Arts notes

‘150 Years of Lingerie’ strewn about museum

A new exhibition at the Watkins Community Museum of History takes an intimate look at what men and women have been wearing under their clothes for more than a century.

“150 Years of Lingerie” opens Saturday at the museum, 1047 Mass. It’s the museum’s second display in the Sesquicentennial Series and will remain on view through April 24.

Set in a boudoir tableau, men and women’s undergarments and sleepwear worn throughout the past 150 years will be featured, some on mannequins, others draped on the furnishings. Garments will include union suits (also known as long johns), men’s underwear, women’s petticoats, pantaloons, brassieres, camisoles, chemises and the infamous corset.

Arts Commission calls for grant applicants

The Lawrence Arts Commission is seeking applications for the 2004 Community Arts Grants in visual, literary and performing arts.

Grant applications will be evaluated on the following qualities: clarity of proposal, financial need and accurate presentation of budget, community benefits of the project and value as an art project. A letter of support for the project should be included with the application if the project requires the cooperation or approval of another entity.

The commission will determine grant amounts, which will vary but be limited to $1,000. The awards are intended as “start-up money” and not to fund ongoing projects.

Applications are available at the city manager’s office in City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., and online at www.lawrenceks.org. Application deadline is 4:30 p.m. March 8.

Exhibit by KU alum explores culture clash

“Blind Looking for the Light No. 2: The Investigation of Cultural Identity,” an exhibition by

metalsmith Taweesak

Molsawat, opens Wednesday

at the Lawrence Arts Center gallery, 940 N.H., and will remain on view through March 16.

The artist will give a talk and answer questions at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in the gallery.

Molsawat received a master’s degree in metalsmithing from Texas Woman’s University in 1995 and an MFA in metalsmithing from Kansas University in 2000.

He was born and raised in Thailand, and his work explores differences between his native culture and the Western world.

Storyteller to recount medieval epic

Lawrence storyteller Priscilla Howe will perform “Tristan and Iseult,” a medieval story of good luck, bad choices, giants, dragons, fools and romance, at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Lawrence Visitor Center, 402 N. Second St.

The performance is intended for adults and children over 9.

Howe has been a full-time storyteller since 1993, performing at storytelling festivals, schools, coffeehouses and other venues across the country. For more information, call 832-1294.

Arizona clarinetist slated as visiting artist

Clarinetist Robert Spring will perform Wednesday as part of the Visiting Artist Series presented by Kansas University’s School of Fine Arts.

The concert, set for 7:30 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall, is free and open to the public.

Spring is a clarinet professor at Arizona State University. He has performed as a recitalist or soloist with symphony orchestras and wind bands around the world and has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

J.B. Smith, an associate professor of music and coordinator of percussion studies at ASU, will accompany Spring. The duo’s program will include works by Robert Schietroma; Edward Miller; Chester Mais; Glenn Hackbarth; Eric Mandat and Smith’s own composition, “In Light of Three.”

Baroque ensemble plans concerts

The Spencer Consort will give two performances of “Chamber Music of the High Baroque” in February in Topeka and Lawrence.

The programs will be 4 p.m. today at First Congregational Church, 1701 S.W. Collins Ave., Topeka, and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in the Spencer Museum of Art’s Central Court.

The Spencer Consort performs on 17th- and 18th-century instruments, including wooden flutes, early oboe, recorders, cello and harpsichord.

The program will include music by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745); French composers Charles-Hubert Gervais (1671-1744) and Michel Pignolet Monteclair (1667-1737); and German composers Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1764), Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758) and J. S. Bach (1685-1750) — all of whom lived in the second half of the Baroque period.

Musicians involved in the concert include Joy Laird, and John Boulton, Baroque flute; Susan Cannan, Baroque oboe; mezzo-soprano Katrina Mitchell; Elizabeth Egbert Berghout, organ; and Paul Laird, Baroque cellist.

Horn Ensemble to play music of masters

The KU Horn Ensemble will celebrate “Music by the Great Masters” during a concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Swarthout Recital Hall event is free and open to the public.

The program will include selections by Bach and the legendary Ring Operas of Richard Wagner. The ensemble also will perform a horn rendition of the famous “Pizzicato Ostinato” from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

For more information, call 864-3436.

Spencer exhibit examines cultural past

“Conflicting Memories,” a collaborative effort of the Spencer Museum of Art and the Salina Art Center, opened Saturday at the Spencer and runs through April 4.

The exhibit examines how works of art participate in recording our cultural past — a process that often involves conflicts between the histories established by those in power and the alternative histories of those subjected to that power.

It includes work from the past five centuries but is primarily dedicated to contemporary art and the recent notion of cultural memory.

Throughout the exhibition, William Kentridge’s hand-drawn animated film, “Felix in Exile,” will be projected in the gallery. At 7 p.m. March 4, artist Willie Cole, whose work is included in the exhibition, will lecture in the Spencer Auditorium; and at 5 p.m. March 11, KU faculty and contributing artists Tanya Hartman and Michael Krueger will lead a guided visit to the exhibition.

Lawrence student wins fiction contest

Lawrence native Jeffrey Cravens won $500 in the Fall Hopwood Fiction Contest, the University of Michigan announced last week.

The Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing are the nation’s oldest contest for student writers. The awards are funded by a bequest from Avery Hopwood, a 1905 University of Michigan graduate and successful Broadway playwright, and Jule Hopwood, his mother. Past winners include Arthur Miller, John Ciardi and Marge Piercy.

Cravens is an undergraduate student majoring in English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Retired med professor to sign books

Dr. Loren Humphrey, former professor and chairman of surgery at Kansas University Medical Center, will sign copies of her latest books from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. today at Hastings, 1900 W. 23rd St.

“Extreme Cancers,” which centers on two women battling cancers that come back again and again, and “Embryo Factory: The Stem Cell Wars,” which uses fictional characters to wrestle with controversial stem-cell research issues, both will be available to purchase.

Lawrence-based mag honored for design

Golf Course Management, the monthly magazine of the Lawrence-based Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, has received two design awards from Folio: magazine.

It received Folio’s highest design award, a Gold “Ozzie” for best redesign in the association/nonprofit category. The magazine also received an honorable mention in the best use of color photography in a feature category for Roger Billings’ design of the article “Shadowland” in the November 2002 issue.

The magazine’s redesign debuted in September 2002 as a collaborative effort of the entire staff.

KU scholars part of Washburn book colloquium

Topeka — The book as an art form and artifact is the subject of a free two-day seminar Feb. 26-27 at Washburn University.

Visiting artists Gary Frost and Emily Martin, faculty members at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, will present workshops and lectures.

Panel discussion participants are Whitney Baker, conservator, Kansas University; Rick Clement, special collections, Spencer Research Library, KU; Steve Goddard, curator of prints, Spencer Museum of Art, KU; Maureen Godman, assistant professor, English, Washburn University; Marguerite Perret, Catron Visiting Professor of Art, WU; Haskell Springer, professor, English, KU; and Mary Dorsey Wanless, lecturer, art, Washburn.

All programs are free, but reservations are required for hands-on workshops. To make reservations, call (785) 231-1010, ext. 1639.

Groups needed for band battle

Topeka — The Washburn University Relay for Life organization is looking for bands to compete in the Battle of the Bands competition scheduled for 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Feb. 19 at Washburn University’s Whiting Field House.

The event raises money for Relay for Life. The top three bands will be invited to play at the Relay for Life community event later this spring.

Entry fee for bands is $15.

If interested in participating, call Stacie Salverson at (785) 270-7480.