• Sandy Kraft's "City Lights" at the Cox Creative Center

At the Old State House Museum, Geoffrey Robson and David Gerstein will perform duos by Kodaly and Handel for violin and cello. The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center opens its Juneteenth celebration with "Voices from the Front Porch," a theatrical performance by S. Juain Young.

And, as previously mentioned:

Butler Center Galleries, 401 Clinton: "Get a Simple Landscape," drawings by Jerry Phillips, along with the "Arkansas Art Educators Youth Art Show."

Hearne Fine Art, 1001 Wright Ave.: "Reflections in Silver: Silverpoint Drawings by Aj Smith and Marjorie Williams-Smith."

Gallery 221, Pyramid Place: Work by Gino Hollander, Jennifer Cox Coleman, EMILE and Mary Ann Stafford.

Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third: "Arkansas Made," “Reflected by Three: William Detmers, Scott Lykens and G. Tara-Casciano,” and “Painting in the Open Air: Day and Night,” work by Jason Sacran. Parkstone will provide music.

The Edge, 301 B Clinton: Work by "Avila," a.k.a. Fernando Gomez, Eric Freeman.

• "Shadows," silverpoint and copperpoint, by Marjorie Williams-Smith

Silverpoint drawings by Aj Smith and Marjorie Williams-Smith, two of Arkansas's biggest talents, are on exhibit at Hearne Fine Art in a show called "Reflections in Silver." The gallery will be open for 2nd Friday Art Night tonight, 5-8 p.m.

The silverpoint technique, making the finest of lines with a silver or other metal stylus on reactive paper, allows the artist to create portraits (as Aj Smith does) or drawings of nature (as Marjorie Williams-Smith does) of diffuse, glowing light. They are quite beautiful.

Hearne Fine Art is celebrating its silver anniversary with this silverpoint show. The gallery opened 25 years ago in 800 square feet downtown, and today has the finest work by African-American artists in Arkansas, or even outside Arkansas.

Here's a great link to an online exhibition of in the show.

Now Phillips brings a collection of drawings, "Get a Simple Landscape," to the Butler Center Galleries, which opens with tonight's 2nd Friday Art Night reception from 5-8 p.m. As the gallery explains the exhibition, the drawings are both about landscape and "the metaphorical kind of 'scape,' as it reflects on the artist himself.'" As you can see from the image above, the work is ephemeral ... but then, so are we.

Phillips' work also appeared in last year's exhibition at the Historic Arkansas Museum, "Arkansas Contemporary: Selected Fellows from the Arkansas Arts Council." HAM was in good company: Phillips' has work in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His most recent exhibition was in Geneva, in "Works on Paper" at Blondeau & Cie in March.

• 1828 sampler by Ku-To-Yi

A sampler stitched in 1828 by a young Cherokee girl at Dwight Mission, a Presbyterian school on the banks of the Arkansas in the early 1800s, will be just one of the fine objects on exhibit tomorrow as the Historic Arkansas Museum opens its new Arkansas Made Gallery. There will be a reception as part of 2nd Friday Art Night, 5-8 p.m., with music by Parkstone.

The objects are both old and new: A painting by contemporary artist Sylvester McKissick hangs next to an early 20th century oil by Adrian Brewer (1891-1956), and Native American pots are juxtaposed with a basket by Arkansas Living Treasure Leon Niehaus.

I got a peek today at the sampler, stitched in silk on linen in 1828 by Nancy Graves. Deputy Director and Chief Curator Swannee Bennett provided the following information on the sampler:

This rare example of Arkansas Made needlework is the earliest documented Native American-made sampler known to exist anywhere in the United States. Nancy Grave’s Cherokee name was Ku-To-Yi, and she was 11 years old when she made this sampler. She was one of dozens of young Cherokee girls who attended the Presbyterian school known as Dwight Mission, located on the banks of the Arkansas River near present-day Russellville. There they learned the three “R’s” and the various aspects of domestic economy, which included needlework, and the making of samplers. Most samplers are constructed with three major components — the alphabet, numbers and verse. As a result, the student was taught to sew, spell, read and count.

The school was established in 1820 by the Reverend Cephas Washburn. One of its stated purposes was to serve as a school to educate and Christianize the Cherokee moving west with their families from their homes in Tennessee and Georgia. Ultimately, the “Americanization” of Native Americans in this country resulted in the wholesale loss of language and culture for tens of thousands of American Indians.

Alice Walton has nothing on Bennett. Walton famously bid on a painting at auction at Sotheby's while on horseback during a competition. Bennett bid on the sampler in January from a duck blind, ducks quacking in the background all the time, a fact Sotheby's revealed to the auction audience after HAM secured the bid.

Bennett and Director Bill Worthen have authored a couple of books, "Arkansas Made," vols. 1 and 2, about objects the HAM staff has identified over many years as being Arkansan in origin and which reveal what life was like in 19th century Arkansas. They prove Arkansas was not, as Louise Loughborough is quoted as saying on one wall of the exhibit, not just a place with fiddles and leaky roofs.

• "Anguish Birds," by "Avila"

The Edge, opened recently by Fernando Gomez at 301B President Clinton Ave., has joined the 2nd Friday Art Night lineup and will be open 5-8 p.m. tomorrow for what it calls a "Sangria Blitz."

Most of the contemporary art gallery is devoted to Gomez' own work, but other Arkansas artists are represented as well, including Eric Freeman.

Gomez invitation to 2nd Friday says the gallery "will be ready to show you something new ... and that is no bull" (see above).

• "I Remember," by Eric Freeman

• William Detmers' Snow in the High Desert"

Tonight's 2nd Friday Art Night downtown art troll — on foot or by trolley — from 5-8 p.m. features art exhibits, demonstrations, music and jewelry-making at nine venues. So much to do and see, so little time, as usual.

Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third, opens two exhibitions, "Reflected by Three: William Detmers, Scott Lykens and G. Tara-Casciano" and "Painting in the Air: Day and Night," work by Jason Sacran. There will be music by the Rolling Blackouts to go with Detmer's photos, Tara-Casciano's sculpture and Lykens' and Sacran's paintings.

The Butler Center Galleries in the Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 Clinton, opens "Arkansas Art Educators Youth Art Show," juried student work, and "Creative Expressions," work by persons served by the State Hospital. Raku artist Kelly Edwards will give a demonstration and the band Mockingbird will perform (singing, no doubt). Michael Jukes' “No I'm Not, He Is: A ‘Flying Snake’ and ‘Oyyo’ Comic Retrospective" is also on exhibit.

Around the corner, the Cox Center at 120 River Market is exhibiting the "Spring Members Show" of the Arkansas League of Artists, and down Clinton at the Courtyard at the Marriott is work by Holly Tilley and other members of the ArtGroup Maumelle.

Christ Church, 509 Scott, is showing "Dream Weavers," work by Sandra Marson. Gallery 221 at 2nd and Center continues the show "Spring Celebration," paintings by Gino Hollander. The jewelry making — making bracelets from found objects — is the event at the Old State House Museum, 300 W. Markham.

Farther afield from downtown but not to be missed: "Beautiful Uprising," woodcuts by LaToya Hobbs at Hearne Fine Art, 1001 Wright Ave., and "From Bauhaus to Your Haus" at StudioMain, 1423 Main. If you don't want to drive, take the trolley. If you don't make it to Hearne this week, you've got to go May 17 and 18, for Friday's reception and Saturday's discussion, "Relevance of Hair."

• Melissa Gill's "Prayer for Love"

Second Friday Art Night, from 5-8 p.m. tonight, will be unusually festive: The Historic Arkansas Museum, which is showing photographs by 11 members of the Blue Eyed Knocker Photo Club and “Phenomena of Change: Lee Cowan, Mary Ann Stafford and Maria Botti Villegas,” will distract gallery-goers with lessons in how to make a mint julep from David Burnette, bartender at the Capital Hotel Bar and Grill. Jazz musician Tim Anthony will be in concert at the Old State House. Printmaker and Hendrix College assistant professor Melissa Gill will talk about her work, "Prayer for Love," and there will be live music at the Butler Center Galleries of the Arkansas Studies Institute. Marsha Hinson will be the featured artist for the ArtGroup Maumelle at the Courtyard Marriott. Hearne Fine Art is throwing a birthday party for artist Frank Frazier, whose work is on exhibit there. The show “Bridging the Burden: In Their Shoes" continues at the Cox Creative Center and studioMAIN is honoring the late architect Rick Redden.

• Rick Redden

studioMAIN and AMR Architects will host a celebration of the life of the late architect and downtown devotee Rick Redden tonight from 5-9 p.m. The 2nd Friday Art Night event inaugurates studioMAIN's Local Designer Spotlight.

The architectural collaborative space is at 1423 S. Main St.

Redden, 63, died March 27 of cancer. He was a founding member of AMR Architects Inc., designers of Heritage East, Heritage West, Little Rock's Fletcher Library, Little Rock River Market, War Memorial Fitness Center, the Museum of Discovery, the Arkansas Capital Commerce Center, 300 Third Tower and River Market Tower with developer, Moses Tucker.

Redden worked on the ground floor of the Heritage West building, where the Arkansas Times is located, and was always helpful to reporters wanting to know about upcoming projects in the River Market district.

Elisha Alexander-Smith is the featured painter for tonight's 2nd Friday Art Night at the Courtyard Marriott, where The ArtGroup Maumelle shows. There will be painting demonstrations, music and a happy hour; as with all 2nd Friday venues, the event runs 5-8 p.m. The hotel is at 521 President Clinton Ave.

• "Driving, Scott" by Rachel Louise Worthen

The Blue-Eyed Knocker Photo Club of 11 photographers, students of Rita Henry, is showing “Hidden Arkansas” at the Historic Arkansas Museum. For tonight's 2nd Friday Art Night event, Peg Roach Loyd will provide live music.

Exhibiting artists are Cindy Adams, Darrell Adams, Gail Arnold, James Allen, Ann Ballard Bryan, Mary Chamberlain, Ray Chanslor, Susan Crisp, Susan Ebel, Rachel Green and Rachel Louisa Worthen.

• Frazier's "The Ship"

Frank Frazier's shoe polish and ink take-off on the slaveship Brookes (above) is just one of the artist's simple, lyrical works depicting some aspect of African American life in the exhibition "The Struggle Continues … History Unfolds" at Hearne Fine Art. Hearne will be open for 2nd Friday Art Night from 1:30-3 p.m. (the "matinee") and 5-8 p.m. Frazier will give a talk at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 9.

• George Washington's inaugural Bible

For two days only, the Bible that George Washington swore upon for his inauguration April 30, 1789, and a Washington family Bible will be on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum. The museum is open 5-8 p.m. tonight for 2nd Friday Art Night.

The Bibles are part of the museum's exhibit "Treasures of Arkansas Freemasons, 1838-2013" in the Study Gallery through July 12, coinciding with the 175th anniversary of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas.

The Bibles will be at HAM on Saturday all day.

The inaugural Bible is from St. John's Lodge No. 1 in New York, which loaned it to Washington on inauguration day. Other presidents who've use the Bible at their swearing-in are Warren G. Harding, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. The family Bible is on loan from the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Va., and includes notes in Washington's hand and his signature.

• "Prayer for Love"

Tonight, the Arkansas Society of Printmakers opens what it's calling its “1st Annual Membership Exhibition” in the main gallery at the Butler Center in the Arkansas Studies Institute. Participating in the show are Robert Bean, Win Bruhl, Warren Criswell, Brad Cushman, Sarah Fendley, Melissa Gill, Jorey May Greene, Diane Page Harper, Neal Harrington, Tammy Harrington, Evan Lindquist, Lloyd Litsey, Jesse Perrin, Dominique Simmons, Tom Sullivan, Tod Switch, David Warren and Jane Watson.

The show will offer up examples of printmaking taken to new limits, such as Gill's installation "Prayer for Love," multiple prints hung from the ceiling.

The opening is 5-8 p.m. tonight, with 2nd Friday Art Night. There will be music by Paul Morphis .

The Cox Creative Center, the curved brick building across from the Main Library operated by the Central Arkansas Library System, will open an exhibit Friday of the shoes of Arkansas soldiers who fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The exhibition will be open after hours, 5-8 p.m., for 2nd Friday Art Night, and there will be a reception at 6:30 p.m.

The exhibition is a joint project of students of Lyon College in Batesville and the Coalition of Peace and Justice in Little Rock. Throughout the exhibition, Lyon College students will collect condolence messages for the families of the soldiers. The show, which will also feature artwork from students and Afghan artists responding to the war, will run through April 27.