New Hours at Fort Smith Regional Art Museum

The Fort Smith Regional Art Museum’s new hours of operation start today, Jan. 7. With free admission, the art museum will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

If you missed the “Winslow Homer and The American Pictorial Press in America” exhibit that just ended on Jan. 5, you can look forward to “Valentines: The Art of Romance,” which opens on Jan. 16.

This exhibition includes approximately one hundred Saint Valentine’s Day greeting cards, postcards and elaborate three-dimensional foldouts from the United States and Europe. The exhibition includes exquisite lace paper valentines, many fine examples of embossed designs, hand-made valentines, even Rebus-puzzle valentines. Ranging from the early 19th century to the 1930s, the exhibit shows the development of the valentine from the simple hand-designed missive to the lacy, almost extravagant valentines of later years.

The celebration of Saint Valentine’s Day has changed over the years according to differing social mores and customs, and this collection of valentines is a veritable survey of changing taste—offering glimpses of American and British life during the 19th and 20th century, showing how ideas of romance and courtship were expressed during a less complicated era.

You can also currently enjoy “Re: History, Recent Work of James Volkert” through Feb. 16.

RAM opened a year ago and is a state-of-the-art facility hosting nationally and internally recognized traveling exhibits. It also has education programs and special events for children and adults.