Museum presents a special TinkerFest and Nadia Strid Photograph Exhibit for Black History Month
JONESBORO – Arkansas State University Museum will celebrate Black History Month with a special TinkerFest on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 5-7 p.m. A second component of this Black History Month celebration will be a display of historic Mid-South photography by the late Nadia Price Bates Strid of Memphis.
A TinkerFest is a fair where participants take apart, invent, or otherwise tinker with gadgets, toys, and other contraptions to learn more about how things work, according to the Museum staff. People of all ages are encouraged to attend, and admission is free.
Did you know that George Crum, an African-American chef, invented the potato chip? Or that Sarah E. Goode, a former slave and inventor of the folding bed (in 1885), was the first African-American woman to receive a patent?
The public is invited to celebrate Black History Month by attending the TinkerFest, which features inventions by African Americans. Participants will examine and tinker with clocks, fountain pens, light bulb filaments, and other surprising inventions that touch our everyday lives.
Arkansas State University Museum’s TinkerFest is sponsored by the Arkansas Discovery Network, which is funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The Museum also has received generous financial support from the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation to provide its 2014 membership in the network.
TinkerFest visitors also are encouraged to browse the Museum’s atrium where the works of Nadia Strid (1919-2013) will be displayed through Feb. 28. Strid was one of the first female professional photographers in Memphis. Photographs she began taking in the 1930s provide a dignified glimpse of African-American life during an important time period. She later lived several years at Heber Springs, Ark., and donated a portion of her collection to ASU Museum.
ASU Museum is located at 320 University Loop Circle in the west wing of Dean B. Ellis Library. Visit the Museum online at http://museum.astate.edu or http://facebook.com/ASUMuseum. Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
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