From left: Crazy Quilt variation, Log Cabin variation, and Double Wedding Ring.

Sheldon to Exhibit Quilts from Cargo Collection

African American Quilt Artistry Showcased

By Kelly Bartling, Public Relations

Many African-American quilts are like jazz music: unique, colorful, improvisational, bold and asymmetrical - and embodying a unique history.

So says Robert Cargo, collector of the 156-piece African-American quilt collection now at UNL's International Quilt Study Center. Thirty quilts from the Cargo Collection will be on exhibition at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at UNL Jan. 12-April 1, 2001, and showcased with special programming during Black History Month.

Many of the quilts represent an aesthetic brought to the U.S. by slaves and passed through generations - a subconscious style connecting Americans to their African roots.

African-American quilts intrigue Cargo because of their history and rarity.

"There is so much that is not known about quilt research and a lot of it goes back to because outside of black families, the quilters did not want to show them," Cargo said. "They did not think they were special. Or, more often, they were worn out. They were used and discarded because they were so needed."

Sharing his collection so others can see the artistry and history preserved in numerous African-American men and women's handiwork was a source of pride for Robert and Helen Cargo. Robert collected each quilt himself from Alabama, where he retired as a professor from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. He now operates a folk art gallery, and is still collecting quilts with a passion.

Cargo said the collection, now at UNL's International Quilt Study Center, contains significant "clusters" or "groupings," a few rare antique African-American pieces, and many from 1930-60 by Lucille Young. Most are done by contemporary or modern textile artists, including artist Yvonne Wells, winner of the 1998 Alabama Arts and Visual Craftsmen Award. Cargo's documented collection is widely regarded as one of the most important quilt collections in the United States, and valued at more than $500,000.

Programming during the exhibition will include lectures by Cargo and Wells, "February Sunday" celebrations during Black History Month, Nebraska Art Association lectures and tours following the Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation Jan. 15.

Opening reception is 5-7 p.m. Jan. 12, featuring jazz percussionist Luigi Waites. A convocation and tour with visitors from Grambling University is Jan. 15 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, 9 a.m.-noon. Lectures are: quilter and textile professor Michael James Jan. 23; Wells and Cargo Feb. 23; and quilt historian Maude Wahlman March 3.

During February, mini-tours and receptions will be held Sundays, with musical performances by dancers "2-G," "Images," "One Voice" and jazz trumpeter and professor Darryl White. A special Saturday morning family story hour with Yvonne Wells is Feb. 24.

The International Quilt Study Center was established in 1997 with the donation of nearly 950 quilts from the Ardis and Robert James Quilt Collection. It is located at the Home Ec building on UNL's East Campus and can also be visited at http://www.ianr.unl.edu/quiltst udy.

Peter Collins Piano Concert Jan. 12 at Kimball Hall

The School of Music presents present guest pianist Peter Collins in concert at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12 in Kimball Hall. Admission is free.

Collins is associate professor of piano, and coordinator of the keyboard area at Southwest Missouri State University. He received his bachelor and master's of music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore where he won numerous prizes for his performing excellence.

He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Michigan where he received the Regents' Fellowship and the Amy Young Evers Fortepiano Scholarship. He has served on the faculties of the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Ozark Festival for the Performing Arts, and the Missouri Fine Arts Academy.

Collins has won awards in several national and international piano competitions, including first prize in the 1984 Washington International Piano Competition and second place in the 1984 American Chopin Competition. In the 1985 University of Maryland International Competition, he was awarded the Maurice Hinson Prize for his performance of the commissioned work by John Cage. In 1987 he was a laureate of the Beethoven Foundation of America.

Collins has toured in Scandinavia with the Missouri Chamber Players of SMSU in performances of 20th-century American chamber music. Last April, he performed a solo recital at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and appeared as concerto soloist with the orchestra of Jelenia Gora, Poland, as part of a cultural exchange program between SMSU and the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.

His research and interpretation of 19th-century piano music of his native city of New Orleans has led to appearances in concert at the national convention of the American Musicological Society and on the award-winning National Public Radio series Cre'ole Cameos. He served as musical editor for the recently published book Female Suffrage Songs by Frances Wolff. His extensive experience as a collaborative pianist has also resulted in compact disc recordings on the Albany, and Centaur, and Hester-Park labels.

School of Music Performances Highlight January

The UNL School of Music has scheduled a number of performances for January.

Guest artist Peter Collins, piano, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12 in Kimball Hall. Collins will perform works by Haydn, Schumann, Fauré, Ravel and Liebermann.

The first University of Nebraska Piano Competition will take place at 1 p.m. Jan. 13 in Kimball Hall.

The five finalists, all students currently in grades 10, 11 and 12 or home schooled equivalent, will compete for a top prize of $1,000. Second and third place winners will receive $500 and $250, respectively. All finalists are eligible for a performance on Public Radio International's From the Top.

The Winter Winds and Percussion Festival Finale Concert will be at 3 p.m. Jan. 21 in Kimball Hall. Admission is free. The concert features 71 of the region's finest wind and percussion performers from Midwest high schools and the NU Wind Ensemble under the direction of Craig Cornish.

On Jan. 22, the Capitol City Czech Choraliers will perform at 7 p.m. in the Pewter Room of the Nebraska Union.

Faculty artists Clark Potter, viola, and Mark Clinton, piano, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23 in Kimball Hall. Works by Rubinstein, Scharwenka, Hovhaness and a new piece by Robert Kritz will be performed.

On Jan 30, the Offutt Air Force Brass Quintet Masterclass will perform at 2 p.m. in 119 Westbrook Music Building.

The University Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 in Kimball Hall. General admission tickets are $5 adults, $3 students, available at the door one hour before the performance.

Due to the nature of live performances, date, times and locations may change. For more information, contact the NU School of Music Promotions Office at 472.6865, jwhiteman1@unl.edu for confirmation.

Abandoned School­Kimball County, Nebraska, 1998, George Tuck, silver gelatin print.

Olson Seminar Jan. 24 Features Tuck's Flat Places

George Tuck, professor of journalism, will present "Flat Places: A look at landscapes and interesting people from the Great Plains" beginning at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 24 as part of a Paul A. Olson Seminar in Great Plains Studies. The seminar, preceded by refreshments at 3 p.m., will occur in the Christlieb Gallery in the Hewit Place, the new home of the Great Plains Art Collection, 1155 Q St. Tuck photographed the Great Plains during a faculty development leave in 1998, traveling more than 10,000 miles and exposing more than 160 rolls of film. He'll look at notable characteristics of the plains: railways, cattle rances, corn and wheat famrs, massive highway systems, the natural prairie habitat, and the people he met during his journey.

Four-time Tony Award­winning musical Ragtime (right) and the Trinity Irish Dance Co. (below) arrive this month at the Lied Center.

Lied's Season Resumes Jan. 19 with Irish Dance

The Lied Center for Performing Arts begins the second half of its 2000/2001 season with the Trinity Irish Dance Co. Jan. 19. With 24 shows varying from traditional dance to classical music, there is something for everyone in the several months.

Highlights include Russian National Orchestra, AEROS and Max Morath, as well as Broadway favorites Ragtime, Peter Pan, Godspell and Footloose.

Curtain time is now 7:30 p.m. for most performances with a 7 p.m. curtain time for Family Favorites and Sunday evening performances.

Jan. 19, Trinity Irish Dance Company

Jan. 23-28, Ragtime

Feb. 3, The Chieftains

Feb. 5, Montana Repertory Theatre - The Diary of Anne Frank

Feb. 9, Tomás Kubinek

Feb 10, Russian National Orchestra - Vladimir Spivakov, music director

Feb. 13, VIDA

Feb. 15, Robert & Rebecca Bluestone - Woven Harmony

Feb. 16-17, St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet - Cinderella

Feb. 21, KODO

Feb. 25, AEROS

March 7, Richard Stoltzman with the UNL Jazz Ensemble

March 8, Richard Stoltzman with the UNL Wind Ensemble and Orchestra

March 9-11, Peter Pan

March 21, Max Morath

March 23, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with Sérgio and Odair Assad

March 24, Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Jazz Band with Norman Hedman's Tropique

March 31, Royal Ballet of Flanders - The Three Musketeers

April 6-8, Godspell

April 19, Troika Ranch

April 20, Marvin Hamlisch

April 24-25, Nebraska Artists Showcase

April 27-29, It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues

May 8-12, Footloose

Nebraska Rep Theatre Announces Season Auditions

Local auditions for the Nebraska Repertory Theatre's 2001 season will occur Jan. 11, 12 and 13 in Howell Theatre, Temple Building. Equity and non-Equity actors are encouraged to audition.

Actors should be aware that rehearsals for the two summer productions are held during daytime hours. Those who wish to audition should call for an appointment at 472-2072 from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m. Actors should prepare two contrasting monologues, not to exceed four minutes combined. Updated information will be posted to the Nebraska Repertory Theatre web site at http://www .lincolnne.com/nonprofit/repertory/page6.html.

The Nebraska Repertory Theatre celebrates its 34th season with four plays. The Last Train to Nibroc, an old-fashioned romance by Arlene Hutton begins the season in March. Produced in the Studio Theatre on the third floor of the Temple Building, this play of two young people in 1940s Kentucky explores relationships, hopes and dreams. In April, there is fun for the entire family when the popular You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown celebrates Charlie Brown, Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang through song and story on the Howell Theatre stage.

Continuing with the return to rotating repertory established during the 2000 season, the Rep presents Yasmina Reza's Art in the Carson Theater in the Lied Center for Performing Arts, and Jake's Women by Neil Simon on the Howell Theatre stage on alternate nights through July and the first two weeks of August.

Art, winner of the Tony Award for the best new play of the 1997-1998 Broadway season, revolves around the friendships of three men, Serge, Marc, and Yvan. The solidarity of their relationship comes into question when Serge purchases an all-white painting.

Prolific playwright Simon focuses his attention on a middle-aged man whose connections with the women in his life play out in both reality and his very active imagination in Jake's Women. A writer, Jake both conjures up and confronts the women in his life, a deceased wife and his now-grown daughter at age 12, his sister, his current estranged wife, his grown-up daughter, his psychiatrist, and a possible new mate.

Roles available are Marc, Serge, Yvan in Art. All are adult males. In Jake's Women, roles available include Jake- a man in his 50s, Maggie-late 30s, Karen-about 40, Molly -12 years old, Molly-21 years old, Edith-late 40s, Julie-about 21, and Sheila-early 20s. In The Last Train to Nibroc, roles available are May (a young woman of 21 or 22) and Raleigh (a young man of 21 or 22). All roles are available in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Equity auditions will also be held in Chicago, Ill., on Feb. 16, and in New York City on March 3.

For more information, call the administrative office, 472-2072.

Dancer in the Dark Up Next at Ross Theater

The dark is a place of both fear and pleasure for Czech immigrant Selma Jazkova (Björk) in Lars von Trier's astonishing and triumphant musical melodrama Dancer in the Dark. The film, which won the Grand and Best Actress prizes at this year's Cannes Film Festival is screening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Set in 1960s fictional rural America, the film observes Selma, a factory worker and single mother, secretly going blind from a hereditary eye disease, who is frantically saving money for an operation that might spare her 12-year-old son from the same fate. Selma often loses herself in the classic Hollywood musicals that sustain her. Sitting in a dimmed theater with her friend and fellow factory worker, Kathy (Catherine Deneuve), she's transported into the light. Even at work, the methodical clunks and hisses of the factory machinery suggest all singing, all dancing numbers in her head. Selma's life is one of steadily escalating tragedy but, in the dark, she's free to dance in a better, sunnier tomorrow.

Dancer in the Dark screens Jan. 11 through 14. Screenings are at 6:30 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3:30, 6:30, and 9 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 4, 6:30, and 9 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $6.50 for adults and $4.50 for students, senior citizens, children and Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater

Performance Today Tribute to King Jan. 15

The Nebraska Public Radio Network will broadcast A King Celebration 2001, a special tribute from the National Public Radio series Performance Today, on the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 15.

Performance Today is a daily two-hour series offering in-depth features, interviews and commentary by nationally known music experts. This year's concert honoring King and his message of hope and freedom will blend classical and jazz sensibilities. Hosted by Fred Child, the performance features mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves singing Brahms' "Alto Rhapsody," and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, led by guest conductor William Eddins, performing Duke Ellington's "Harlem."