FUN
The Pulaski County Fair returns to North Little Rock’s Riverfront Park, 120 Riverfront Park Drive, opening Saturday May 16 through May 26, featuring P.B.J. Happee Days Shows, a carnival midway, rides, games, a petting zoo, novelty vendors, food options, live music in the beer garden and adult beverages. Saturday and Sunday May 16-17, Butch Patrick, portrayer of Eddie Munster on “The Munsters,” will attend, live and in person, with Dragula and Eddie's Chopper. Hours this weekend are 5-11 p.m. Friday, noon-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Thepulaskicountyfair.net.
MUSIC
The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Richard Strauss’ “Salome” will be “cinecast” live to more than 1,800 movie theaters worldwide, including the Movie Tavern in Little Rock, at noon Saturday, part of the “Met: Live in HD” series. Soprano Elza van den Heever sings the title role, with baritone Peter Mattei as Jochanaan (aka John the Baptist). The Met advises viewers that the opera “contains adult themes and disturbing imagery.” metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2024-25-season/salome.
THEATER
Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre stages a one-act adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” 6:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday and Tuesday-May 23 in the Market Square, The Village at Hendrix, 1705 Altus St., Conway. Pre-show music starts at 6. Admission is pay what you can, with a suggested donation of $25 per person. Visit tinyurl.com/yc38x84d.
The Weekend Theater, 1001 W. Seventh Street at Chester Street, Little Rock, closes out its run of “Carrie the Musical,” based on the Stephen King novel and the 1976 film, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday through May 18. WeekendTheater.org.
And Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, continues its run of “Leading Ladies” by Ken Ludwig, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 12:45 and 6:45 p.m. Sunday through May 24. Buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. (501) 562-3131; murrysdp.com.
ART AND EXHIBITS
“Field Notes,” photographs that “explore the collision between human disruption and nature’s resilience” by Gary Cawood, faculty member emeritus at UA Little Rock, opens with a Third Friday Art Walk reception, 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Argenta Library, 420 Main St., North Little Rock. The exhibition remains up through June 6 during regular library hours, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission to the reception and the library is free. Call (501) 687-1061 or visit NLRlibrary.org.
“Scenes from the 5 a.m. Studio,” drawings by Robert Bean, the former chair of the Painting and Drawing department at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts’ Windgate Art School and a former instructor at UA Little Rock’s School of Art, opens with a 5-8 p.m. reception Friday at Acansa Gallery, 413A Main St., North Little Rock. The show consists of 70 works, including quick gesture drawings that Bean created in his studio after waking up long before the crack of dawn and drawings he created later in the day for his art students at Mills University Studies High School in Little Rock. The exhibition will be up through June 13. Gallery hours are 9:30 s.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Call (501) 416-0973 or visit ACANSA.org.
Continuing:
“BFA Projects,” showcasing the work of UA Little Rock BFA students, is up through Sunday May 17 in the Brad Cushman Gallery in the UA Little Rock Windgate Center of Art + Design, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.
At the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock, studio photographs by the late Kwame Brathwaite, who started out in the 1960s using photography to promote “Black is Beautiful,” through Oct. 12. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. (501) 372-4000; arkmfa.org.
Cantrell Gallery, officially reopened in its new space, 8202 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, is showing “Treehouse Treasures: a collector’s collection” Part 2 through May 24, artworks from the collection of the gallery’s original owner, Helen Scott, who is down-sized her home. The gallery is also celebrating 55 years in business. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. (501) 224-1335.
“The Creative Collective III,” 80 artworks by high school students and faculty at Little Rock Central, Conway, Joe T. Robinson, Parkview, Bryant, Maumelle and North Little Rock, is on display through May 22, in the Thea Foundation Gallery, 401 Main St., North Little Rock, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, with extended hours (5-8 p.m.) during Argenta Arts District Third Friday Art Walk. theafoundation.org.
At UA Little Rock’s Windgate Center of Art + Design, “Beverly Buys: Gone But Not,” 11 cyanotypes by Hot Springs photographer Beverly Buys, is on display through May 30 in the Focus Gallery, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. “Dawn Holder: Strange Meetings,” mixed-media ceramics by Holder, a sculptor and installation artist, is on display through July 11 in the North and South Galleries, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. And in UA Little Rock’s Fine Arts Building, “On the Horizon,” oil paintings by William Beckman, is on display 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays through June 30 in Gallery One.
And “Crimson Moon,” pieces from the jewelry collection of Leesa Renshaw, remains on display, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through June 1 at ESSE Museum and Store, 1510 Main St., Little Rock, (501) 916-9022; essepursemuseum.com.