ArtsLink

How exciting! What an artist to have on our campus….

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Open Satellite Artist Lecture: Sergio Vega
Saturday, May 24, 4 PM
Auditorium       
FREE

Artist Sergio Vega will be presenting excerpts from El Paradíso en el Nuevo Mundo, an ambitious decade-long project on the notion of “tropicalism” and the myth of earthly paradise, that involves photographs, videos, sculpture-objects, dioramas, scale models, and installations. Vega mischievously blends theory, personal experiences, and an incisive critique of the structures of power and society in order to endlessly reconsider and explore a paradise in the field of art.

Wed May 21st
5:00 pm
Henry Art Gallery Auditorium

“Up” | dxarts video screening

DXARTS presents a special screening of video shorts created by students in the course “Experiments in Digital Video: The Architecture of Time.” These works are final projects from this intensive, year-long sequence that explores the ideas and methods from the beginnings of the moving image up to contemporary digital cinema and video art. These emerging filmmakers have honed their skills in all areas of the production process including cinematography, sound, and lighting to non-linear editing, compositing, and effects presented in a diverse array of short features.

Admission: free

Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the New South Africa
African Studies Program Event

When: Monday, May 19, 2008 - 5:00 PM
Where: Social Work 305

Testing Hope is a documentary that follows young people in Nyanga township as they prepare for their crucial “Matric” exams.

Synopsis provided by the official movie website:

Since the end of Apartheid in April 1994, the new South African government has been struggling to remedy years of inequity, particularly regarding substandard education. Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the new South Africa chronicles the lives of young people facing their future in the evolving democracy of South Africa. The film follows four students – Babalwa, Noluyanda, Mongamo and Sipho – at Oscar Mpetha High School in Nyanga township, just outside of Cape Town, as they work towards their crucial Matric exams which one student calls “the decider.”

Every grade 12 student in South Africa is required to take a series of Matric exams based on the subjects they study. These exams determine access to higher education, jobs, and future success. High results can help students gain entry to university, but most students in Nyanga, if they pass, simply receive a school-leaving certificate, the equivalent of a high school diploma.

While this is the Nyanga of a new South Africa, many vestiges of apartheid remain – poverty is entrenched, many students live in shacks, and family structures are dramatically changed by the impact of HIV-AIDS. Despite a promise of opportunity, 52 percent of people aged 16 to 25 are unemployed. Testing Hope follows the students as they prepare for the exams, which they believe will determine their future. What hangs in the balance if students pass Matric and what awaits those who do not? How do they achieve their dreams in a country where so many obstacles remain?

“The Campus Collaborative Theatre Project” (CCTP)

With …
Shanga Parker, Judith Shahn, Deb Trout, Scott Hafso…and guests

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
1:30-1:55 pm
Hutchinson Hall Room 211

We are students and faculty of the School of Drama developing a university wide theatre piece to explore a unique cross section of communities within the UW student body. We are working in the traditions of LA’s Cornerstone Theatre Company whose roots are grounded in exploring and bridging the gaps of underrepresented and disparate communities.

We hope to spark the interest of School of Drama students and encourage those interested to join our project.

In 1992, Cornerstone settled in Los Angeles, California, to begin urban residency work. The company’s community-based projects in L.A. have played with definitions of community, including collaborations with communities of faith, geographic neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities
that share culture and language, age, birthday, and transportation. (See cornerstonetheater.org )

For more information, please contact
dramaadv@u.washington.edu.

Googie say what?

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In recent months, Googie architecture has been brought to the collective consciousness of Seattleites. What is Googie architecture? Why is it significant to our architectural and cultural heritage? What does it mean in the larger context of Modernism? Why should we care?

Docomomo WEWA and its co-sponsors welcome California architecture critic Alan Hess to Seattle. He will examine how Googie architecture successfully combined Modernism and popular culture and why it is important today.

Alan Hess is the author of Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture (2004) and Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture (1985). As a practicing architect and historian, Hess documents the emerging suburban metropolises of the West. As an architecture critic, he has written a column for the San Jose Mercury News since 1986. His most recent books are Julius Shulman: Palm Springs; Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970; and Frank Lloyd Wright: Mid-Century Modern.

Hess has been active in the preservation of roadside and post War architecture. His writings and advocacy efforts have helped raise awareness and appreciation of mid-century Modern commercial architecture and have led to the preservation of many of these resources.

Tuesday May 20th
6:30pm
$10.00

Swedish Cultural Center
1920 Dexter Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 283-1090

Elton John + Tim Rice = Can you feel the love tonight? AIDA is the darling of musical theatre over the last decade and is definitely worth your interest. UW Student? Show up 30 mins before the curtain goes up and get 1/2 price ticket! Maybe this is a good “Steve Pool from Komo4 lied to us and it’s going to rain this weekend” option…. just in case.

(ps- my love for Steve!)

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An enslaved Nubian princess. A privileged daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh. The soldier they both love. And a love triangle that could alter history forever. Based on Giuseppe Verdi’s classic opera, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Tony and Grammy-winning pop-rock powerhouse turns the legendary tale of AIDA into an exhilarating and rousing musical event. Bursting with energy and teeming with vibrant song and dance, AIDA is an epic tale of loyalty, betrayal, and forbidden love you will never forget.

Village Theatre
Francis J. Gaudette Theatre,
303 Front Street North, Issaquah, WA 98027

Times:
Wednesday through Saturday evenings: 8:00 PM,
Sundays and selected Saturdays: 2:00 PM,
selected Tuesday evenings: 7:30 PM
and selected Sunday evenings: 7:00 PM

Tickets:
Section A: $35–55
Section B: $20–40

Box Office: (425) 392-2202
Toll Free: 866-688-8849
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00 AM–7:00 PM

UW Professors will be giving introductions to the films, which will really help ground the fiction in the francophone issues and polemics of the 21st century. Check out film descriptions and times at: http://staff.washington.edu/stromj/festival/

Free admission for UW students!

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The French Graduate Student Association is proud to present the 1st annual French and Francophone film festival here at the University of Washington. This film series has been structured to explore several key issues surrounding ethnicity, multiculturalism and identity in the postcolonial francophone world. The diegesis of the films selected work through issues of generational and cultural divide (Le Grand Voyage), national identity (10^th District Court), immigration and immigration policy in Europe (Hop), suburban culture and the use of language in identity constructs (L’esquive), ethnic and religious tolerance (La Petite Jerusalem) and institutionalized racism in the workplace (The Glass Ceiling).

(image from 10th District Court)

Electronic 4Culture - Call for Artists

4Culture is seeking electronic artworks for Electronic 4Culture (e4c). Walk, drive or ride by - e4c will offer a high quality, high visibility venue for the exhibition of dynamic electronic artworks by media artists and projects intrinsic to 4Culture’s work. Twenty media works or media proposals will be selected for presentation through this electronic gallery. Media artists working in all genres are encouraged to apply. e4c is located adjacent to Gallery4Culture facing Prefontaine Place South in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood.

Download the call and application information here: http://www.4culture.org/e4c/index.htm

With only a few weeks left of this great exhibits’ run at the Burke Museum on campus, it would behoove any art students looking for an excuse to escape the Art Building or Odegaard library to check out this exclusive look into Plateau art.

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The Burke’s exhibit of Plateau materials from its permanent collection, This Place Called Home, brings to life with beautiful examples the many types of materials depicted in Lee Moorhouse’s 1898–1915 photographs, including beadwork, cradle boards, cornhusk bags, baskets, blankets, and more. It also includes video interviews with tribal elders recorded by Burke staff members. Commenting on objects in the exhibit, the elders discuss the photographs and objects that include, in some cases, their own family heirlooms and ancestors.

Guest Curator Miles R. Miller, of the Yakama and Nez Perce tribes, selected the complementary objects from the Burke’s collection in collaboration with Dr. James Nason, in an effort to bring the photographed historic subjects to life through three-dimensional objects. Says Miller, “This exhibition means more to me than ‘we are still here.’ It’s about tradition, it’s about memory and how artists are taught and continue to teach visual expressions of the Columbia Plateau—this place I call home.” (information from The Burke Museum)

The exhibit was organized by the Burke Museum and such sponsors as 4Culture and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

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University of Washington campus
Seattle, WA 98195

Free for students, as always!

I am always a sucker for good glass-work and Ms. Moore seems to be an expert in expressing emotion in this artistic medium. She is currently showcasing and selling her work in this swanky Pioneer Square Gallery.

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Merrilee Moore feels no other medium gives her the freedom to explore architectural form, texture, and color better than glass. Moore accentuates her bowls and vessels with a vivid palette then fuses them to dense, ice block-like bases. Her play between delicate and powerful, whimsical and sculptural, offers a fresh perspective on glass as a medium. Moore developed her unique style through workshops at Pratt Fine Arts Center and the Pilchuck Glass School.

Moore earned her BFA at Central Washington University in 1987. In 2004, Moore began the Gesture series. The elegant, graceful forms in this series are cold worked; she creates their textures through the use of battuto, sandblasting, and etching techniques. Moore has exhibited with Foster/White since 1997. (information from fosterwhite.com)

Foster/White Gallery
220 Third Ave. S., Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98104