The ESSE Purse Museum will feature a new temporary exhibit, tailor-made for the museum by Little Rock artist Katherine Strause. Take Your Purse With You: The Reimagined Work of Katherine Strause will run from Tuesday, May 9 through Sunday, Aug. 27, and is included in general admission.
Strause’s work, which features paintings of women and their purses, was inspired by discarded and found mid-century photographs. The series touches on themes of transcendence, hope and transformation.
Strause’s work aspires to challenge viewers in how they think about the past and present as well as generations of women in their lives. Take Your Purse With You pairs perfectly with the museum’s permanent exhibit, What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags, 1900-1990, which tells the 20th-century story of the American woman through the purse and its contents.
ESSE Purse Museum & Store is located at 1510 Main Street in the SoMa neighborhood of downtown Little Rock. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m.–4 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.–3 p.m. For more info, check out the museum’s website.