Living Craft Workshop: Needle-turn Applique
Try your hand at needle-turn applique
2nd Friday Art Night, June
Opening reception with live music, Arkansas Made beer, and more!
2025 Arkansas Living Treasure Award Reception: Stephen Driver
The Arkansas Arts Council will honor the 2025 Arkansas Living Treasure, Stephen Driver, during a reception and event 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, at Boswell Mourot Fine Art at 1501 Main St., Suite H, in Little Rock.
Frontier Fourth at Historic Arkansas Museum
Start your 4th of July with a fun family event on our grounds, celebrating American Independence! March in a parade, print the latest news from our nation’s capital on the printing press, compete in sack races and cool down with watermelon and ice-cold lemonade. The festivities will come to a close with a rousing reading of the Declaration of Independence and a round of triumphal toasts! Huzzah!
Living Craft Workshop: Lacemaking
Learn the vanishing art of lacemaking
Arkansas Arts Council Executive Committee
The Arkansas Arts Council’s advisory board’s Executive Committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 21, in a virtual meeting. For more information or for the link to attend, please contact Arkansas Arts Council staff.
52nd Annual Territorial Fair
The event will feature musical entertainment from various groups and artists, such as Lark in the Morning, Ricky Russell, Artists United, Sugar on the Floor, and Rocky Clements. In addition, the Arkansas Country Dancers will lead people in old-time dances, including dancing around the Maypole.
The family friendly event will also provide participants a fun opportunity to experience a 19th century photo booth, blacksmithing and printing demonstrations, lawn bowling, leather stamping and learning about pollinators in gardening. The Territorial Fair’s signature beverage, raspberry lemon shrub and ice cream from local vendor, Loblolly Ice Cream, will
Announcement and Artist Talk: Arkansas Living Treasure Award
Stephen Driver, the 2025 Arkansas Living Treasure, will speak at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 26, as part of the annual James Black’s Bowie Heritage Festival at Old Washington State Park.
Cemetery Conservation Workshop: Highland Cemetery, Ozark *NOTE DATE CHANGE*
Due to bad weather, this event has been RESCHEDULED from its original date of April 5. It will now take place on THURSDAY, MAY 1.
This free workshop on the basics of cemetery conservation, featuring instruction by Jonathan Appell of Atlas Preservation, will address common concerns in preservation and maintenance of cemeteries and offer hands-on training.
The workshop will be hands-on, attendees are encouraged to participate in cleaning, making basic repairs, and the leveling and straightening of gravestones. Tents will be provided in case of rain. Chairs are available, but if you need a stool, you are encouraged to bring one. Gloves and comfortable clothing are also encouraged.
Workshop is limited to 40 registrants. Lunch will be provided by the AHPP. Please inform us if you need a vegetarian option.
Workshop is free, but registration is required:
Contact: Holly Hope
(501) 324-9148
Day of workshop, call (501) 681-2120
Directions and Parking:
Highland Cemetery is located at 1509 W. Commercial Street in Ozark. Parking is at the cemetery.
About Jonathan Appell
Jonathan Appell of Atlas Preservation in Connecticut is an expert in repair and conservation of the nation’s gravestones. He has researched the most efficient and appropriate methods of caring for burial grounds and works hard to ensure that those techniques can be put to work in local cemeteries by laypeople, as well as professional maintenance groups.
This important workshop will allow attendees to perpetuate links to their past, their families, and their community by preserving unique funerary art and architecture. This work can also incite interest on the part of younger participants in maintaining and carrying on the stories. Please join us for this important workshop and take part in carrying on the history of these significant sites.
Agenda – Saturday, April 5
9 a.m. – noon
Introductions and workshop overview.
Cleaning, leveling and basic repairs will be covered.
Noon – 1 p.m.
Lunch on the grounds provided by the AHPP.
1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Continue with cleaning, leveling and basic repairs.
Sandwiching in History: Kocourek and Son Hardware Store *NOTE DATE CHANGE*
RESCHEDULED FOR APRIL 11
Join us Friday, April 11, at noon, for our Sandwiching in History tour of the Kocourek and Son Hardware Store in Hazen.
Bohemian immigrant John Kocourek settled in Hazen in 1890 and had a huge impact in the development of the town and region. As a real estate land agent, Kocourek promoted Czech and Slovak settlement in Prairie County. Considered “one of the most successful businessmen of the state” at the turn of the century, Kocourek opened a hardware store that operated for a century under the name Kocourek and Son. For decades he was a force in the local business community, directing the local bank, promoting regional agricultural interests, and helping secure the route of U.S. Highway 70 through Hazen. Kocourek’s 1906 brick store building, typical of the twentieth-century commercial style, is a landmark in Hazen that recalls stories of immigration, railroads, rice, and regional commerce.
