The ART Yard at The ARTSpace on Main buzzed with visitors on Saturday, Sept. 10, during ASC’s TinkerGarden event. The 2022 edition of the annual hands-on, all-ages Tinkerfest focused on gardening and horticulture.
Read MoreThe Arts & Science Center and staff member Matthew Howard make guest appearances on a recent episode of Arkansas PBS’s Blueberry’s Clubhouse.
Read MoreOur goal at the Arts & Science Center 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 take a look back at all of the wonderful things that we have done in 2022 so far!
Read MoreART ROCKS: Summer Bash is a fundraising event with music, food trucks, games, art demos, art auctions, karaoke, kid-friendly activities and more.
Read MoreKids of all ages are invited to explore light and color in ASC’s new interactive exhibition Spectrum of Creativity. Visitors can learn about the spectrum of light, how colors are created, how circuits work, and more at several activity stations.
Read MoreGet spooky and creative at ASC’s next Family FunDay, set for Saturday, Oct. 10! Visitors can build their own “bone bridge” and then enter their creation in a contest for a chance to win two tickets for ASC’s virtual theater production of Clue: Stay at Home.
Read MoreThe Arts & Science Center held its annual Tinkerfest on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. This year’s Tinkerfest was full of engaging hands-on, sensory-exploring activities: Make-and-take sensory gel pads and stress balls, and an optical illusion station.
Read MoreThe Arts & Science Center invites the public to its annual family-friendly event Tinkerfest from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7. This year’s Tinkerfest is full of engaging hands-on, sensory-exploring activities. The event will also feature a “Sensory Station,” designed to be a soothing, welcoming space for those who can experience sensory overload during public events.
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Design, build, and test your own spacecraft model that has key tools needed to complete a NASA mission at the Design>Build>Test station.
One of the stations in the Sun, Earth, Universe exhibitions lets visitors use an infrared camera, an ultraviolet (UV) light, a magnifying glass, and a magnetic field detector to reveal information not visible to human eyes.
Visitors can learn how NASA missions are designed to help answer the big questions about our planet, our solar system and the wider universe in ASC’s latest exhibition, Sun, Earth, Universe.
Kids and adults can engineer their own model spacecraft and test its durability for surviving the forces of a rocket launch. They’ll get experience using tools that help researchers see the invisible aspects of space. And visitors will see how data collected can be presented in different forms to help broaden our understandings of what’s happening in space.
Explore seven hands-on stations:
We Ask Questions About the Sun: Compare images of that show the Sun at periods of high activity, called the solar maximum, and periods of low activity, the solar minimum.
We Ask Questions About the Universe: Are we alone? Spin a tumbler of 10,000 beads, representing all of the stars we can see from Earth to search for the unique one that represents our Sun.
We Ask Questions About the Solar System: What is it like on other planets? Use colored blocks to create a topographic map of elevations on Venus to learn how scientists use color to visualize data.
We Ask Questions About the Earth: How is Earth changing? Compare before and after satellite images of Earth to see how human-caused actions impact our home.
Design>Build>Test engineering activity: Design, build, and test your own spacecraft model that has key tools needed to complete a NASA mission.
Your Mission to Space board game: Put all your space mission-planning knowledge to the test by playing this board game. Will your mission be the first to be completed? What will you discover?
Use Tools to Detect the Invisible: Use an infrared camera, an ultraviolet (UV) light, a magnifying glass, and a magnetic field detector to reveal information not visible to human eyes.
The exhibition was created by the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Network) in collaboration with NASA. NISE Network is a community of informal educators and scientists dedicated to supporting learning about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) across the United States. The Arkansas tour of the exhibition is made possible by a NISE grant to the Arkansas Discovery Network, of which the Arts & Science Center is a member.
The exhibition is on display in the Simmons Gallery through Saturday, June 29.
Engineering & Technology is one of two STEAM camps offered at ASC this summer. Other Camps are Game Design & Development, Art I, Art II, Filmmaking, Theatre, and Theatre Jr.
Spring is in its early days, but registration is already underway for the Arts & Science Center’s 2019 summer camps.
Students ages 7-17 can explore topics such as art, engineering, technology, game design and development, filmmaking, and theatre.
Art I is a half-day camp (June 10-14) for ages 7-12. Art II is a full-day camp (July 22-26) for ages 13-17.
Both camps include lessons in drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture with exploration of current ASC art exhibitions. Students will create 2D and 3D projects, and focus not only on artistic methods and working with different media, but also appreciating how to create and visualize art through nontraditional means. ASC Public Programs Coordinator Shakeelah Rahmaan will lead the art camps with workshops by guest instructors.
Art I will include a “puddle painting” workshop with guest artist Jeannie Stone. Art II will feature Build Your Own Altar with guest artist Suzannah Schreckhise. Both artists have works featured in the Our Front Porch exhibit, on view at ASC from April 25 through July 27.
In Filmmaking Camp (July 8-12), students ages 7-17 will experience all of the technological, creative and artistic aspects of filmmaking. They will explore storytelling as an art form, by developing a film idea, shooting the video, recording audio and editing their creation.
Eva Belle, mass communication instructor and debate coach at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, leads the camp.
One can see how much fun students had during the 2018 camp by checking out the films they created. (Last year’s camp films will also be shown at the 2019 UAPB Film Festival on April 10.)
ASC Digital Media Specialist Ashley Smith will lead the two STEAM camps, which are for ages 13-17.
Through hands-on building and experimentation, Engineering & Technology (July 15-19) students will be introduced to electric circuits, LEDs and switches, stop-motion animation, computer coding and apps, conductors and semiconductors, programming motors and app development.
Game Design & Development (July 15-19) students will use virtual development to learn the fundamentals of creating a game through computer programming and animation, creative problem solving, mathematics, storytelling and teamwork.
Students can enroll in both half-day camps for a full day of STEAM learning with a discounted fee.
Justin A. Pike returns to lead the theatre camps.
Theatre Camp is full-day, month-long (June 3-28) immersive camp for students ages 13-17. They will learn all aspect of theater production: from directing to acting, from scenery construction to light & sound design. Through theater, students will practice creativity and innovation while they improve their skills in performance, collaboration, and technology. The camp will culminate in a junior production.
Theatre Jr. Camp, a half-day, two-week (June 17-28) camp for ages 7-12, will introduce the basic concepts of storytelling, acting technique, and production tech. Students will have fun with lively drama games designed to support the budding thespian in your student. The camp will culminate with a skit performed for family and friends.
Pike is artistic director of The Studio Theatre in Little Rock, and director of the Young Players Second Stage program at The Royal Theater in Benton. Pike studied theater at the University of Central Arkansas.
A limited number of scholarships are available; eligibility is based on financial need, including household income and household size. The deadline for submitting scholarship applications is 10 days before the first day of the camp begins, but parents are encouraged to submit applications as soon as possible. Scholarship application forms are available online or picked up at ASC’s front desk.
Windgate Foundation, Ben J. Altheimer Foundation, and the June and Edmond Freeman Endowment are among the organizations graciously contributing to ASC’s scholarship fund.
Extended care is available for parents and guardians who need a little extra time to pick up their children from camp. Extended care lasts until 1 hour past the camps’ designated end time. Cost is $5 per day preregistered, or $8 per day unplanned.
Advanced registration is required for all camps. Camp registration and more details are available at the summer camp web page. For more information, email ASC Public Programs Coordinator Shakeelah Rahmaan at srahmaan@asc701.org or ASC Theatre Education Coordinator Lindsey Collins at or lcollins@asc701.org, or call 870-536-3375.
Visitors show off their pedal-art creations they made during Family FunDay on Aug. 11, 2018. Pedal-powered art is just one of the many activities planned during ASC's Tinkerfest 2018, to be held 1-3 p.m. Sept. 8.
Tinkerfest, the Arts & Science Center’s annual maker-centric festival, returns Saturday, Sept. 18, from 1-3 p.m. This year, we will explore the connections between the maker movement and health with a variety of fun and educational activities for the whole family.
“We’re doing all kinds of different things that involve tapping into creativity while exploring physical fitness and nutrition,” said ASC Public Programs Coordinator Leonor Colbert.
Admission to Tinkerfest and all activities are free.
Tinkerfest 2018 is sponsored by the Arkansas Art Council, Blue & You Foundation, the Discovery Network, and the Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation. ASC is partnering with the Pine Bluff Jefferson County Library System, Tour de Bluff, and the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock for the event.
Highlights of this year's activities include: A hands-on cooking workshop; pedal-power stations for visitors to create art, blend delicious smoothies, and see their muscles turn energy into light; “bike rodeo,” and Yoga for Kids.
Thanks to a grant from the Blue & You Foundation, special guest Faith Anaya of Kids Cook! (a nonprofit organization based in Little Rock) will lead a cooking workshop for young people ages 6-13.
“Kids will be able to get their hands on the food, and try some different skills that they would be using in the kitchen like cutting and cooking,” Colbert said. “And we’ll get to sample the recipe that they create.“
There will be two separate sessions — a 1 p.m. session for ages 6-9, and a 2 p.m. session for ages 10-13. Each class can accommodate up to 12 children. Participants must sign up at the event — first come, first serve.
Bicycling is a natural bridge between health and tinkering, and Tinkerfest 2018 features a plethora of fun pedal-related activities.
Visitors can hop on one of the bikes to create a pedal-powered painting. How do you create art with a bike? The participant powers the bike, and through centrifugal force, paint “flings” outward from the center of the drum, creating a colorful swirling pattern. A sheet of paper is lowered into the floating paint to create a piece of art.
Visitors who bring their own bikes to Tinkerfest can create even more art. An attachment holding a large piece of chalk is connected to the back of a bike, and the visitor can pedal around to a draw vibrant patterns onto the asphalt.
At the bike power station, visitors can see how their pedaling generates electricity by using a bike connected to an LED tower.
Put together a variety of ingredients to create a unique smoothie recipe and blend it using the bike at the pedal-power smoothie station.
Volunteers from Tour de Bluff (Pine Bluff’s main annual bike event) will host a “bike rodeo,” or trick riding on BMX bikes. They’ll also share tips on bike safety, and how people in the area can get out and ride their bikes more.
Colbert will lead two Yoga for Kids sessions — one at 1:30 p.m. and another at 2:30 p.m. Each session has room for 12 participants. Participants must sign up at the event — first come, first serve. (These two sessions are in addition to ASC’s weekly Yoga for Kids class, held every Saturday from 10:15-11 a.m. Yoga for Kids is a Healthy Living program for children ages 6 and up.)
Visitors will even be able to play the classic video game “Donkey Kong” using bananas, lead by Museum of Discovery staff. The fruit is converted into a controller with a Makey Makey — a kit which turns ordinary objects into touchpads.
“It will be like playing a video game but instead of sitting down and controlling it with your thumbs, you’re controlling your character in Donkey Kong with your whole body — moving around, jumping, touching things,” Colbert explained.
In addition to the Tinkerfest activities, ASC’s current exhibitions will be open. They include: Interactive exhibit Imaginate! in the International Paper Gallery, Creative Construction Zone in the Simmons Gallery, Small but Mighty in the William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery, UAPB & ASC: Five Decades of Collaboration in the Ben J. Altheimer Gallery, and Elsie Mistie Sterling: Pencil and Persistence in the Catherine M. Bellamy Theatre Hall.
(All activities take place between 1-3 p.m., unless otherwise specified)
Kids Cook!
Location: ASC Studio
1 p.m. session: Ages 6-9 (up to 12 children)
2 p.m. session: Ages 10-13 (up to 12 children)
Location: Studio
Hands-on cooking class for kids.
Note: Participants must sign up. First come, first serve.
Makey-Makey Donkey Kong
(with Museum of Discovery)
Location: Bellamy Theatre Stage
Play “Donkey Kong” using a banana and your whole body.
Yoga for Kids
Location: Dressing Room/Studio
1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. (up to 12 children per session)
Location: Dressing Rooms
Ages 6 and up
Note: Participants must sign up. First come, first serve.
Smoothie Station
Location: Catherine M. Bellamy Theatre Hall
Make your own smoothie using a bike-powered blender!
Tinkerfest Buttons and Take-and-Makes
Location: Simmons Gallery
Make a Tinkerfest 2018 button and do a health-inspired take-and-make activity.
Bike Rodeo (with Tour de Bluff)
Location: Front parking lot
Trick-riding demos from area cyclists.
Bike Art and Bike Power
Location: Front parking lot
Pedal-powered spin art, LED tower station.
Special guest Faith Anaya of Kids Cook! (a nonprofit organization based in Little Rock) will lead a cooking workshop for young people ages 6-13.
An example of the groovy art created using pedal power!
Students in the Arts & Science Center’s shadow puppet program shared the product of their work with family and friends May 23 during Family & Community Night at ASC. The evening was a culmination of a 12-week after-school theater program with students from the Boys & Girls Club. The program was facilitated by Leonor Colbert (above), ASC Public Program Coordinator, and Lindsey Collins, director for "Sister Act," ASC's summer musical. The King Foundation grant will help to support ASC's youth theatre-immersion program.
The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas has received a grant of $35,000 from the Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation in support of ASC's expanded youth theatre-immersion program, "The Stage," ASC Executive Director Dr. Rachel Miller announced June 13. "The Stage" is a makerspace for innovation and creativity through theatre.
students in The Boys & Girls club get ready to show off their shadow puppetry for family and friends at ASC on May 23.
Building upon ASC’s established STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ART, and Math) programming foundation, “The Stage” takes a holistic approach to theatre by engaging students in all aspects of theatre: directing, acting, playwriting, scenery construction, costume design, light and sound design, stage management, playbill design, and marketing and promotion of productions. All components are considered STEAM learning. By incorporating technology, students will learn coding and circuitry for scenery special effects, audio and film for documenting, and basic graphic design — all which ASC already provides through our programs.
Involving youth in community arts programs provides opportunity to cultivate civic engagement, which benefits the community at large; develop practical and personal skills considered instrumental in academic and career success, such as creative thinking, self-confidence, identity building, problem solving, collaboration, communication skills, and valuing constructive feedback, and ensures access to the arts for youth from low-income families who don’t possess the means to participate in programs in arts-resource rich regions of Arkansas.
ASC leverages funding from local and state grants, sponsorships, and foundations to provide half and full scholarships for “The Stage” summer program for ages 7-17. The all-day, month-long camp kicked off Monday, June 18, and culminates in an all-youth production of “It’s Not Ugly ... It’s Art!” on Friday, July 13, and Saturday, July 14.
In addition to the summer program, “The Stage” offers professional development workshops, internships, and free after-school theatre programming. This spring, Leonor Colbert, ASC Public Program Coordinator, and Lindsey Collins, director of ASC's summer musical production of "Sister Act," led the Boys & Girls Club 12-week shadow puppet program.
The King Foundation grant will assist the growth of ASC’s scope of community outreach through “The Stage” project. Starting this fall, programming will include an in-school component, a “digital” tool box for educators, and regional outreach.
ASC is immensely grateful for the King Foundation's support of our endeavors to provide access to the arts for everyone.
About the King Foundation
Carl B. and Florence E. King started the foundation that bears their names in 1966. Since then, the King Foundation has distributed more than $64 million to agencies operating in Texas and Arkansas while maintaining the legacies created by Carl “Big Jim” and Florence “Meemaw” King and their daughter, Dorothy.
students from JF Wahl Elementary school in Helena check out "Light Hearts in Concert" Art Tower during a tour of "Imaginate" on May 9.
Imaginate, ASC’s latest STEAM exhibit, is now open in the International Paper Gallery.
Friction zone
The interactive, multi-activity exhibit encourages collaboration and experimentation — two concepts that innovation and invention rely upon. All of the stations are designed to involve multiple people and creative risk-taking. The activities also encourage to visitors to think about different ways of seeing, creating, and using things.
Innovation has been essential to our survival — driving the evolution of our civilization and the change in our daily quality of life. In this changing world a culture of innovation will help us meet the challenges ahead for our continued survival, both in terms of globalization and environmental changes. Whether you are doing science, art or engineering — innovative thinking can take us on the paths we have not yet explored.
Explore the different activity stations:
Many good innovations come from an understanding of the properties of the materials being used. Explore kinetic friction in action by sending sliders down ramps with different surfaces. Try using heavier blocks on your slider to see how the mass affects the force of friction. Is heavier slide faster or slower? By experimenting with the surface properties of a range of materials, you can discover which combinations yield the fastest or slowest run.
Making Faces
In this experience, one face is made of many different people. Take a picture of your own face and choose from a video collection of other people's features to create a bizarre new image. Experiment with the face you create and experiment with different facial expressions. See what makes a face beautiful to you.
Sound Panels
Of the songs on your portable music player, how many sample another song? Innovation in science and technology made this possible and changed music forever.
In this room of sound and lights, you can create your own musical masterpiece involving rhythm, light, pattern and emotion. Step inside play and experiment with sets or samples programmed into the sound walls. Collaboration lets you work with each other's sounds, and competition and collaboration push and pull you to be more creative. Work together and have fun!
This interactive light sculpture is powered by heartbeats. When you and a group of friends interact with it, the sculpture interprets your heartbeats and integrates them into a light show. Hold onto one of the four bars — the bar has a heart rate monitor built in. Your heartbeat becomes the drum to which the lights dance. The more people connected to the sculpture and the more heartbeats in combination, the grander the display. “Light Hearts in Concert” is designed to inspire experimentation as a team and to visually celebrate each individual as a necessary and valued part of a whole.
Discover the unexpected — explore materials both nature and manmade. Consider how nature has inspired man-made products. Explore the unexpected ways of using materials, and different ways they have been repurposed. Use the microscope to examine the details of a wide range of fun materials.
A'Niyah Jones, 7, makes her own small film at the Stop-Motion Animation station.
Create your own animation short using small toys and other objects. Capture your scenes with a fixed camera and easy-to-use touch screen interface. When you are finished with your story, play your movie to see your figures come to life on the screen!
Imaginate is the latest interactive traveling exhibit on loan from the Arkansas Discovery Network, a statewide museum partnership operated by Museum of Discovery in Little Rock. The traveling exhibits makes interactive STEM learning more accessible to the state’s children and their families.
Imaginate is sponsored by the Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation, an affiliate office of the Arkansas Community Foundation, Inc.
Explore Imaginate through Saturday, October 6, 2018.
Students create their own short films during the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas’ filmmaking camp in 2017. The 2018 filmmaking camp for ages 7-17 will be held July 16-20.
Children and teens have several options for fun and educational activities this summer at the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. ASC is hosting a slate of camps for students ages 6 to 17 in art, engineering and technology, game design and development, theater, filmmaking, and even swing dance.
Through the generosity of the June and Edmond Freeman Endowment, Simmons First Foundation, Windgate Foundation, Ben J. Altheimer Foundation and Synergy Forum Inc., ASC can provide full and partial scholarships for students to attend this year's summer camps.
“We’re very fortunate this summer to have the support of the community and to be able to offer these scholarships,” said ASC Executive Director Dr. Rachel Miller.
The camps exemplify ASC’s mission to serve as a cultural crossroad: engaging, educating and entertaining through the arts and sciences. The camps’ curricula incorporates aspects of “STEAM” — science, technology, engineering, ART and math — through student-driven projects. The camps also help students to develop the “soft skills” needed to cultivate leadership and collaboration.
“The arts help to develop 21st century skills,” ASC Public Programs Coordinator Leonor Colbert explained. “Art helps prepare kids to be future leaders in many areas of their lives because it boosts problem-solving skills, empathy, being able to see problems from other people’s perspectives, and communication and collaboration.”
Colbert is leading the two visual art camps. Art I (ages 6-11) and Art II (ages 12-17) combine lessons in drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture with exploration of current ASC art exhibitions. Students will create 2D and 3D projects, and focus not only on artistic methods and working with different media, but also on the creative process itself.
“With the art camps, it’s more than just doing a bunch of art projects — we will also do activities each day to stretch their creativity muscles,” Colbert said. “The older students will be encouraged to explore the value of art in their own lives and what role art can play in their future success.”
ASC Digital Media Specialist Ashley Smith will lead the two STEAM camps, which are for ages 12-17.
Through hands-on building and experimentation, Engineering & Technology students will be introduced to electric circuits, LEDs and switches, stop-motion animation, beginning computer coding and apps, conductors and semiconductors, programming motors and app development.
Game Design & Development students will use virtual development to learn the fundamentals of creating a game through computer programming and animation, creative problem solving, mathematics, storytelling and teamwork.
Students can enroll in both half-day technology camps for a full day of STEAM learning and a discounted fee.
Justin Pike, Artistic Director for The Studio Theatre in Little Rock, is leading “The Stage” makerspace theater camp for ages 7-17.
The program takes a holistic approach to theater. Participants will sample all aspects of theater — including script writing, stage management, set design, light and sound design and costume design — as well as acting and directing. Incorporating technology, participating students will learn coding and circuitry for scenery special effects, audio and film for documenting, and basic graphic design to create a program for their production.
Their month of hard work will culminate in the production of a one-act play, Gary Ray Stapp’s “It’s Not Ugly ... It’s Art!” with public performances Friday, July 13, and Saturday, July 14.
“The students will have done everything in this play from the ground up,” Colbert said. “Each student will be making substantive creative contributions to the production.” The students will do everything needed to put on a production, including designing and building the sets and other jobs that do not necessarily include acting and directing but are equally important.
“They don’t always see themselves on center stage — but there are so many different ways that they can be a part of it,” Colbert said.
Eva Belle, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Mass Communication instructor and debate coach, will lead the Filmmaking camp. Students ages 7-17 will explore storytelling as an art form, develop a film idea, shoot video, record audio and edit their creation. They will be immersed in both the technology and the creative and artistic aspects of filmmaking.
“The summer camp will be composed of educational and fun creative activities that we’re sure your child will enjoy,” Belle said. “They will learn the logistics of acting, storytelling and filming."
Special guest instructor Nick Davis will lead the “Swing, Art and All That Jazz” camp. Interested students must apply to this camp. If selected, this camp is provided at no cost to the student.
In the “Swing, Art and All That Jazz” camp, made possible through a grant from the Arkansas Department of Education, students will explore the living traditions of swing dance and music. Students will learn a different style of swing dance each day of camp and produce a short video about the history of swing. Special guest instructor Nick Davis is an ambassador with the Frankie Manning Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and instruction of traditional swing dancing. Davis has traveled nationally and internationally to teach and DJ at swing dance events, and founded Track Town Swing Club.
This camp is for students in seventh, eighth and ninth grades during the 2017-18 school year. Participants do not need to be in gifted and talented programs at their school to apply. If selected, this camp is provided at no cost to the student.
For full descriptions and dates of the camps, please visit the summer camp webpage. Advance registration is required for all camps.
Scholarship eligibility is based on financial need, including household size and household income. The deadline for submitting scholarship applications for June camps is June 1, and July 1 for July camps. Parents are encouraged to submit applications as soon as possible.
Any questions about camps or scholarships may be directed to Leonor Colbert, ASC public programs coordinator, at 870-536-3375 or lcolbert@asc701.org.
ARTS & SCIENCE CENTER
701 S. Main Street, Pine Bluff, AR 71601
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday
(870) 536-3375
THE ARTSPACE ON MAIN
623 S. Main Street, Pine Bluff, AR 71601
12-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday
(870) 395-7009
ART WORKS ON MAIN
627 S. Main Street, Pine Bluff, AR 71601
(870) 395-7009
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