Artosphere returns
Artosphere, Northwest Arkansas’ Arts+Nature Festival, will include a mix of free and ticketed performances and events May 6-23, but health and safety restrictions to prevent the spread of covid-19 mean there won’t be the 90-member Artosphere Festival Orchestra or the Chapel Music Series that past festivals have featured.
The festival will include the Artosphere Film Series, Trail Mix and Off the Grid series, all free, and a new interactive theater piece called “Art Heist.”
Also returning: a performance by the Dover Quartet (Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violins; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; and Camden Shaw, cello), 7 p.m. May 18 in Baum Walker Hall of Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center. Tickets are $20; the concert will also air live on radio station KUAF-FM, 91.3. And the festival will also feature one of the first public screenings of the quartet’s new documentary, “Strings Attached,” 7 p.m. May 19, also in Baum Walker Hall. Admission will be free; reservations will be required.
A news release describes “Art Heist” as “a true crime outdoor walking theater piece that gives you the chance to crack the world’s most famous unsolved mystery”: the theft 30 years ago of 13 pieces, valued at half a billion dollars, from Boston’s Isabella Gardner Museum. (The artworks have never been recovered and no arrests have been made.) Participants in the 90-minute “experience” involve interacting with a cast of security guards, museum staff, investigators and suspects. Dates are May 6-9 in Fayetteville, May 13-16 in Rogers and May 20-23 in Bentonville, starting every 30 minutes, 6-8:15 p.m. Thursday-Friday, from 2-4:15 p.m. and 5:30-8:15 p.m. Saturday and 2-3:30 p.m. and 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $2530 plus applicable fees.
And for a $10 entry fee, Arkansas photographers can enter up to three photos in the Artosphere Festival Photography Competition, with the theme “Arts and Nature,” including, but not limited to, nature and landscape photos, images that show rhythm or patterns in nature or performers in a natural setting. Deadline to enter is April 23. Rebecca Drolen, assistant professor of photography at the University of Arkansas, will judge the entries on composition, originality, technical excellence and variety, selecting finalists by May 3. The community will be able to vote via social media for their favorite photo through May 7. Announced May 10: one winner of a cash grand prize of $150 and as a People’s Choice winner of two tickets to a performance of “Art Heist” May 20-23. Complete competition rules, important dates and requirements can be found at tinyurl.com/2tz2399v.
A schedule is available at artospherefestival.org; call (479) 443-5600.