Three UALR employees were featured as “Arkansas Visionaries” in the Sept. 12 issue of Arkansas Times.

Professors A.J. Smith and Marjorie Williams-Smith of the UALR Department of Art, and Ann Robinson, director of the Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education, received high praise for their ideas that have transformative power to positively shape Arkansas.

On Saturday, Sept. 21, they and several other visionaries featured in the issue will participate in the second annual Arkansas Times Festival of Ideas.

Sessions will run concurrently at each venue from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. at four locations: the Clinton School for Public Service, Historic Arkansas Museum, Heifer International and the Old State House.

The Smiths are speaking at 1 p.m. at the Historic Arkansas Museum. Their talk is titled, “Two Artists/Two Visions.”

The Smiths are known for their “deft draftsmanship and approach to art,” according to the Arkansas Times.Marjorie Smith works exclusively in metal point, while A.J. Smith is known for his larger-than-life portraits in graphite.

Robinson is speaking at 3 p.m. at the Old State House. Her talk is titled “What should we do with the children from Lake Wobegon? Innovative education for talented learners.”

Robinson heads one of only 25 centers for gifted education in the country, which she helped found in 2001. The magazine noted that last summer, the Mahony Center presented professional development courses to more than 800 advanced placement and pre-advanced placement teachers and offered its annual Summer Laureate for Youth program.

Sessions are free and open to the public, but reservations are suggested.