November 1, 2001

Branch, color intaglio, woodcut and digital transfer, 2000, by Karen Kunc, is featured at Studio Art Faculty art show, Department of Art & Art History, at EisentragernHoward Gallery, Richards Hall, from Nov. 5 through Nov. 29.

Art faculty shows its work in November

The studio art faculty in the department of art and art history present work in the first faculty exhibition in the new Eisentrager·Howard Gallery in Richards Hall.

The exhibition opens Nov. 5 and runs through Nov. 29. An opening reception will occur from 5-7 p.m. Nov. 9 in the gallery. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; noon to 7 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

"This exhibition representing the current work of the studio art faculty is an important event and an opportunity for the UNL campus and community to review the work of our faculty artists in a formal setting," said Joe Ruffo, department chair. "It is a way for our students to gain even more insight into the creative activities of their teachers. The work is of very high quality - displaying a wide range of techniques, concepts and ideas."

The Transparency of Knowledge installation view, 2001 by Cristin Millett

Casting artist visits Nov. 1, 2

Visiting artist Cristin Millett, assistant professor of art at Penn State, will be on campus Nov. 1-2 to lecture, give a casting demonstration and graduate studio critiques.

The lecture at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 in 15 Richards Hall, "(Re)Production: the Intersection of Art and Medical History," will include slides and a discussion of her sculpture and installation work and its references in the images of women's bodies in art and historical gynecology.

Her visit is sponsored by the UNL Humanities Center, Women's Studies and the Department of Art & Art History.

Bird themes highlight new quilt exhibition

Quilts of a Feather, an exhibition of quilts with bird themes, opens Nov. 3 in the Cooper Gallery of the NU State Museum. The exhibition, drawn from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center, runs through Oct. 20, 2002.

Quilts of a Feather highlights the changing images of birds in American quilts between 1820 and 1950. Exotic birds adorned with brilliant iridescent feathers, common songbirds that feed in American yards, and waterfowl that follow the rivers of the United States on their migration routes flock together in the exhibition.

While the exhibit runs for a year, in six months different quilts will be exhibited.

A grand opening is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. Nov. 16 in the gallery. Paul Johnsgard, Foundation professor of biology emeritus at UNL, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the museum's auditorium. Johnsgard was listed by the Lincoln Journal Star in 1999 as one of "100 people who have helped build Nebraska - politically, economically, socially or physically, in the past 100 years." He is known as one of the world's most prolific authors of ornithological literature.

The museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1:30-4:30 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, contact, Carolyn Ducey, 472-6301, or cducey1@unl.edu or see the Web site: http://quiltstudy.unl.edu.

Trio Voronezh moves from busking to Lied stage

Juggling has never been so beautiful or intriguing as when Michael Moschen takes the stage. Moschen will perform his feats of dexterity and illusion at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2.

In simplest terms, Michael Moschen is a juggler. However, as a Newsday reviewer said, "that's a little like calling Michelangelo a stonecutter or Mozart a piano player." As he manipulates crystal balls, cylinders and even fire, Moschen is as much an illusionist as a juggler. He combines juggling with original music and unique lighting effects that add to the amazement.

Moschen's extensive resume includes performances throughout the world at theater and dance festivals. He is co-creator of the Obie Award winning piece Foolsfire, along with Bob Berky and Fred Garbo. (Garbo appeared with his Inflatable Theatre Company at the Lied Center in March 2000.) Moschen has also appeared with Pantomime Circus and Big Apple Circus (which appeared at the Lied Center in December 2000). Cirque de Soleil commissioned him to create and stage a new work for their permanent theatrical circus in Las Vegas.

In addition to numerous television appearances including The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, Sesame Street, The David Letterman Show and a dramatic turn on the series L.A. Law, Michael Moschen has appeared in the feature films Hair, Annie and Labyrinth. Moschen was recently featured in the A&E documentary "The Mystery of Genius" and in the book, The Virtuoso: face-to-face with 40 extraordinary talents.

A pre-performance talk will be in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets are $28, $24 and $18, half price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 for tickets.

Moschen makes juggling an art

Juggling has never been so beautiful or intriguing as when Michael Moschen takes the stage. Moschen will perform his feats of dexterity and illusion at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2.

In simplest terms, Michael Moschen is a juggler. However, as a Newsday reviewer said, "that's a little like calling Michelangelo a stonecutter or Mozart a piano player." As he manipulates crystal balls, cylinders and even fire, Moschen is as much an illusionist as a juggler. He combines juggling with original music and unique lighting effects that add to the amazement.

Moschen's extensive resume includes performances throughout the world at theater and dance festivals. He is co-creator of the Obie Award winning piece Foolsfire, along with Bob Berky and Fred Garbo. (Garbo appeared with his Inflatable Theatre Company at the Lied Center in March 2000.) Moschen has also appeared with Pantomime Circus and Big Apple Circus (which appeared at the Lied Center in December 2000). Cirque de Soleil commissioned him to create and stage a new work for their permanent theatrical circus in Las Vegas.

In addition to numerous television appearances including The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, Sesame Street, The David Letterman Show and a dramatic turn on the series L.A. Law, Michael Moschen has appeared in the feature films Hair, Annie and Labyrinth. Moschen was recently featured in the A&E documentary "The Mystery of Genius" and in the book, The Virtuoso: face-to-face with 40 extraordinary talents.

A pre-performance talk will be in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets are $28, $24 and $18, half price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 for tickets.

Allyson makes Lied debut Nov. 9

Jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson will make her debut at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9. The performance, "Jazz With Strings Attached," was arranged by Maestro William McGlaughlin, who will also conduct. Joining Allyson onstage will be several Nebraska musicians.

As a University of Nebraska-Omaha student in the early 1980s, Allyson trained as a classical pianist by day while fronting a rock band at night. She eventually discovered jazz and performed with jazz ensembles both on and off campus. After graduation, Allyson began to hone her career in Minneapolis, where in three years she earned a reputation as a rising star; she then moved to Kansas City.

While performing at a Kansas City club, Allyson impressed a woman from San Francisco who had ties to jazz DJ and Concord Records promoter Stan Dunn. Allyson was soon signed to a record deal. Now nearly a decade later, Allyson has produced seven acclaimed albums and has earned the reputation as one of the hottest young jazz singers in the business.

Allyson's performance is part of the Lied Center's Nebraska Artist Series, which celebrates the talents of artists with direct ties to our state who have achieved national or international acclaim in their careers.

McGlaughlin will deliver a pre-performance talk in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes before curtain.

Tickets for this performance are $32, $28, and $22, half price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 for tickets.

Female Transport is real survivor story

University Theatre continues its 101st season with the stark, hard-hitting drama Female Transport by Steve Gooch. Directed by UNL Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Virginia Smith, performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and at 2 p.m Nov. 11 in Studio Theatre, third floor of the Temple Building.

Female Transport is an account of the political education of six women convicted of petty crimes in 19th century London and sentenced to be transported to a life of hard labor in Britain's overseas penal colony, present-day Australia. During the six-month voyage, they are kept in a cramped cell below deck where they learn certain truths about society. Foremost among these is they have been condemned because of the bias of a male-dominated class system, represented in the play by the crew of the prison ship. The women's consciousness-raising is powerfully and sympathetically portrayed and at the end of their journey they have grown into a unified group of hardened fighters.

According to director Smith, "The play is about how the women survive and how becoming survivors changes them. Each woman finds what gives her a reason to fight for her life and in the process, learns both self-reliance and the power of standing together. They discover both themselves and community and are, by the end of the play, tough enough to survive in a new world."

Cast as the six women are undergraduates Melissa Veys, Mollie Cox, Lindsay Seim, Stephanie Dodd and Jody Christopherson and graduate student Erinn Holmes. The male crew members are undergraduates Brett Waldon, Tim Hammer, Jeff Nathan and John Wachter.

Costumes are designed by Misti Bradford, scenery by Kelly Dailey and lighting by Travis I. Walker, all graduate students. Brett Simmonds, an undergraduate, designed sound. The production is stage managed by undergraduate Brian McKee.

Performance info Female Transport begins at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8-9, 13-17 and 2 p.m. Nov. 11. Tickets are available from the Lied Center Box Office, 472-4747, Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Individual tickets are $12 for patrons; $10 for UNL faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $8 for students.

McCollege Tour now playing at Ross

The McCollege Tour, sponsored by Michael Moore and Richard Linklater, brings the corporatization-of-academia debate to the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Nov. 1 and 2 with the goal of provoking discussion, dissension and community building among those whose wish to see the university play a more vital and humanitarian role in the 21st century.

Two films will be screened: University Inc. (54 minutes), directed by Kyle Henry; and The Subtext of a Yale Education (31 minutes), directed by Laura Dunn.

Filmmaker Henry will appear at the 7:30 p.m. screening Nov. 1 for a question-and-answer session with the audience as well as a discussion on the issues raised by the films. Both films will be screened together again at 7 and 9 p.m. Nov. 2. Henry is an artist-in-residence at the Bemis Center in Omaha.

Each film deals with similar issues but focuses them through different struggles and perspectives. Subtext chronicles a year in labor strikes at Yale and documents both economic and philosophical disparities of an undergraduate education at one of the wealthiest universities in America's fourth-poorest city. University Inc. deals with the closing of a repertory film program as a paradigm for interrogating the corporate ideology now guiding the nation's largest public university, the University of Texas-Austin. Both stories raise similar questions about our current system of higher education.

Subtext forces the question: What is the moral imperative, if any, of higher education? What responsibility does the "university" have to not only its employees, but also the local community in which it resides and the broader culture to which it is accountable?

University Inc. asks how the fundamental experience of higher education has changed over the last 40 years. Have we exchanged educating citizens with indoctrinating consumers? What has become of student power? Have students ever really had any power at one of the most conservative, and now the largest, universities in America?

Each film also uses a different mode of approach, which when screened together confront central ethical and formal questions concerning documentary filmmaking.

For more information on the McCollege Tour visit the web site at http://www.mccollege.org.

Crews' talk focuses on floral quilts

The 19th century floral appliqué quilts of the University of Nebraska's James Collection are the focus of A Flowering of Quilts, a quilt book published recently by University of Nebraska Press. Author Patricia Cox Crews directs the University's International Quilt Study Center. Crews will discuss her book and the quilts of the James Collection in a book-signing at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at Lee Booksellers, Edgewood Center, 56th and Highway 2.

For information, call the bookstore at 420-1919 or visit http://www.leebooksellers.com.