Central Arkansas Library System
Art Program & Exhibits
CALS houses more than just books. CALS’s art program also actively collects and exhibits works by artists living and working in Arkansas. The CALS Permanent Collection holds nearly 2,000 works of art and incorporates a wide range of media, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts. Works are added to the collection regularly through purchases and donations.
ON VIEW NOW
People and Places in Arkansas: Historical Photographs from the CALS Butler Center
On view throughout spring 2026 – 5th Floor, CALS Main Library
These scenes of people and places from throughout Arkansas’s history were selected from the collections of the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.
To explore more Arkansas history, visit the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art’s Research Room (which holds materials from the CALS Butler Center and the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture) or RobertsLibrary.org.
Featured image: African-American band, Cotton Plant, Ark., ca. 1920, Black history photograph collection (BC.PHO.4), CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
Art Program and Collections Policies at CALS
The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) houses more than just books. CALS’s art program also actively collects and exhibits works by artists living and working in Arkansas. The CALS Permanent Collection holds nearly 2,000 works of art and incorporates a wide range of media, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts. Works are added to the collection regularly through purchases and donations.
From the Vault is a recurring exhibition series curated to feature historical and contemporary artworks from the CALS Permanent Collection that show the diversity of art being created in Arkansas. Exhibitions in this series also highlight community-orientated elements of the collection and feature selected works to celebrate Black History Month and Women’s History Month, display art from the Japanese American Incarceration Camp Collection, and more. Other exhibitions highlight the craft or process-oriented elements of the collection such as Niloak pottery or documentary photography.
CALS displays its own art collection as well as traveling exhibitions throughout the entire library system, especially in the Underground Gallery in the Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art and in two new gallery display areas on the first and fifth floors of the Main Library.
CALS believes that the arts preserve and transmit our heritage, enrich our lives, and contribute significantly to the social, educational, and cultural well-being of all Arkansans, and our mission is to provide a venue for the study, practice, and enjoyment of the arts and artists of Arkansas. The artists in our permanent collection include Arkansas natives, current residents of Arkansas, and people whose artwork deals with Arkansas-related themes, and our exhibitions have a similar focus.