Ella (played by Makayla Shipe, in white) is transformed for the prince’s ball by Marie (played by Bethany Gere, in blue) in ASC’s July 2022 production of *Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella*.

By Kayla Earnest

The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas (ASC) is definitely a place where memories are made. Our goal is always to have a positive impact on our community in Pine Bluff and beyond, and when I look back on the past year, I think that we have done just that.

Let’s hop into my time machine and take a look back at all of the wonderful things that we have done in 2022 so far!

January

We kicked off 2022 with the year’s first Second Saturday Family FunDay, where we learned to do basket weaving. Troy DeBill led the workshop Pinch Pot Pottery, in our fabulous teaching workshop in The ARTSpace on Main.

Our nutritious cooking program CrEATe Lab began its winter session, and young actors audition for The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood, directed by Tracy Sutherland.

In The ARTSpace’s Loft Gallery, we displayed University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff senior Thomas Harris’s work and held our monthly Yoga In The Loft, taught by FloEssence. We added the book “I Am NOT Just A Scribble” by Diane Alber to our YouTube playlist of storybook videos, which are read aloud by the ASC volunteer theater family.

Another highlight was receiving the “Outstanding Achievement in Adaptive Reuse” Award from Preserve Arkansas for our beautiful new facilities, The ARTSpace on Main and ART WORKS on Main.

February

Memphis artist Carl E. Moore (left) discusses one of this pieces from his exhibition *Pause: People, Places, and Scenes* with ASC intern Amanei Johnson.

February brought lots of new opportunities for the community to get involved in the arts. Over in the Adam B. Robinson Jr. Black Box Theater, we hosted ART WORKS Presents: The Sound of Pride and held auditions for our production of The Outsiders, which was directed by Jonathan Hoover.

Meanwhile, on the Catherine M. Bellamy Theater stage, rehearsals for The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood began!

Family FunDay featured papier mache projects. The Loft Gallery in The ARTSpace collaborated with UAPB to display artwork created by graduating seniors, and we also held a Watercolor and Wine event led by Greta Kresse and another session of Troy DeBill’s Pinch Pot Pottery.

Over at the museum, we displayed artwork from Carl E. Moore, Meikel Church, and Suzannah Schreckhise. We continued our CrEATe Lab and Yoga in the Loft classes, and ASC was awarded a grant from the Simmons First Foundation for our education outreach program. The book “I Promise” by LeBron James was performed in an ASC Read Aloud Storybook video by members of the ASC volunteer theater family, as well as “When I Grow Up” by Al Yankovic.

March

ASC was full of performing arts fun during March! Our young cast of The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood took the stage for three awesome performances, and our teen show, The Outsiders, began their rehearsals. We also enjoyed live music during ART WORKS Presents: A Cabaret Event hosted by Bethany Gere and other local performers, and hosted Live@5 Double Feature starring Recovery and Damen Tolbert.

Volunteer Night was March 17, where we honored our volunteers and gave out awards for their amazing acts of service. The night featured performances from each show in this theater season’s lineup.

“I Don’t Want To Be Quiet” by Laura Ellen Anderson was our YouTube Read Aloud, and we brought in the Arkansas Archaeological Survey for Family FunDay. ASC’s Morgun Henson led Weave and Unwind, a weaving workshop.

In the International Paper Gallery, we opened an interactive STEAM exhibition Spectrum of Creativity. Also in March, artist Eric Freeman installed The Loveseat, a public art piece commissioned by ASC’s Endowment Fund, on Main Street between ASC’s home building and ART WORKS.

The City of Pine Bluff took home three Main Street Arkansas awards for “2022 Excellence in Downtown Revitalization,” and ASC was honored with the award for “Outstanding Adaptive Re-Use Project.”

April

Briar Thompson (from left), William Young, and Keiren Minter led the cast of ASC’s production of *The Outsiders*.

April brought a lot of springtime fun here at ASC, including a Bike Rodeo and a new program, Game on Main, which is geared toward kids in the 5th-12th grades looking for somewhere to hang out and play board games after school.

ASC participated in The Art Experience, an event by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s Department of Art and Design. Artist Yelena Petroukhina was at The ARTSpace On Main working the potter’s wheel.

Rehearsals for The Outsiders were in full swing, and we held auditions for the summer musical, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

We collaborated with ARORA/Donate Life Arkansas on a visual tribute consisting of 107 bees buzzing around The Loveseat. The bee illustrations, by artist Virmarie Suria DePoyster, honored the 107 organ donors who gave a life-restoring gift in 2021. Live@5 featured On Call Band, and we began planning a summer full of activities!

May

Alice Aida Ayers (center) discusses one of her quilts with visitors in the Loft Gallery of The ARTSpace during Art Night on the Block, on May 12, 2022.

Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella rehearsals kicked off as we closed the curtain on our production of The Outsiders. We continued to grow programs like Game on Main and Yoga in the Loft, as well as a Family FunDay where Amber Robinson taught beginner theater makeup. Live@5 featured Tim Anthony and we hosted ART WORKS Presents: Gaming Unplugged.

Alice Aida Ayers led a “collage quilting” workshop, and we hosted opening receptions for the quilting exhibition, along with Tammy Harrington and Rashawn Penister, at our Art Night on The Block event.

Along with several other interactive activities during this event, a reception was held in the Loft Gallery to give patrons one more chance to take a look at the UAPB seniors exhibition, before installing Alice Aida Ayers’s quilt exhibition. Her quilts were displayed alongside quilts that were created by students from Dollarway High School, Pine Bluff High School, and Robert Morehead Middle School, who collaborated with resident artists Aida Ayers, Elly Bates, and Brie Boyce to create quilts depicting portraits of figures from the Pine Bluff area.

June

We kicked off summer in a big way with our two-day event, ART ROCKS: Summer Bash! Artists John Kushmaul, Greta Kresse, and Troy DeBill were on hand for live art demos at The ARTSpace on Main while The Neighbors performed in the Art Yard. We raffled off a kayak full of beer, enjoyed some great food from Lucy Mae’s Southern Food, and then enjoyed karaoke in the Adam B Robinson Jr. Black Box Theater. The next day, we had tons of kid-friendly activities for families to enjoy.

Excitement built more and more as we prepared for the performances of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella and we held several summer camps: Theater camp, vocal performance camp, and art camp. We also hosted another Watercolor and Wine class, held an opening reception for An Arkansas Master: The Work of John Howard, and hosted Kids Cookin’ for a Cause.

ASC’s volunteer theater family put together another Read Aloud video, “Dragons Love Tacos” by Adam Rubin. We ended the month by installing an 8-foot sculpture of a guitar, featuring portraits of blues artists, in front of our home building. The sculpture was created by UAPB professor Mark Payne and SEARK’s Dr. Iry Rice, in collaboration with students.

July

July was a busy month for ASC and full of fun! ASC fan favorite Platinum Hitz performed at Live@5, and we held ART WORKS Presents: Comic Relief, hosted by comedian Zach Hayes. During Family FunDay, we learned about magnetic process art. We continued our Yoga in the Loft and Game on Main events, and we also held a hip-hop workshop taught by Epiphany “Big Piph” Morrow. We also had a youth printmaking workshop led by Little Rock artist Kristin McCaslin.

We finished up our summer camps with filmmaking, science, and CrEATe Lab camps. Filmmaking camp ended with a showing of their short film, Time and Space.

The Loft Gallery welcomed new art from rising UAPB seniors, which is still on display.

Gearing up for our production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella meant that we were building giant set pieces, trying on gorgeous costumes, collecting props, and even making an appearance on THV11’s The Vine to promote the show.

Thanks to the generosity of Lennox International, Inc. we were able to install a beautiful new grand curtain in the Bellamy Theater. We spent two incredible weekends performing Cinderella and took lots of pictures with princesses and princes from the audience. During the last performance, we raffled off a beautiful James Hayes glass pumpkin, and all proceeds went toward ASC’s theater department.

August

And now, we have finally arrived at our present month: August. The fun just never ends here at ASC! We held an opening reception for our exhibition Color, Faces, People by Eliseo Casiano. Live@5 featured a new band, The Vibe, and filled the Loft Gallery with soulful tunes.

We held auditions for Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which will be performed in October and directed by Martin Carty. Game on Main is still a staple, and we hope to see the program flourish even more once school starts. Alcohol ink tile coasters were the highlight of Family FunDay, and the next Yoga in the Loft will take place on August 20.

Artist Amanei Johnson just finished her artist residency at ASC, and completed a beautiful “hidden doorway” mural to adorn our ART WORKS on Main building.

We will have a reception in the Loft Gallery on August 25 for UAPB seniors Alliza Bolden, Asia Brown, and Robert Butler who have work displayed there.

Whew! That was a lot of entertaining and educational things that we managed to pack into eight months. However … we still have four more months to go until 2022 comes to an end! What kinds of things would YOU like to see at ASC? Let us know!

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A Look at 2022 So Far