FUN
The Central Arkansas Library System Dee Brown Library, Recycle Bikes for Kids and Southwest Community Center are teaming up for the second annual Southwest Bike Rodeo, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Road, Little Rock. Volunteers will help conduct bike safety inspections, guide young riders through a corral of skills stations and fit protective helmets. It’s open to youngsters 8 and older who can already balance and pedal their “steel steeds.” Recycle Bikes for Kids is providing free bicycles for the first 30 registered participants. (501) 568-7494.
THEATER
Kicking off the summer season at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St., Little Rock: the world premiere of Steve H. Broadnax III’s play with music, “Me and the Devil,” based upon the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Infernal One at a Southern crossroads to achieve supernatural mastery of the guitar. 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through June 8. (501) 378-0405; TheRep.org.
At Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, “Driving Miss Daisy” by Alfred Uhry is onstage through June 21, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday (but 12:30 p.m. Wednesday matinees only June 4 and 11), 12:45 and 6:45 p.m. Sunday. The buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. (501) 562-3131; murrysdp.com.
MUSIC
Country star Vince Gill performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Theater at Simmons Bank Arena, North Little Rock. (501) 975-9000; simmonsbankarena.com.
The Metropolitan Opera concludes its “The Met: Live in HD” season with a “cinecast,” live from the Met stage in New York, of Giacchino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” noon Saturday to 1,800 movie theater screens across the world, including the Movie Tavern in Little Rock. fathomentertainment.com.
ART AND EXHIBITS
New this weekend:
“I Am My Mother’s Daughter,” paintings by Kennedi Benjamin that, according to the Houston-based artist, “(capture) a facet of what it means to deeply remember my mom and to wrestle with and ultimately embrace who she was and how much I am like her,” opens with a 6-8 p.m. reception Friday at Cantrell Gallery, 8202 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. The display will be up through July 19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday (except July 4 and during a two-day summer break, July 11-12). (501) 224-1335 or visit cantrellgallery.com.
“After the Fire,” paintings that Andrew Deiser created before and after a March fire destroyed Deiser’s studio and much of his artwork at the St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, are on display through July 31 at Laman Library Gallery, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. The library will hold a reception, 5-7 p.m. June 17. The exhibition includes oil paintings the fire spared, along with new gouache works “reflecting on home, resilience and artistic renewal,” according to a news release. Admission to the gallery and the reception are free. Library hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday-Saturday. (501) 758-1720; NLRlibrary.org.
“Things Remembered,” an exhibition of “watercolor memories and timeless treasures” by Donna Twyford, opens with a 5-8 p.m. reception today Thursday at Art Group Gallery, in the Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. The exhibition remains up through June 30. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday or by appointment. (501) 690-2193; artgrouparkansas.com.
Continuing:
The “64th Young Arkansas Artists” exhibition, showcasing works by K-12 students from across the state, goes on display this weekend and stays up through Aug. 10 at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. The exhibition includes 39 works — three per grade level — chosen by a panel of museum and art professionals. Amfa.org.
Work by five University of Arkansas alumni, the 2024 recipients of artLAUNCH grants that provide early-career alumni with funding and mentorship opportunities to accelerate their artistry, opens Saturday and remains on display through June 30 in the Ann Maners and Alex Pappas Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art + Design at UA Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Email byoung2@ualr.edu.
“Field Notes,” photographs that “explore the collision between human disruption and nature’s resilience” by Gary Cawood, faculty member emeritus at UA Little Rock, remains on display through June 6 at the Argenta Library, 420 Main St., North Little Rock. Library hours are 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday-Friday. (501) 687-1061; 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, remains on display through June 13 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. Gallery hours are 9:30 s.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Call (501) 416-0973 or visit ACANSA.org.
Also 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.
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 Friday 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 Sunday June 1 at ESSE Museum and Store, 1510 Main St., Little Rock, (501) 916-9022; essepursemuseum.com.