UA Little Rock to Celebrate Reopening of Gallery One Sept. 12
The College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education at UA Little Rock welcomes Amanda Burnham to campus on Thursday, Sept. 12 in celebration of her exhibition “Amanda Burnham: Y Tho” in the newly reopened Gallery One in the Fine Arts building.
A light reception will be held in the Fine Arts building at 5 p.m. with an artist lecture given by Burnham scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts building. The event will also formally welcome the School of Art and Design’s new gallery director Brian Young.
Both the reception and the lecture are free and open to the public.
“Amanda Burnham: Y Tho” opened Monday, Aug. 26 and will be on display until Wednesday, Nov. 10. Viewers can walk through the gallery on the first floor of the Fine Arts building, or they can see an aerial view of the exhibition by going to the second floor.
“[My installations] are (usually) composed of hundreds of quick, gestural acrylic and flashe paint sketches made with a fat brush that are then cut and collaged onto both built armatures and the existing surfaces of a space,” Burnham said on her website. “The effect is somewhere between a comic book and a stage set.”
Gallery One is now the fourth full-gallery space maintained by the School of Art and Design. The expansion also includes two new cases in the Windgate Center of Art + Design that will display artwork.
“The reopening of Gallery One represents the college’s commitment to promoting the arts,” said Dr. Sarah Beth Estes, dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education, which houses the School of Art and Design at UA Little Rock. “Adding this exhibition space offers a valuable opportunity to enhance artistic expression and engage both the campus community and visitors with diverse creative experiences.”
Burnham’s site-specific installation is the first in Gallery One since the School of Art and Design moved from the Fine Arts building to the Windgate Center of Art + Design in 2018.
Prior to the move, Gallery One was used to display a multitude of exhibitions, including traveling shows, site-specific installations, and faculty work.
This exhibition is also the first at UA Little Rock to have been curated by Young, who joined UA Little Rock this past spring semester after serving nearly a decade as director of the Baum Gallery at the University of Central Arkansas. He brings both curating and managing experience to the role.
“I have known Amanda for more than a dozen years, and I have always been impressed with the energetic nature of her work,” Young said. “As for its inclusion at UA Little Rock’s School of Art and Design, I thought that the hybrid nature of installation, drawing, and even sculpture would be inspirational across different disciplines. As for being the inaugural show for Gallery One’s reopening, I love that it has a universal draw across a universal audience.”
Gallery One is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays only and is closed on university holidays. Visit the School of Art and Design’s website for additional gallery hours on the UA Little Rock campus.
For additional information, contact Gallery Director Brian Young at byoung2@ualr.edu.
