reality counterpart to “Wake.” Together, the two works “open a physical and virtual gateway to the future of human existence, inviting participants to contemplate their place within the world’s transforming climate,” according to Times Square Arts.

Faculty, students and staff at the engineered and fabricated the structure of “Wake.” The head of the female figure gently nods, and her chest rises and compresses, as if she is breathing. Sell, who was an artist-in-resident at UNC in March, was one of many people who worked on the elaborate project. “My primary role was to construct, then carve, the figure’s dress,” she said. “It was a fantastic opportunity to share my experience with the team and engage in collaborative thinking.” Sell worked on the piece for four weeks, leading up to the sculpture’s installment on July 11 in Times Square. The structure was built with segments in mind, so it could be deconstructed, shipped then reconstructed on site. “I was extremely excited to come in and lend a hand in the last 24 hours of installation,” Sell said. “The team had worked extremely hard, and it was a pleasure to bring some fresh energy to help with the last push. The opening day was great, and so many people showed up.”

Times Square is just one location for art that is part of the larger exhibit “Mel Chin: All Over the Place,” co-produced by and the . The exhibition spans nearly four decades of Chin’s work – at sites including the Queens Museum, Times Square, the Broadway-Lafayette subway station, and streaming online with Soundtrack – creating an infinite loop of the artist’s thinking about our world and how we choose to occupy it. “Wake” will remain in Times Square Plaza through Sept. 5. Sell is back in Little Rock now, where she retired after her 21-year career in the U.S. Army. She enrolled at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, completing a Bachelor of Arts in 2008 and a Master of Arts in 2014. Sell has also served as an apprentice to Little Rock artist Robyn Horn, who was instrumental in helping ��Vlog��ý Little Rock get its Windgate Center for Art and Design.

Her creative pursuits led her to the , where she was a studio assistant for wood sculptors Stoney Lamar and Brent Skidmore. Skidmore, who directs the Craft Studies program at University of North Carolina at Asheville, then invited Sell to fill an artist-in-resident position at the university earlier this year. Soon after, she became involved working on “Wake”. A wood carver by choice, Sell also paints and does some work in found object dimensional painting. Her work is in the permanent collections of the , the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, and the Historic Arkansas Museum, along with many private collections. Since 2007, Sell’s work has been featured in over 30 exhibits in the United States. Top Right Photo: Mel Chin, Wake, 2018, multimedia. Courtesy of Chelsea Lipman for Times Square Arts ]]>