'Small Works on Paper' Art Exhibit at Mullins Library

Photo Submitted

“Meggie at the Beach” by Kathy Attwood of Eureka Springs. (Arkansas Arts Council, used with permission.)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The 2014 “Small Works on Paper” art exhibition presented by the Arkansas Arts Council is on display in the lobby area of Mullins Library through the end of March.

The exhibition features the work of 39 Arkansas artists and will travel to 10 galleries throughout the state in a year-long touring show. Fayetteville artists Cindy Arsaga, J.P. Bell, Joanne Jones and Cindy Wiseman have work featured in the exhibition, as well as Dan Snow of Springdale.

The annual “Small Works on Paper” exhibition is now in its 27th year and showcases artwork no larger than 24 x 24 inches by Arkansas artists. The artists must be members of the Arkansas Artist Registry, an online art gallery coordinated by the Arkansas Arts Council. The 2014 show features 40 works, which were selected from more than 300 submissions by juror Mary Kennedy, chief executive officer of the Mid-America Arts Alliance.

“The works I selected for inclusion represent a broad range of media, technique and style and may appear to lack cohesion as a group at first glance, but for me the through-line for this exhibition is the richness and possibility of storytelling represented in these works,” Kennedy said. “Regardless of whether they are abstract or figurative, high-tech or handcrafted, they conjure a response — emotional, intellectual or physical — that animates the imagination of the viewer and sparks new storytelling and the perpetuation of creative expression.”

Kennedy selected 10 artists to receive purchase awards, the cash amount equivalent to the value of their selected works. The purchase awards are funded by entry fees, and the pieces become part of the exhibition's permanent collection. The artists selected to receive purchase awards are Cindy Arsaga and Cindy Wiseman of Fayetteville, Claire Cade of Arkadelphia, Houston Fryer and Richard Stephens of Hot Springs, Lisa Kindrick and Miranda Young of Little Rock, Tom Richard of Monticello, Carrie Waller of Cabot, and Cathy Wester of Conway.

The Arkansas Arts Council was established in 1966 to enable the state of Arkansas to receive funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Council became an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage in 1975 and shares its goal of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas.