KU exhibition to feature work by art faculty

An exhibition that opens today at Kansas University’s Art and Design Gallery will feature work by KU art faculty.

The show remains on view through Friday and showcases works in painting, sculpture, drawing, video installation and printmaking.

Pieces by professor emeritus Robert Sudlow, a noted painter who taught at KU from 1946 to 1988, will be shown in the exhibition, as well as work by Roger Shimomura, distinguished professor of performance and painting, who retires this spring.

“Gossamer Wings,” by KU art professor Cima Katz, is shown above.

An opening reception will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. today at the gallery, which is on the third floor of the Art and Design Building.

For more information, call 864-4401.

Haskell to have benefit pow-wow

Haskell Indian Nations University will have a benefit pow-wow Saturday at the Coffin Sports Complex on the Haskell campus.

The pow-wow will kick off at 1 p.m. with gourd dancing. The Grand Entry, featuring a parade of all the dancers, will begin at 7 p.m., and the Apache Crown Dancers, a traditional Apache dance group, will perform at 8:30 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public. It will feature a cakewalk, giveaways, vendors selling jewelry, arts and crafts, and native food.

For more information, call 749-8447 or 749-8437.

West Side Folk presents two Lawrence concerts

West Side Folk will present two concerts this week.

Jenny Reynolds, above, and Karen Mal will team up for a 7:30 p.m. performance Tuesday at the Hawk’s Nest in the Kansas Union. Both artists hail from Austin, Texas, and often perform together.

Students get in free; public tickets are $10. They are available by calling 864-7469.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Robin and Linda Williams and Their Fine Group will play at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

The group has been blending folk, country and bluegrass for more than 20 years.

Tickets are $18 and can be purchased by calling 843-2787.

High school students to exhibit art at museum

A public reception for art students from Lawrence Alternative High School will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Mass.

Several photographs and pieces of handmade jewelry produced by the students will be on display at the museum through April 24.

Helen Krische-Dee, exhibit coordinator for Watkins Museum, said she was impressed by the students’ pride, craftsmanship, quality of work and willingness to participate in the exhibit.

Artist pinpoints nature’s ‘terrible beauty’

Painter and installation artist Jackie Bishop will discuss her work at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Room 421 of the Art and Design Building. The talk is part of the art department’s Visiting Artist Series.

The event is free and open to the public.

For 20 years, Bishop has used metaphor in her paintings and installations to communicate and symbolize the politicizing of nature, species extinction, beauty, decay, life and death. She describes this as “terrible beauty.”

She has traveled with scientists and alone through the disappearing forests in Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and the Brazilian Amazon, as well as in the swamps of Louisiana. She is represented by the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, and occasionally teaches a course titled Art and Environment at Loyola University.

For more information, call 864-4401.

KU professor sees 71 plays in eight weeks for Kennedy Center

Paul Stephen Lim flew 11,000 miles around the country the past eight weeks as part of a three-member National Selection Team from the Kennedy Center to adjudicate 71 productions of plays being presented at eight different regional festivals of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

The marathon trip took Lim to Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.; Illinois State University in Bloomington, Ill.; University of Denver; Rhode Island College in Providence, R.I.; University of Alabama in Birmingham, Ala.; California State University in San Bernardino, Calif.; University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho; and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.

Lim and his team select five productions (two of them original student scripts) that will be invited to the national festival April 12-18 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Symposium to focus on jazz, rap, literature

“Live Words of the Hip World: Free Jazz, Spoken Word and Rap,” a symposium devoted to the interaction of contemporary African-American verbal and musical expression, begins at 4:30 p.m. Friday in Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

The event is free and open to the public.

Three English literature scholars specializing in the literature of music and popular culture and of African-American and American writers will speak from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. about free jazz, spoken word, rap and “floetics,” a term that refers to recent lyrical developments in hip-hop music.

Speakers will be Howard Rambsy, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville; William J. Harris and Jeffrey Mack, both from KU.

The program is sponsored by KU’s English department, the Project on the History of Black Writing and the Interdisciplinary Jazz Group.

Educators recognized for work in arts and disabilities

Della Molloy, music therapist at the Kansas State School for the Blind, and Michael Toombs, founder and CEO of Storytellers Inc., will be recognized Wednesday for their work in arts and disabilities.

Molloy has been named 2003 Educator of the Year, and Toombs has been given the 2003 Award for Distinguished Service by Accessible Arts, Inc., and the Kansas State Board of Education.

The ceremony is at 10:30 a.m. at the Kansas State School for the Blind, 1100 State Ave., Kansas City, Kan.

Molloy, a Lawrence native, has been the music therapist at the school for eight years. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education at Kansas University and is currently working with the university’s music therapy department to better understand the relationship between musical tempo and gait.

Toombs, a painter and art activist, has served more than 14,000 young people in arts programming through Storytellers, Inc. Toomb’s career began with studies under Matthew Monks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, followed by studies at the Kansas City Art Institute and a business entrepreneurial course through Donnelly College, Kansas City, Kan.

Husband-wife duo to show photographs

Husband and wife Hobart and Shakura Jackson will exhibit their art together during March at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

“Words and Works by Hobart and Shakura Jackson” includes photos by both artists.

Shakura’s photographs include neon words and word groups. In another photo, self-chosen name tags worn by African-Americans seem to announce their public identification, to diffuse any quick stereotype such as “low class,” “trouble” or even “intimidating.”

Hobart’s photos find a perfect moment or moments of special light.

The artists work out of Valley Lane Studios near their home in central Lawrence.

Kansas writers invited to enter contest

The 15th Annual Kansas Voices statewide writing contest is accepting entries.

Postmark deadline is March 15. Entry fee is $3.

To be eligible, writers must live in Kansas. There is no limitation on subject matter, and all entries will be judged based on literary merit.

Nine hundred dollars in prize money will be awarded. Winners will be honored and invited to read their work at a special presentation in May in Winfield.

For guidelines, call (620) 221-2161 or go to www.iwinfield.net/~wahc.