The exhibit will run from October 13 through December 5 and will be housed in two campus locations – the George H. Clippert Annex of the School of Forest Resources and the Spencer Gallery of the UAM Fine Arts Center. The exhibit, which is being hosted by the School of Forest Resources, is free and open to the public. An artist’s reception will be held in the Spencer Gallery on October 27 from 5-6:30 p.m.
An Arkansas native, Palmer developed the exhibit over a period of five years, driving approximately 7,000 miles to document and artistically interpret selected Arkansas Champion Trees (the largest trees of their variety in the state as certified by the Arkansas Forestry Commission).
The exhibit, which was the subject of an AETN documentary first aired in March, was organized for travel by the Arkansas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The 18 trees rendered in the exhibit include:
• A White Ash in Prairie County near Hazen;
• A Northern Catalpa in Grant County near Prattsville;
• An Eastern Cottonwood in Crawford County near Van Buren;
• A Bald Cypress in the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas County;
• A Flowering Dogwood in Jackson County near Newport;
• A Maidenhair Gingko at Maple Hill Confederate Cemetery in Helena;
• An American Holly in White County near Rosebud;
• A Southern Magnolia in Miller County hear Texarkana;
• A Sugar Maple named “Guardian of the Fallen” in the Confederate Cemetery in Fayetteville;
• A Bur Oak named “Father Tree” which was felled by a tornado in 2008, located in Lonoke County near Keo;
• A Cherrybark Oak in Phillips County near Lexa;
• A Chinkapin Oak in Independence County near Batesville;
• A Post Oak in Miller County near Waldo;
• A White Oak known as “Council Oak” in Yell County near Dardanelle;
• A Persimmon which is also a national champion, in Yell County near Dardanelle;
• A Shortleaf Pine in Ashley County near Hamburg;
• A Tulip Poplar in Saline County near Benton;
• A Water Tupelo at Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area in White County near Bald Knob.
As a spin-off of the exhibit, the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts has collaborated with the Arkansas Forestry Association’s Project Learning Tree to create “Growing Champion Classrooms,” which incorporates materials from the exhibit into lesson plans for public school teachers. The program is being sponsored by the UAM School of Forest Resources and by Entergy.
For more information, contact Dr. Phil Tappe, dean of the School of Forest Resources, at (870) 460-1052.