Columns:: UGA Guide

Ongoing
Art exhibitions.
Recess. Through Oct. 24. Broad Street Gallery, 257 W. Broad St., open weekdays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sponsored by School of Art. 542-0069.
Recess is an exhibition of the work of Didi Dunphy and Carol John.

1993-2003: A Decade of Assemblages. Through Oct. 10. Main gallery, visual arts building (open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays). Sponsored by School of Art. 542-1511.
The works featured in 1993-2003 are composed of mixed-media sculptures and found objects that Alejandro Aguilera has collected and exhibited over the past 10 years. Coupled with his large-scale paintings, this forest of sculptural columns recalls a timeless relationship between the artist and his personal and cultural history.
Aguilera, born in 1964 in Holguin, Cuba, currently lives and works in Atlanta. After graduating from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, he attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. His work was featured most recently at the Atlanta Biennial 2003, curated by Franklin Sirmans at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

Masters of Their Craft: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Through Nov. 13. Georgia Museum of Art. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday; and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 542-4662.
Masters of Their Craft: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum features 50 works of art that illuminate the vast creative spirit that is a hallmark of contemporary crafts. The diversity of artistic expression and approaches to materials testify to a renaissance in American studio crafts. Crafts emphasize materiality--clay, glass, fiber, wood, metal--and the technical means by which the properties of these materials are manipulated. Imaginative conceptions and technical mastery combine in works by masters of the medium such as Dale Chihuly, Albert Paley, Peter Voulkos, Beatrice Wood and Betty Woodman.
“These are among the very finest American studio crafts, displaying virtuoso technique and a creative approach to materials,” says Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Best of all, they appeal to every one of us through their reference to traditional functional objects.”
“The works of art shown in Masters of Their Craft can be enjoyed on several levels, from the purely visual to the tactile relationships of things we take for granted in our daily lives,” says Kenneth Trapp, curator of the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian museum. “A common thread in craft is the ritualized object--works that suggest application to a codified ritual but are in themselves no part of an accepted ritual.”
The contemporary crafts movement is a fairly recent phenomenon. Evolving from ancient workshops, medieval guild trades and the industrial revolution, studio crafts often pay homage to function at the same time that they discard utility as a concern. For example, Michelle Holzapfel’s turned wooden Bound Vase (1989) of cherry burl cannot hold anything in its interior, and the exterior is carved to look like cloth. One of the few women to have achieved success in the male-dominated field of wood turning, Holzapfel often refers to the domestic lives of women in her art. The basic components of this object, a vase and a cloth wrap, are meant to imply that in our culture beauty and ornamentation are often associated with women.
Dale Chihuly demonstrates how contemporary crafts artisans look at past techniques and make them modern. His work pays tribute to the glassmaking traditions practiced in Venice since the 14th century. His Cobalt and Gold Leaf Venetian (1993) is an intense cobalt blue glass vessel. When lighted, it glows with life. Adding to the brilliance is the gold leaf--concentrated in some areas to suggest pollen floating on water. The object is unabashedly excessive in its exuberant decorativeness.
Betty Woodman draws from the past and from other cultures. Kimono Vases: Evening (1990) are earthenware works exploring the progression of sunlight. One side is glazed with dark colors reminiscent of night, and the other has pastel hues evoking dusk. Woodman has applied forms that evoke flowing kimono sleeves. The two vases combine Italian majolica painting and Japanese costume and textile traditions.
Mary Adams’s masterpiece, Wedding Cake Basket (1986), weaves the western European ritual of the wedding cake with splint basketmaking practiced by the Iroquois peoples since the late 18th century. It is composed of four layers that rise in a conical pyramid ending in a bellshaped top crowned by arches supporting two bells. With its prominent spiral projections, the surface texture suggests the luscious cream frosting of an elaborate ceremonial cake.
Kent Raible’s work suggests a court tradition of jewelry. Floating City (1996) is a fantasy of gold, chrome and gemstones. Raible had the lost city of Atlantis in mind; the miniature city resembles a spaceship in a science-fiction film.

Frabel Studio Glass Sculpture. Through Oct. 17. Conservatory. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Sunday 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sponsored by State Botanical Garden. 542-1244.

Monday, September 15
CHA Lecture.
“Culture, Conviction and Lifelong Learning.” Mary Catherine Bateson, George Mason University. 4 p.m. 265 Park Hall. Sponsored by Center for Humanities and Arts. 542-3966.
Bateson is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor Emerita of Anthropology and English at George Mason University. She has published numerous books about culture and globalization. Particularly noteworthy are Full Circles, Overlapping Lives: Culture and Generation in Transition (2000); Peripheral Visions: Learning along the Way (1995); Composing a Life (1989); Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (with Gregory Bateson); With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson (1984); and Thinking AIDS (with Richard Goldsby, 1988). The Arabic Language Handbook is forthcoming.
She has taught at a number of universities in the United States and abroad, including the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines and Damavand College in Iran, and she held the position of dean of social sciences and humanities at the University of Northern Iran. She is presently president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies, based in New York.

International Forum.
“Iraq and Other Hot Spots: What’s New? What’s Important? What’s Next?” Discussion moderated by Gary Bertsch, Center for International Trade and Security. 4-5 p.m. 102 Moore College. Sponsored by Honors Program. 542-6908.

Tuesday, September 16
IHDD Core Seminar on Disability.
“Social Relationships and Friendships of Individuals with Disabilities.” Cindy Price, Darlene Coggins and Betsy Wynne. 10 a.m.-noon. River’s Crossing Building, 850 College Station Rd. Sponsored by Institute on Human Development and Disability. 542-1290.

Career Fair.
Full-time employment opportunities. Noon-5 p.m. Classic Center, downtown. Sponsored by Career Center. 542-8429.

Visiting Artist Lecture.
Michael Lucero, Lamar Dodd Professor. 5:30 p.m. Griffith Auditorium, Georgia Museum of Art. Sponsored by School of Art. 542-4662.
Lucero, who is currently Lamar Dodd Professor of Art at UGA, earned his M.F.A. at the University of Washington in 1978 and has since exhibited extensively throughout the United States.

Faculty Recital.
Michael Heald, violin. 8 p.m. Ramsey Hall. Sponsored by School of Music. 542-3737.

Wednesday, September 17
Nonprofit Board Member Seminar.
For board members of nonprofit organizations. Tate Student Center. Sponsored by Nonprofit Management and Community Service Program, department of management. 542-3750.

Digital Brown Bag.
John Lucas, interactive producer specializing in 3D, virtual reality programs. 12:20-1:10 p.m. Bank of America Building, 5th floor. Sponsored by New Media Institute. 227-7179.

Genetics Seminar.
“Optimal Response to Potential Reintroduction of Smallpox: Policy Meets Models.” Pejman Rohani, ecology. 4 p.m. C127 life sciences building. Sponsored by genetics department. 542-1441.

Figure Drawing Workshop.
$3. Instruction, beginner to advanced levels. Participants must provide their own supplies. 5:30 p.m. Forio Studio Classroom. Sponsored by Georgia Museum of Art. 542-4662.

Latin American Film Series.
Adios XX Century. For mature audiences. 7 p.m. Griffith Auditorium, Georgia Museum of Art. Sponsored by Parents and Families Association. 542-4662.

Volleyball.
vs. Clemson. 7 p.m. Ramsey Student Center. 542-1231.

University Theater.
Fifth of July by Lanford Wilson. $12 ($10 students). Through Sept. 27. 8 p.m. Seney-Stovall Chapel, Lucy Cobb Institute. Sponsored by drama department. Tickets: 542-2836.
Alternately funny and moving, the play deals with a group of former student activists and the changes which have been wrought in their lives and attitudes in the years since leaving college.

Thursday, September 18
University Council meeting.
3:30 p.m. 102 Student Learning Center.

Friday, September 19
Volleyball.
Outback Invitational Tournament: UGA, Furman, Rutgers, Florida A&M. Through Sept. 20. Ramsey Student Center. 542-7954.

Campus Coffee Hour.
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Memorial Hall Ballroom. Hosted this week by University Health Center; sponsored by International Student Life. 542-5867.

WSP Friday Speaker.
“Black Voices: Social and Academic Experiences of African-American Students at UGA.” Tracey Ford, Institutional Diversity. 12:20 p.m. 137 Tate Student Center. Sponsored by Women’s Studies Program. 542-2947.

CHA Visiting Artist Lecture and Performance.
Seán Curran. 4 p.m. New Dance Theatre. Sponsored by Center for Humanities and Arts. 542-3966.
Choreographer and dancer Seán Curran is on campus Sept. 12-19. His visit culminates in this lecture-performance.
Curran made his mark on the dance world as a principal dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He has choreographed new dances for Denmark’s Upper Cut Company, Sweden’s Skänes Dance Theater, Finland’s Damaru Dance Company, Ireland’s Modern Dance Theatre and Irish Trinity Dance Company, and a number of companies in the United States. He choreographed the Broadway production of James Joyce’s The Dead, which opened in January 2000, and that month he performed on Sesame Street.
Curran is a recipient of a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures and a choreographer’s fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
He has taught at the American Dance Festival, the Bates Dance Festival and the Harvard Summer Dance Center. In 1997 he established the Seán Curran Company, with which he now performs.

Opening Reception.
For fall exhibitions. $10 (free members). 7 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 542-4662.

Franklin College Chamber Music Concert.
Brentano Quartet. 8 p.m. Hodgson Hall. Sponsored by Performing Arts Center. 542-4400.
The Franklin College Chamber Music Series opens with a performance by the Brentano String Quartet on Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Hall. The quartet will perform Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6; Berg’s Lyric Suite; and Schubert’s Quartet in D minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden.
Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano Quartet has been singled out for its technical brilliance, musical insight and stylistic elegance. The ensemble won three major awards soon after its founding: the first Cleveland Quartet Award, the 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the 10th Martin E. Segal Award. After its first appearance in Great Britain at Wigmore Hall in 1997, the quartet received the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for the most outstanding chamber music debut for that year.
In 1995 the ensemble was chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to participate in the inaugural season of Chamber Music Society Two, a program designed for emerging artists. The quartet became the inaugural quartet-in-residence at Princeton University in 1999. The quartet also performs in residence at New York University and at London’s Wigmore Hall.
The group is named after Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars believe to have been Beethoven’s mysterious “immortal beloved,” to whom he wrote his famous love confession. The members of the quartet are violinist Mark Steinberg, violinist Serena Canin, violist Misha Amory and cellist Nina Maria Lee.

Saturday, September 20
Art Exhibitions.
Conversion to Modernism: The Early Works of Man Ray. Through Nov. 30. Georgia Museum of Art. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday; and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 542-4662.
Man Ray (1890-1976), a painter, writer, sculptor, photographer and filmmaker, is best known for his association with French surrealism in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. Drawn from an array of international private collections and museums, Conversion to Modernism includes more than 80 drawings, watercolors, oil paintings and ephemera related to Ray’s early years, about 1907 to 1917. The exhibition is significant for an understanding both of Ray’s artistic development and of the modernist era in the United States.
The first section of works offers viewers an indication of the development of Philadelphia-born Ray from his high school years in Brooklyn to his early artistic studies in New York City, where he saw exhibitions at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery and was influenced by the art of Paul Cézanne.
The exhibition continues with a large section of fauvist and cubist-style works created by Ray during the years 1913 to 1915, when he lived in a small artists’ colony in New Jersey. This era in Ray’s development marks a shift from naturalistic to imaginary landscape painting. The exhibition concludes with a sampling of Ray’s work from 1916 and 1917, when the impact of Duchamp and Dada were beginning to show.

State of the Art: A Selection of American Art Acquisitions, 2000-2003. Through Nov. 30. Georgia Museum of Art. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday; and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 542-4662.
The Georgia Museum of Art is constantly growing--thanks to the generosity of donors and the vigilance of museum staff members. State of the Art offers a sampling of the wide range of American objects the museum has acquired since 2000. Recently acquired decorative art pieces are included: works by John Taylor Adams, Francis Hyman Criss, Jasper Francis Cropsey, John Stockton de Martelly, Andrée Ruellan, Lucy May Stanton and Will Henry Stevens. Also included are three portraits and three landscape paintings by Pierre Daura, a small selection of the many pieces by Daura recently given by Martha Daura, the artist’s daughter. A renowned modernist artist, Pierre Daura is an important figure in the history of 20th-century European and American art and one of the founders of the group Cercle et Carre.

Cross Country.
UGA Bulldog Stampede. Athens. 542-1231.

Insect-ival.
$2 ($8 maximum per family; children under 2 free). 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Cosponsored by State Botanical Garden, UGA entomology department, Lund Student Club, and Georgia Museum of Natural History. State Botanical Garden. 542-1244.
Botanical Garden staff and volunteers present a creepy, crawly, and fun family festival. This year’s theme is insect transformers. Visitors will see how insects transform from caterpillars or small worm-like creatures into amazingly diverse and fascinating adults. Discovery stations, roach and beetle races, puppet shows, a butterfly ramble, and (of course) lots of live insects, will be points of interest. Gourmet chef Lou Kudon returns to awe attendees with his latest insect cuisine at Café Insecta. And, for Family Day at the Georgia Museum of Art: “Insects by Design.”

Family Day.
“Insects by Design.” 10 a.m.-noon. Georgia Museum of Art. 542-0448.

Sunday, September 21
Concert.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. $37-$42 (half-price students). 3 p.m. Hodgson Hall. Sponsored by Performing Arts Center (Music Series I). 542-4400.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano joins world-acclaimed violinist Gil Shaham for the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Mahler’s powerful fifth symphony at 3 p.m. in Hodgson Hall.
Spano is recognized internationally as one of America’s outstanding conductors, acclaimed for his vital and musically distinguished performances as well as for the breadth of repertoire he explores and his imaginative programming. He has conducted nearly every major North American orchestra, as well as orchestras and opera companies throughout Europe and Asia. His recording with the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus of the Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony swept the Grammy Awards in February this year, winning awards in all three categories for which it was eligible. To date the ASO has won 21 Grammys, along with an Audio Excellence Award and Gramophone and Ovation magazine awards.
Violinist Gil Shaham appears regularly in concert performances with celebrated orchestras around the world. He won a Grammy in 1999 for his recital album, American Scenes, with André Previn at the piano. Among Shaham’s other recent recordings is a Bartók disc (the Violin Concerto No. 2 and the two Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra) with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony. Shaham plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius.
A pre-concert lecture will be given by Jean Martin-Williams, professor of music at UGA. The lecture begins at 2:15 p.m. and is free.

Monday, September 22
CHA Visiting Lecturer.
“We the People.” Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities. 4 p.m. Chapel. Sponsored by Center for Humanities and Arts. 542-3966.

Comedy.
Lav Luv and Benji Brown. $5 ($3 students). Tickets available at Tate Student Center cashier’s window (542-8074, open 9 a.m.-4 p.m.). 7:30 p.m. Volleyball arena, Ramsey Student Center. Sponsored by University Union. 542-6396.