It will be a playful Second Friday Art Night Feb. 8, when gallery-goers will be treated to after-hour tours of toys new and old at the Arkansas Arts Center and the Historic Arkansas Museum.
Arts Center contemporary crafts curator Anne Gochenour will act as guide and demonstrate some of the works in the 35th annual “Toys Designed by Artists” show there. Toys from the past will be on exhibit in HAM’s “Toys, Playthings and Amusements of Yesteryear.” HAM, 200 E. Third St., will debut another new exhibit on Friday as well: “Michael Worsham: Compositions and Faces.”
At the Cox Creative Center, 120 Commerce St., Maria Miller will sing at the reception for Little Rock artist Jo Magee, whose pastels and oils will be seen in the third floor Cox Creative Gallery. The second floor Showcase Arkansas Gallery features the 3rd annual “Arkansas Artists’ Market.”
Sculpture by musician and puppeteer Jimmy Crosthwaite will be on exhibit at River Market Artspace, 301 President Clinton Ave., and the artist will be on hand to talk about the work. At Hearne Gallery, 500 Clinton Ave., Anthony Lee’s “Struggle Candy” goes on exhibit.
Fair trade store Ten Thousand Villages, next door to ArtSpace at 305 Clinton, will also be open.
The Arts Center’s restaurant will be open during the event, which runs 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and includes trolley transportation to all venues.
Saturday’s art event is the “ ‘Toma Mi Corazon’ Heart Art Auction and Tex-Mex Dinner” of the Center for Artistic Revolution at Quapaw United Methodist Church. The event starts at 6 p.m., when 60 objects, including artistically transformed wooden hearts and other work will be auctioned to benefit CAR’s work with youth and community diversity support. Tickets are $15 ($5 for 18 and under) or $17 at the door. Quapaw United Methodist is at 1601 Louisiana St.
The over-named but promising “Innovations and Change: Great Ceramics from the Permanent Collection of the Ceramics Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona,” goes on exhibit Friday, Feb. 8, at the Arts Center. The show includes 80 works in clay, ranging from the functional to the sculptural, by master ceramists. Among the artists represented in the exhibit are several whose work is in the Arts Center Foundation Permanent Collection: Robert Arneson (whose humorous conte crayon drawing of a man with a finger in his nose — “Pic” — is familiar to Arts Center regulars), Rudy Autio, Rick Dillingham, Ken Ferguson, Bernard Leach, Michael Lucero, Gertrud Natzler, Edwin Scheier, Toshiko Takaezu, Akio Takamori, Peter Voulkos and Betty Woodman. Curated by Peter Held, the show is on a 10-city national tour.