Delta Exhibition to Bridge Arkansas River

The Arkansas Arts Center’s 62^nd Annual Delta Exhibition will be featured across venues in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock in summer 2020. A portion of the exhibition’s artworks will appear at Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock while other selections are featured at the Thea Foundation and Argenta Gallery in the Argenta Arts District in downtown North Little Rock. Expanding the Delta Exhibition out into the community is part of the Arts Center’s commitment to remaining vibrant, accessible and community-oriented while its MacArthur Park building is under construction over the next two-and-a-half years.

“We are always looking for opportunities to create strong community partnerships and deepen the community’s engagement with the arts,” Executive Director Victoria Ramirez said. “With this Delta Exhibition, we have an opportunity to bring the art into our communities and to celebrate art made in and about this region.”

Showcasing artists living and working in Arkansas and its border states, the Annual Delta Exhibition presents a vision of contemporary art in the American South. Founded in 1958, the exhibition provides a unique snapshot of the Delta region and features work in all media. The exhibition reflects the region’s strong traditions of craftsmanship and observation, combined with an innovative use of materials and an experimental approach to subject matter. With the Arts Center’s MacArthur Park building undergoing a transformational renovation, Chief Curator Brian Lang began searching for opportunities to bring the beloved Arts Center exhibition into other parts of the community.

“Every year, the Delta Exhibition creates a conversation about place through the art that is featured,” Lang said. “This year, we have the opportunity to add to that conversation – to engage with the Arkansas River and the communities on each side of it.”

The call for entries for the 62^nd Annual Delta Exhibition will be open January 13 – March 22, 2020. The exhibition is open to all artists who live in or were born in one of the following states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee or Texas. All work must be completed during the last two years and must not have been exhibited previously at the Arkansas Arts Center. A guest juror will select the works to be featured in the exhibition as well as the award winners.

The guest juror, exhibition dates, and events for the 62^nd Annual Delta Exhibition will be announced at a later date.