From the Vault: A Survey of the CALS Art Collection

Black History Month 2026

In recognition of Black History Month, the newest installment of the From the Vault: A Survey of the CALS Art Collection exhibition series will be on display in the Main Library’s new 5th floor gallery. From the Vault will feature a recently donated portrait of Toni Morrison by Loni Harshaw as well as recent additions to the collection by Angela Davis Johnson, AJ Smith, and Keivon Williams. Other Black artists whose works are included in the CALS art collection include Kevin Cole, Perrion Hurd, and Louise Mandumbwa. Artwork featuring Black Arkansans by Jim Gunnell and Terry Brewer will also be on display. 

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The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) houses more than just books. CALS’s art program also actively collects and exhibits works by artists working and living in Arkansas. The CALS Permanent Collection holds more than 1,000 works of art and incorporates a wide range of media, including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts. Works are added to the collection regularly through purchases and donations. The From the Vault exhibition series features historical and contemporary artworks that show the diversity of art being created in Arkansas. 

More art from the CALS Permanent Collection can be seen throughout all our library locations. Works by the following Black artists can be viewed at branch libraries throughout the system: Children’s Library: Equilla Marie Walker; Dee Brown Library: Delita Martin; Maumelle Library: Henri Linton; McMath Library: Angela Johnson; Millie Brooks Library: Kevin Kresse; Rooker Library: Adaja Cooper; Thompson Library: Henri Linton; and Williams Library: Alice Ayers, Adaja Cooper, CC Mercer, and Keivon Williams. Visiting information for all CALS locations is available here. 

Arkansas Women to Watch 2026: Words Become Matter

Organized by the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) 

Artists’ books take many forms: pressed, painted, folded. Words Become Matter celebrates three nationally recognized Arkansas artists who use text and shape to make objects that carry words. K. Nelson Harper of Fort Smith specializes in combining traditional letterpress technology with new digital techniques, often adding humor. Under the name Ars Brevis Press, she has produced many artists’ books and broadsides. She is an Emeritus Professor of Graphics at the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith. Acadia Kandora is a printmaker who favors zines to explore the natural landscape and her relationship to it, as well as the intersection between the imaginary and the concrete. She teaches at the University of Arkansas, where she earned her MFA. Mail artist Rebecca Resinski is a classics professor at Hendrix College in Conway. She publishes her intricate and delicate chapbooks and pamphlets under her imprint Cuckoo Grey. She also is a co-founder of Heron Tree, an online poetry journal. The exhibition was curated by Catherine Walworth, who is the Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr., Curator of Drawings at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, at the invitation of the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). One of the artists will be selected to represent Arkansas in a major exhibition of book art in 2027 at the NMWA in Washington DC.