KU sculptors’ work featured in new show

A well-known sign above the doorway to Kansas University sculpture professor Richard Gillespie’s classroom provided the name for an all-female sculpture show called “All Roads Lead to Sculpture.”

The show, on view through April 25 at ad astra galleria, 205 W. Eighth St., features new work by four of Gillespie’s former students: Rachel Schmidt, Kristy Summers, Marie Bower and Katie Reese. The exhibition showcases a variety of media — cast iron, fiber, carved wood, painting and mixed media — and promises a “four-way dialogue” among the artists.

Kansas City-based music ensemble Prometheus Io will perform during the opening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.

Herpetology board gains new scientist

Walter E. Meshaka Jr. was recently elected to the board of directors of the Center for North American Herpetology in Lawrence.

Meshaka is senior curator of the zoology and botany section and state herpetologist at the Pennsylvania State Museum of Natural History in Harrisburg, Pa.

Meshaka will become the seventh member of the board, which operates the most frequently accessed academic herpetological Web site. The center is the largest academic herpetological foundation in the world.

KU receives grants for health care research

Kansas University and the KU Endowment Association have received two grants totaling $195,538 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The first grant, $100,000 to the KU Center for Research, will help researchers study local funding for health services in rural counties.

The other grant is $95,538 to the KU Endowment Association. It will help develop online methods for patients and doctors to interact.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., works to improve health care in the United States.