The annual Pulaski County Fair offers nine days of rides, food and entertainment, noon-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday and May 26-27; 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Wednesday, May 25 and 28; and noon-8 p.m. on Memorial Day, May 29, at North Little Rock's Riverfront Park, 120 Riverfront Drive, on the banks of the Arkansas River.
The fair features the P.B.J. Happee Days Shows carnival midway, rides, games, novelty vendors, food options and adult beverages and an entertainment schedule on the fair's second weekend, May 25-29.
Cliff & Susan kick things off, 7-9 p.m. May 25. Details, including the lineup, for the May 26 Rock & Blues Night remain to be announced. May 27 is the country-centered Official Yadaloo Music & Arts Festival, with Buddy Jewell, TRIPPP, Huckleberry Jam, Eli Adams and Cam Shelton preceding headliner David Adam Byrnes to the stage. May 28 is Hispanic Heritage Day; May 29 will feature a Memorial Day Military Tribute. Admission is free with park entry -- $5, free for children 12 and younger -- except for the Yadaloo Festival, for which tickets are $20 with $125 and $150 VIP tiers. Visit yadaloo.com.
An all-day wristband that permits unlimited rides is $25 ($22 if bought in advance at the North Little Rock Welcome Center, 600 Main St., North Little Rock); single ride tickets are $1 (each ride requires three to seven tickets). Gate admission Wednesday is free with regular carnival prices; on May 25, all carnival rides are $2 each (2 ride tickets). A portion of the proceeds goes to North Little Rock Parks & Recreation. Presenting sponsor is Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. Visit thepulaskicountyfair.net.
ART & EXHIBITS
Crowning gowns
"Miss Arkansas Crowning Gown," gowns from Miss Arkansas winners in conjunction with the approaching 2023 pageant, June 3-10, goes on display Friday in the 1885 House Chamber on the second floor of the Old State House Museum, 300 W. Markham St., Little Rock. The exhibit will be up through June 10. Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call (501) 324-9685 or visit facebook.com/oldstatehousemuseum.
'Victory' on display
"Manufacturing Victory: The Arsenal of Democracy," a touring exhibit from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans that follows, through photographs, oral histories and interactive audio-video components, the industrial journey that took the United States from perilously unprepared for war to a global superpower, opens Friday at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 503 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. It'll remain up through Sept. 4. National sponsor is Hewlett Packard Enterprise with additional support from Citi; local presenting sponsors are Stephens Inc. and David F. Gruenewald. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call (501) 376-4602 or visit littlerock.gov/macarthur.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Kelly O'Connell Brengelman enacts "Rose Leigh: Rosie the Riveter," 7 p.m. today in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center , 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. The show is a partnership between the Clinton Center, the MacArthur Museum and Kentucky Chautauqua. Admission is free.
Leigh, a resident of Science Hill, Ky., arrived at the Willow Run Bomber Factory in Ypsilanti, Mich., in 1942 to work as a riveter on B-24 bombers. She found temporary stardom after she met actor Walter Pidgeon and appeared on the big screen as "Rosie the Riveter." Her goal of flying airplanes, not building them, finally earned her her pilot's wings in the early 1970s.
Argenta Library art
"Human Thread," a multimedia exhibition of figurative works by Little Rock based artist Tanya Hollifield, opens with a 5-8 p.m. Third Friday Art Walk reception Friday at the Argenta Library, 420 Main St., North Little Rock. It remains on display through June 9. Library hours are 9 a.m.-6 Monday-Friday. Admission is free. Call (501) 687-1061 or visit NLRlibrary.org.
Argenta gallery art
"We Are All Shadows," acrylic paintings by Lillian Aguinaga, a Peruvian-American artist based in New Orleans, go on display with a 5-8 p.m. reception Friday at the Acansa Gallery, 413A Main St., North Little Rock. The exhibition, a collaboration with the Latino Art Project of North Little Rock, remains up through June 10. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission is free. Call (501) 416-0973.
'Women to Watch'
"Arkansas Women to Watch 2023: New Worlds" opens today at the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff. The traveling exhibition, part of the National Museum of Women in the Arts' Women to Watch series, remains up through Aug. 12 and includes works by four Arkansas artists -- Heidi Carlsen-Rogers, Anaïs Dassé, Hannah McBroom and Aimée Papazian. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. Exhibition sponsor is Relyance Bank. Call (870) 536-3375 or visit asc701.org.
Prize-winning painting
"To the Market," a painting by Little Rock artist Glenda McCune, received an honorable mention from the Illinois Watercolor Society and is part of the group's 39th National Exhibition, including works by more than 50 artists, through May 27 at The Next Picture Show in Dixon, Ill. McCune, a Hamburg native, taught art at Jacksonville High School before retiring in 2015. She is a member of the Arkansas League of Artists, Mid Southern Watercolorists and the Arkansas Pastel Society.
ETC.
Pioneer Days
The city of Norfork and the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, celebrate the annual Pioneer Days, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday-Saturday at the Jacob Wolf House, 13775 S. Arkansas 5, which will be the site for educational programs, and Norfork City Hall, 49 City Hall Circle, Norfork, which will host a Saturday celebration, including a classic car show, pie-eating contest, vendors, crafts and games. The Early Arkansaw Reenactors Association will set up 1820s living history camps and a 38-foot-long 1820s keelboat that will be dry-docked across from the museum. A parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday on Wolf Street. Admission is free. Call (870) 499-0556 or email marlon.mowdy@arkansas.gov.
Kelly OConnell Brengelman enacts "Rose Leigh: Rosie the Riveter" today at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. The performance in conjunction with the "Manufacturing Victory: The Arsenal of Democracy" exhibition, opening Friday at Little Rocks MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
"Miss Arkansas Crowning Gown," an exhibit of gowns from Miss Arkansas winners in conjunction with the 2023 pageant, June 3-10, is on display Friday-June 10 at Little Rock's Old State House Museum. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
A pie-eating contest at City Hall is part of Norfork's annual Pioneer Days celebration. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)