Museums | Visual arts, architecture & Arkansas museums preserve Arkansas heritage








-Arts -Architecture -Museums -A Travel-Through-Time


The Department of Arkansas Heritage 1500 Tower Building 323 Center Street Little Rock, AR 72201 (501) 324-9150 TDD:(501) 324-9811

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MUSEUMS

Arkansas's museums reflect the rich diversity of the state. From fine art to folk arts, from small county museums to National Park Service sites, from the mountains to the Delta, the state's Delta Cultural Center in Helena, AR museums reveal who we are and what we value. The oldest art museum in the state, the Arkansas Arts Center, houses a nationally recognized collection of original works of art on paper. National Park Service sites tell several stories of national significance through such locations as Central High School, Arkansas Post, Hot Springs and Pea Ridge Civil War Battlefield. Historic state parks and local history museums dot the landscape, giving voice to the history of special places and people.

The Department of Arkansas Heritage houses three history museums - two with statewide emphasis and one serving the Delta region. The Historic Arkansas Museum and the Old State House Museum are the state's history museums. These accredited institutions offer the public a valuable and entertaining experience with the people and politics of Arkansas. Included are collections of paintings, quilts, furniture, silver and bowie knives, all made in Arkansas. In addition, education programs take visitors into the chambers where the laws of the state were made and into homes where living history actors play the role of early settlers. The Delta Cultural Center in Helena seeks to document and preserve the traditions of the state's Delta region featuring exhibits on music, agriculture and Delta society.

Arkansas's commitment to museums is a commitment to our history and culture; because our past is important in letting us know who we are and where we came from. But these institutions also draw tourists from all over the United States and beyond who want to see what is special and unique about our state.

Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

Scheduled to open in 2007, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will tell the story of the Mosaic Templars of America, an organization, which from its founding in the late 1880s until the 1920s, amassed one of the largest concentrations of black-owned and controlled capital in the United States. The Mosaic Templars formed chapters in cities across the nation and in many foreign countries. The Cultural Center will showcase exhibits, artifacts, spoken narratives and other materials and will tell the story of Little Rock�s 9th Street area, which was the hub of commerce, art, civil rights and culture for the city�s black community until the 1960s.

Old State House Museum

The Old State House is home to a world-class collection that includes Arkansas politicial memorabilia, Charles Thompson architectural drawings, Arkansas art pottery, Arkansas First Ladies' gowns, quilts by Black Arkansans and Confederate battle flags. Popular events include lawn concerts, Civil War reenactments, and classes for children and adults.

Historic Arkansas Museum

The Historic Arkansas Museum is the state's primary interpreter of frontier Arkansas and its creative legacy. With four historic houses on their original sites and the premier collection of Arkansas-made decorative arts, the museum chronicles the social and political history of Arkansas in the 19th century. At the Historic Arkansas Museum you come face-to-face with history every day. The actors in the award-winning Living History program portray the lives of the early residents of the museum houses. The Visitors Center features exhibitions, a theater and a hands-on history room for kids.

The Delta Cultural Center

The story of life in the Arkansas Delta is being told every day at the Delta Cultural Center in Helena. Housed in a restored 1912 Missouri Pacific train depot, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena focuses on the rich history, art and culture of the Arkansas Delta. Permanent exhibits depict the people and the lands of the Delta from presettlement times to the present. Each weekday at 12:15 p.m., the Visitors Center features a live broadcast of the "King Biscuit Time" radio show.

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