Arts Center’s Family Funday a Super Sunday with free art
Among the packed calendar of events this summer is the Super Sunday Free Family Funday. From noon-3 p.m. Sunday — in the Arkansas Arts Center’s Alice Pratt Brown Atrium — families with kids of all ages can engage in arts and crafts.
“We have about 50 or 60 participants each month, and I would say the youngest is about 2 or 3 … with their grandparents or parents all the way to teenagers,” says Rana Edgar, the Arts Center’s director of education and programs. The event takes place on the second Sunday of each month at the Arts Center in Little Rock’s MacArthur Park.
“Each month it is something different,” Edgar says. “We try to touch on all media throughout the year. This month they are doing a clay project with air-dry clay.
“It is more like a makeand-take project each month so that parents have a chance to come in with their kid and make something, and also have time to go around and look at the artwork that inspired the project.”
Watercolor painting is on the schedule for August; a fabric collage is set for September.
The Arts Center also hosts informative events on an array of art topics through its Feed Your Mind Friday program. Julia Baugh, the Museum School resident artist in ceramics, discusses and shares images from the recent National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts’ annual conference, noon-1 p.m. July 14 in the center’s Lower Lobby Lecture Hall. On July 28, artist A.J. Smith will speak about his featured work in the 59th annual Delta Exhibition.
“They’re educational conversations,” Edgar explains. “They are a little less formal than a lecture, but they usually feature one of our curators, a museum faculty member or a visiting artist. It is just a way for the community to learn and have a unique opportunity to engage with an artist.”
The timing allows visitors to stop in on a lunch break, listen to the speaker and enjoy a meal. The Arts Center even offers the option to order lunch through its on-site restaurant, Canvas. The menu offers burgers, sandwiches, salads and other traditional American cuisine.
“When they arrive at visitor services there is a paper menu and they can order anything they want that our restaurant carries,” Edgar says. “When they are ready to leave they pick up their order and go back to work or on their way. Or they can stay in the restaurant and enjoy the meal.”
The speakers vary depending on what the Arts Center is displaying, and the availability to book different artists.
“They usually complement an exhibition or something in our permanent collection, so they are really fitting to what we have going on in the galleries,” Edgar says.
A full Arts Center calendar is available online at arkarts. com.