Floodplain 2 by Dana Fritz, UNL professor of art and art history. Photo courtesy of Dana Fritz.

Fritz Shows Work at UNO Gallery

Dana Fritz, assistant professor of art and art history, is exhibiting Floodplain: Secondary Crest, a collaborative installation with Larry Gawel, at the UNO Art Gallery in the Weber Fine Arts Building, 6001 Dodge St. The opening reception is from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Aug. 31.

The installation Floodplain: Secondary Crest explores issues of local interest: natural disasters, surplus grain and the changing demography of the Great Plains region. An assemblage of fabricated and found objects, video projections, recorded sound and corn create the scene of a farm where abundance can be read as misfortune.

Images of surplus grain and natural disasters merge together in the rotating video projection of corn pouring like water into a bucket. This scene foreshadows what viewers will see as they look out through the louvers of the empty structure resembling a corn crib. They see a fence row, clothesline, farm equipment and shed standing in corn - a farmstead literally flooded with grain.

The clothesline and audio track function as a timeline tracing two waves of immigration into the farming communities of the Great Plains. German music and whispers along with clothing and textiles used on farms of German immigrants between 1900 and 1970 represent one group. Mexican music, Spanish whispers, clothing and textile items brought to this area from Mexico and Central America in the last 20 years represent the other.

Although the German and Spanish languages sound quite different to the ear, the words are basically the same: "speak in German/Spanish so the children won't understand." This quotation refers to the loss of native language as immigrants assimilate though generations in this country.

For more images, see http://www.u nl.edu/fritz/images/floodplain/index.html.

To see the exhibit Floodplain: Secondary Crest is featured at UNO Art Gallery from Aug. 31 to Sept. 21. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.v

WOMAN, Willem de Kooning, is part of the Sheldon's current exhibition, American Paintings from the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery: An Institutional History in Pictures.

Sheldon Lectures Focus on Gallery, Acquisitions

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery is offering a series of lectures on the history of building its collection of American paintings at UNL.

The exhibition, American Paintings from the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery: An Institutional History in Pictures, celebrates the efforts of community supporters, university administrators, professional staff, and patrons and collectors who sought to bring the experience and study of American art to this community.

The lectures provide insight into the mindset of the collectors and directors and of the events and social climate at the time acquisitions were made. All lectures will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.

The schedule of topics:

• Sept. 11, Circles of Reason and Revolution: Perspectives on 20th Century American Painting, Will South, Luce visiting scholar, curator of collections, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
• Sept. 25, Building a Collection, Norman Geske, director emeritus, Sheldon Art Gallery.
• Oct. 2, The Town-Gown and the University Climate, Robert Knoll, professor emeritus, English, UNL.
• Oct. 9, The View for the Future, Janice Driesbach, director, Sheldon Gallery.

Curator Dan Siedell will also present a gallery talk, The Curatorial Role, at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 19 in the exhibition as part of Sheldon's Wednesday Walk series.

Lecture, Exhibit Focus on Asian Quilts

Penny McMorris will present a lecture, Crazy Quilts: The Japanese Connection, at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 29 in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. McMorris' lecture will explore the influence of Japanese art and design on late 19th-century crazy quilts. She is co-founder of the Electric Quilt Company and producer/host of the PBS special The Great American Quilt.

The lecture occurs is in conjunction with the International Quilt Study Center exhibition Reflections of the Exotic East in American Quilts, which runs Sept. 16-Dec. 16 at the Lentz Center for Asian Culture in Hewit Place, 1155 Q St.

The exhibition will present a historical overview of the profound influence of Asian design on American quiltmaking by examining the use of Eastern motifs and materials in quilts made between 1800 and 1950. The exhibition will include examples of chintz quilts, crazy quilts, hexagon mosaic quilts, and 20th-century kit quilts, all of which will help explain the connection between Asian art and design and American quilts. A catalog with an introductory essay, photographs and quilt descriptions will be available.

An opening reception with refreshments will occur from 2 to 4 p.m. Sept. 16 and will feature a gallery talk at 2:30 p.m. by the exhibition's curator, Marin Hanson. Hanson will deliver a gallery talk at noon Oct. 10.

Reflections of the Exotic East in American Quilts is sponsored by the International Quilt Study Center and the Lentz Center for Asian Culture. Public Programming is supported by the Nebraska Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, and the Asian Art and Culture Guild.

For more information, call 472-6549, or visit http://quiltstudy.unl.edu/.

Mina Badie and Denis O'Hare are two of the stars of The Anniversary Party, coming to the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Party on The Screen at Ross

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming co-direct The Anniversary Party, a biting and closely observed film about men and women struggling to make sense of their lives and relationships. The film opens at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Aug. 30.

Written specifically for the ensemble cast, the film centers on the precarious relationship of Joe and Sally Therrian. Sally (Leigh) is an actress; Joe (Cumming) is a novelist whose career takes off with the movie version of this novel about their marriage that is about to go into production.

Taking place over the course of one night, The Anniversary Party is a sero-comic, sometimes scathing inspection of a group of friends. Joe and Sally have a party to celebrate several important junctures in their marriage: their sixth anniversary, their decision to start a family, and their reconciliation after a yearlong separation. They have invited their closest friends, their past and current temptations, and (to avoid a lawsuit) their contentious neighbors. An unexpected gift sends the party out of control and unleashes an explosion of painful confessions. The celebration becomes a scorching dissection of a marriage on the brink.

Information The Anniversary Party is showing Aug. 30 through Sept. 2, and Sept. 6 through 9. Screenings are at 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; 1, 3:15, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Saturdays; and 2:30, 4:45, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students, senior citizens, children, and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Hillestad Gallery Becomes Ephemeral Forest

Ephemeral Forest, an installation of iridescent three-dimensional weavings and evocative sound by Wendy Weiss and Jay Kreimer, opens Sept. 9 at the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, 2nd floor of the Home Economics Building on East Campus.

Ephemeral Forest opens with a performance of invented musical instruments and a slide lecture at 2 p.m. Sept. 9 in room 11 of the Home Economics Building. Kreimer and Jerry Johnston will perform on an array of sound making devices ranging from altered speak-and-spell toys to a PVC sewer pipe bass. Weiss will present a slide talk on her collaborative and solo studio work. A reception in the gallery follows. The show runs until Sept. 26. All events are free.

Ephemeral Forest is an ongoing collaboration between Weiss and Kreimer, both of Lincoln. The artists describe the installation as "a place to wander through and absorb colors, forms, sounds and shapes. We arrived at this space through an additive process, constructing one element after another."

Weiss creates weavings that are shaped on the loom as one continuous fabric, which branch out into space when removed from the loom and hung. She weaves them with a combination of dyed nylon fishing line, wire, linen, cotton and silk thread. Weiss is an associate professor of Textiles, Clothing and Design and director of the gallery.

Kreimer threads sound through the Ephemeral Forest, embedding an audible score in the space. The electronic devices that control the sound score are housed in a transformed shipping crate. Moving through the installation, the viewer triggers the shifting sounds. Kreimer is a free-lance musician and on the faculty of Doane College in Lincoln.

A related piece shows concurrently as part of the Exploring Digital Fashion and Textile Design exhibition at the Aronson Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York City, next month.

Band Numbers Top 350

The Cornhusker Marching Band will have 352 members this year.

The band made its first official appearance Aug. 25 at the NU vs. Texas Christian University football game.

In addition to performing at all Cornhusker home football games, the marching band also will perform in Lincoln's Star City Parade on Dec. 8 and perform in concert at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8.

This year's band includes members from 20 states and 73 Nebraska communities. By class, there are four graduate students, 59 seniors, 73 juniors, 114 sophomores and 102 freshmen.

"The Pride of All Nebraska" is led by fourth-year director Craig Cornish, assistant professor and associate director of bands in the UNL School of Music. Carolyn Barber is director of bands. Anthony Falcone is assistant director of bands and instructor of percussion in the School of Music. Lori Falcone, Eric Majors and Mitchell Wininger are graduate teaching assistants; Molly Hardin is the flag line instructor; Rose Johnson is the administrative assistant; Craig Falls is the instrument technician; Carol Swanson is the band secretary; and Mike Veak is the announcer.

Allison Swope of Raytown, Mo., is head drum major. Jon Buller of Blair, Stephen Mohring of Sioux City, Iowa, and Jeremy Penn of Sioux Falls, S.D., are assistant drum majors. The twirlers are Jessie Adcox of Lincoln and Bob, Tami and Tina Foehlinger of Ralston.

The Cornhusker Marching Band is one of the nation's oldest marching bands. It was founded in 1879 as an ROTC unit and began playing at football games in 1890, the year the sport was established at NU. In 1996, the band received the John Philip Sousa Foundation's Sutler Trophy, which is awarded every year to the nation's top collegiate marching band.

Statewide Examines Baseball in Nebraska

What's a Saltdog and what does it have to do with the national pastime? Find out when Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly magazine series, takes viewers into the dugout of Lincoln's new minor league baseball park in a special report airing at 8 p.m. Aug. 31.

This episode of Statewide, which includes up-to-the-minute news reports from across the state and other features of interest, repeats at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1 and at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 2. It will also repeat on NETV2 at 3 p.m. Sept. 2.

Statewide correspondent Perry Stoner takes viewers to Lincoln's new Haymarket Park stadium on the opening day of the season for the Saltdogs, Lincoln's new Northern League baseball franchise. Baseball fans from the capital city and the surrounding region filled the stands to celebrate the return of professional baseball to Lincoln after a 40-year hiatus. Stoner reviews Lincoln's baseball history and looks ahead at the bright future of minor-league baseball.