Preparations begin for children’s choir

Children in grades 3 through 6 are eligible to participate in an Aug. 25 readiness check with Choristers, the preparatory choir for the Lawrence Children’s Tour Choir.

The check will determine if children are able to match pitch and are interested in this preparatory step for one of the nation’s top children’s choirs.

Rehearsals are from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays from September to December and January through March. Tuition is $190 for the season (both semesters), and scholarships are available, based on free and reduced lunch status for Lawrence schools.

For more information, call (785) 331-4662.

Oregon group sponsors free poetry contest

If you’re a poet, Celestial Arts wants to know it — and possibly reward you for your efforts.

A $1,000 grand prize is being offered to the winner in a new poetry contest sponsored by Oregon-based Celestial Arts. The contest is free and open to everyone, and more than $50,000 in cash prizes will be awarded during the coming year.

Poems must be 21 lines or less and sent (along with name and address) to: Celestial Arts, PO Box 1140, Talent, OR 97540. Deadline is Aug. 29, and online submissions can be made at www.freecontest.com.

For more information, contact Michael Thomas at thomasmike_us@yahoo.com.

Photo contest open to Lawrence residents

Lawrence photographers are invited to compete in a competition sponsored by the International Library of Photography.

More than $60,000 will be awarded in this year’s International Open Amateur Photography Contest. The contest is free and open to everyone, with a deadline of Oct. 31.

To enter, send one photograph in only one of the following categories: People, Travel, Pets, Children, Sports, Nature, Action, Humor, Portraiture or Other. Photos must be unmounted color or black-and-white, 8-by-10 inches or smaller. Entries should include the photographer’s name and address, as well as the title of the work and category.

Entries should be sent to: The International Library of Photography, Suite 101-2617, 3600 Crondall Lane, Owings Mills, MD 21117. Entries can also be submitted online at www.picture.com.

Ottawa arts council adds guitar teacher

Ottawa — Renowned acoustic guitarist Larry Lintner will join the Ottawa Community Arts Council’s “Over the Rainbow” program next month for children’s art and music as an additional guitar teacher.

Lintner has played guitar for more than 30 years, has been the Kansas State Guitar Champion three years and the Mandolin Champion five years. In 1991, Lintner placed third in the International Flat-Picking competition in Winfield.

Lintner will offer half-hour lessons between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday and Thursday evenings beginning Sept. 4. He will teach basic hand picking, rhythm and chords, as well as the flat picking style and reading tablature.

Tuition is $50 per month. To register, call (785) 242-8748.

Historic house celebrates anniversary of Civil War order

Kansas City, Mo. — The John Wornall House Museum will commemorate the 140th anniversary of the issuance of Order No. 11 on Saturday.

Gen. Thomas Jackson Ewing gave the Order on Aug. 25, 1863, at the height of the Civil War, requiring all people in Jackson, Cass, Bates and parts of Vernon County to declare their loyalty to the Union or leave the area within 15 days.

The commemoration will take place Saturday, and the museum will be open for guided tours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Admission is $3 and $4 for children and adults, respectively. Visitors also will have the chance to hear historic interpreters’ accounts of the effects of the Order.

For more information, call (816) 444-1858.

Lecture to discuss “masterwork of American design”

Kansas City, Mo. — The Linda Hall Library, 5109 Cherry St., will play host to a free public lecture Wednesday to discuss the Cranbrook campus in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The lecture, titled “Cranbrook: A Masterwork of American Design” will feature Mark Coir, director of archives of the Cranbrook Educational Community.

Cranbrook is significant because its 315-acre campus is considered one of the most beautiful educational settings in the nation. The campus has buildings designed by Eliel Saarinen, Albert Kahn and Peter Rose, and its landscape includes water features and more than 100 stone and bronze statues, most by Sweden’s Carl Milles.

For more information or to RSVP, e-mail kcdesign@ku.edu by Monday.