FUN
Tinkerfests
The Museum of Discovery brings together makers, artists, engineers and crafters for its 14th annual Tinkerfest, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, inside and outside the museum at 500 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. The festival will involve more than 50 activities that center upon tinkering, including creating machines with raw materials, exploring artistic techniques and engaging in numerous crafting and building options. Some of the activities, many of them provided by community partners, will take place nearby under the newly renovated Interstate 30 bridge.
Admission is part of the museum’s regular price: $14; $12 for children 1-12, senior citizens, teachers, Little Rock city employees and active and retired military; free for infants younger than 1, $2 for SNAP recipients and as many as five others in their party. Visit museumofdiscovery.org.
Meanwhile, Pine Bluff’s ARTx3 Campus hosts “Tinkerfest: STEAM Carnival,” 1-3 p.m. Saturday at the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St. It “(blends) the excitement of a carnival with the curiosity-driven spirit of tinkering” through playful experimentation and interactive exhibits, according to a news release. Sponsors are the Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation and McFarland Eye Care. Admission is free. Call (870) 536-3375, email [email protected] or visit artx3.org/all-events/family-funday-sept-2025-tinkerfest.
It’s part of a partnership with several other museums, including Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville; Discovery Lab in Tulsa; and Science Museum of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. Visit tinkerfest.org.
Dogtown Throwdown
Main Street between Broadway and Fifth Street in North Little Rock’s Argenta Arts District closes from 4 p.m. Friday-10 p.m. Saturday for the first fall Dogtown Throwdown block party. For what is being billed as “the Ultimate Tailgate,” neighborhood restaurants will serve up “game day favorites” from outdoor stations. Friday’s entertainment lineup includes a 7 p.m. performance by Chris DeClerk at Argenta Library; Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. is the Acansa Arts Festival and University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College Family Arts Day — noon-3 p.m., the North Little Rock Animal Shelter Mobile Adoption Unit will set up; there will be a 2-6 p.m. Fall Market at Flyway Brewing and a North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce “Shop Small” pop-up Market at Argenta Plaza, 520 Main St. Richard Michael Hall performs at 5 p.m. in front of Blackberry Market and the Big Dam Horns perform at 7 p.m. on the main stage next to Argenta Library. Admission is free. Visit argentaartsdistrict.org.
THEATER
‘Jekyll & Hyde’
Benton’s Royal Players are staging “Jekyll & Hyde the Musical” (music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Steve Cuden, book by Bricusse, conceived for the stage by Wildhorn and Cuden, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of the battle between good and evil), 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Sept. 18-20 and 2 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 21 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. Rex Wilkins plays both title roles — passionate and romantic scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll and the madman his experimental serum produces. Gabrielle Neafsey and Izzy Hammonds play the women who love them. The theater group warns of “murder, violence, gore, mild language and sexual situations making it not intended for younger audiences.” Sponsor is Bryant Allergy and Asthma. Tickets are $20; $15 senior citizens 60-plus, members of the military and college students with valid ID; $10 for children. Visit onthestage.tickets/show/the-royal-theatre/68977fded98e3a0fffe0affb.
Woman-hunt, manhunt
When the female half of a newlywed couple honeymooning in the Catskills disappears, it sets off a woman-hunt as well as a manhunt in “Catch Me If You Can,” onstage through Oct. 4 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday (but 12:30 p.m. matinees only Sept. 17 and 24), 12:45 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. Dinner and show tickets are $43-$47, $33 for children 15 and younger and for show-only. Call (501) 562-3131 or visit murrysdp.com.
MUSIC
Camerata concert
Chamber orchestra Camerata Little Rock opens its second season with “The Bach Tradition: Orchestral Works by J.S. Bach and Sons,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 310 W. 17th St., Little Rock. The program includes Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 and his Concerto for Oboe and Violin, featuring Arkansas Symphony principal oboist Leanna Renfro with violinist and director Geronimo Oyenard; string symphonies by Carl Philip Emmanuel and Johann Christian Friedrich Bach; and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “re-envisioning” of a Prelude and Fugue for string trio by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Admission is free. A “German coffeehouse”-themed reception will follow. Visit facebook.com/events/1525239258836965.
Lanterns on the Levee
Just Groovin’ Experience (4 p.m.), Tawanna Campbell (5 p.m.) and Dylan Triplett (6 p.m.) perform for the Delta Cultural Center’s third annual Lanterns on the Levee, 4-6 p.m. Saturday at the Cherry Street Pavilion, 116 Cherry St., Helena-West Helena. Singer-songwriter Justine Word hosts. The festival also features art vendors, local talent, food trucks and, for kids, face painting, bubbles and bouncy houses. Admission is free. Visit tinyurl.com/mbuha2pa.
The center, 141 Cherry St., will also open an exhibit, “Color of the Blues: The Art of John Goodwin,” paintings by the El Dorado native that “capture the essence of the Mississippi River Delta and the music it birthed,” according to the center website, in the center gallery of its Visitor Center from 3-5 p.m. The exhibition remains up through Dec. 27; center hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Admission is free. Call (870) 338-4350.
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
ART AND EXHIBITS
‘Coordinated’ art
“Coordinates,” paintings by April Burris and Holly Tilley — landscapes, still lifes and figurative work, each including the GPS coordinates to authenticate its location — opens with a 5-8 p.m. meet-the-artists reception Thursday at the Art Group Gallery, in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. It’ll remain up through Oct. 15. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, or by appointment. Call (501) 690-2193 or visit artgrouparkansas.com.
Documentarian documented
The Old State House Museum, 300 W. Markham St., Little Rock, opens “Reporting for Arkansas: The Documentary Films of Jack Hill,” exploring the career of TV newsman and documentarian Jack E. Hill, with a 5-8 p.m. reception Friday. Light refreshments will be provided.
Hill, an investigative journalist and news anchor at Jonesboro TV station KAIT, was a pioneering documentary filmmaker dedicated to sharing Arkansas’ history with a wider public. His production company, TeleVision for Arkansas, produced dozens of original films.
The exhibit remains up through Sept. 27. Admission to the reception and the exhibit is free. The museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Call (501) 324-9685 or email [email protected].
UCA exhibitions
On display in the Baum Gallery, Room 145 of McCastlain Hall at the University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway: “Vital Signs,” drawings, paintings and mixed media works that Jessica Mongeon, associate professor of art and the Foundations Coordinator at Arkansas Tech University, created over the past 11 years, and “Symbiosis,” works by Lisa Krannichfeld, Emily Moll Wood, Yelena Petroukhina and Melissa Wilkinson. The exhibitions remain up through Oct. 3. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays. Admission is free. Visit uca.edu/art/baum.
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Lecture in residence
Naima Green, artist-in-residence at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will give a lecture, 6 p.m. Thursday in the Lecture Hall, Room 101, at the university’s Windgate Center of Art + Design, 5617 S. University Ave., Little Rock. Green documents through pictures of individuals and communities “their vibrant relationships to place and pleasure,” according to a news release, engaging “with various photographic forms, sound, installation and experimental film.” Admission is free. Funding for the Artist-in-Residence program comes from the Windgate Foundation. Call (501) 916-5117 or email [email protected].
ETC.
Iris sale
Central Arkansas Iris Society holds its annual iris sale, 8 a.m. “until sold out,” Saturday at Unitarian Universalist Church, 1818 Reservoir Road, Little Rock. Admission is free. Call (501) 455-1478 or visit CentralArkansasiris.org.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.arkansasonline.com ’
