November 8, 1996





James Farren and Heather Schwenzer in "Fast Track" at the Howell.

Dance on the 'Fast Track' at Howell Theatre

The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance presents "Fast Track" - an evening of vibrant contemporary dance featuring choreography by UNL Dance Faculty and San Francisco guest artist Gail Chodera with performances by the UNL dancers - at 8 p.m. Nov. 14, 15 and 16, and 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at Howell Theatre. Admission is $6 for general audiences and $3 for students with I.D.

Charlotte Adams, the new director of the UNL Dance Program, premieres her newest work, "Fast Track," a shocking, athletic look at lives lived in the sensory overload of modern society. Adams will also present "I Need You," a humorous and poignant look at obsessive love, accompanied by music that ranges from James Brown to Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas."

Gail Chodera, guest artist from San Francisco, premieres "From the Wasteland," a group piece inspired from the myths of the native American women of the Vancouver Islands. The mythological background is the setting for a contemporary ritual. The dancers fly, struggle, submerge, and emerge creating a kinetic and athletic journey.

"Songs of the Spirit," by visiting professor Ann Shea, is set to music of the liturgy. In this piece, the celebratory nature of the ancient Christian rituals, the quiet dignity of Shaker chants, and the rich enthusiasm of the black spirituals are offered as voices of inspiration for the movement.

Professor Lisa Fusillo will present a hauntingly beautiful duet danced by UNL seniors Angela Robidoux and James Farren. This contemporary ballet work rounds out an evening of diverse, adventuresome dance that promises humor, beauty, athleticism, and more.

At the End of the Road, 1996, by Carol Sexton.


Silent Mantle, 1996, by Linda Meigs.

New Exhibit Looks at Nebraska Landscapes by Two Artists

Earth & Sky Opens at Great Plains Gallery

A new exhibit at the Great Plains Art Collection, Earth & Sky: Landscapes In Pastels, features the work of Nebraska artists Carol Sexton of Scottsbluff and Linda S. Meigs of Omaha.

There will be a reception for the artists from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the gallery, located in 215 Love Library, on Nov. 10. Each artist will also give a brief talk. This event is open and free to the public and sponsored by the Friends of the Center for Great Plains Studies.

The exhibition consists of approximately 20 pieces by each artist. Although both work primarily in the same medium and genre, Sexton draws upon her perceptions of the western Nebraska landscape while Meigs' works are based more on her impressions of eastern Nebraska.

Prior to completing works of art in their studios, both Meigs and Sexton spend time sketching and photographing in the Nebraska countryside. Both sometimes create pieces based on visits to the same site during different seasons or times of the day. Similarities and differences between landscape motifs and terrain also provide interesting points of comparison between the artists' pieces.

Sexton holds a bachelor's degree from Regis College in Denver, Colo., and in addition to solo and invitational shows she has participated in numerous competitive juried shows on the state, regional, and national level. Meigs has completed a B.F.A. at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. A freelance artist since 1976, she wrote and illustrated Nebraska from A to Z. Meigs has participated in the Artist-in-the-Schools Programs, taught classes at the Joslyn Art Museum and Metro Community College. In recent years her work has been exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions at Nebraska museums and galleries. She has also participated in a number of competitive juried shows on the state, regional, and national level.

With this showing at the Great Plains Art Collection, Earth & Sky completes a statewide tour that began in June at the West Nebraska Art Center in Scottsbluff, followed by the Carnegie Arts Center, Alliance; Valentine's Gallery, Valentine; Wrightstone Gallery, McCook Community College; and the Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney.

The exhibit will run through Dec. 13.

Sheldon Honors Master Sculptors

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present European Master Sculptors, an exhibition of nearly 20 works from this century's most influential European sculptors, from Nov. 29 to Feb. 9, 1997. Among the works drawn from the permanent collection for the exhibit is Auguste Rodin's Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, bronze, part of the Sheldon's F.M. Hall Collection.

Humor With a Bite

Satirists Rajeckas & Intraub aren't easily pigeonholed, but have been likened to Laurel and Hardy fast forwarded to the '90s. They evoke laughter with mime and movement and will bring their own special brand of sophisticated humor to the Johnny Carson Theater at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 11th and Q streets, at 8 p.m. Nov. 21, 22 and 23.

Tickets for Rajeckas and Intraub are $14 with half price tickets available for those under 18 and under and UNL, Doane and Wesleyan students with valid identification. The Lied Center box office is open 60 minutes before the perfomances and weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for walk-in sales. Phone orders may be placed by calling 472-4747 or 1-800-432-3231.

Stars Shine In 'A Symphonic Night at the Movies'

Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh star in the Lincoln Symphony's pops concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Presented in cooperation with Douglas Theatres, "A Symphonic Night at the Movies," features some of Hollywood's greatest moments and music.

This special program includes classic scenes from Gone With The Wind, Ben Hur, The Wizard of Oz, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Citizen Kane, and An American in Paris accompanied by the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra.

"The audience is in for a treat," said David Livingston, president of Douglas Theatres. "If you think movie music sounds great in our state of the art theaters, just wait 'till you hear it performed live!"

Emmy Award winning producer John Goberman is narrator for "A Symphonic Night at the Movies." Best known as the executive producer of Live from Lincoln Center, Goberman's "symphonic cinema" programs play to capacity crowds from coast to coast. Robert "Bud" Emile, the Lincoln Symphony's Music Director Emeritus, is conductor for the concert.

Tickets are available from the Lied Center Box Office at 472-4747.

Wearable Art: Contemporary Artists' Jewelry Coming to Sheldon

An honored aesthetic and utilitarian activity for centuries, hand-crafted jewelry has during the last 30 years become an important medium for contemporary American artists. In keeping with the holiday tradition, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present Wearable Art Contemporary Artists' Jewelry , an exhibition of more than 50 pieces of jewelry drawn from both local private collections and the Sheldon's own permanent collection from Nov. 26 to Feb. 9, 1997.

The Sheldon's permanent holdings include a number of rare and unique examples of historical and artist-designed jewelry that is rarely seen by the public. Featured in the exhibition will be a collection of pieces recently donated from the collection of Saul and Carol Rosenzweig of Beverly Hills. Among this important collection are pieces designed by well-known American artists not widely known as jewelers. Artists such as William Wiley, Red Grooms, Fletcher Benton, Joan Brown, and Lynda Benglis are represented by strikingly original works in which their own diverse aesthetic vocabularies are adapted to and translated through the medium of small-scale jewelry. Also featured in this special holiday exhibition will be the work of local artists, including the work of Judith Andre, Ray and Ila Kunc, Sydney Lynch, and Tom Wright.

The full range of the aesthetic diversity of contemporary jewelry will be on display as well, with the Native American Hispanic tradition represented by a silver buckle and belt, and pieces derived from the modern age, from jewelry made from found material and plastic to a computerized battery-operated kinetic piece.

Visiting Textile Artist Layne to Lecture Nov. 21

Visiting artist Barbara Layne will be giving a public slide lecture called "Crossing Boundaries: Contemporary Canadian Textile Art" at 5 p.m. Nov. 21 in Room 11 of the Home Economics Building on East Campus.

The lecture will feature the work of Canadians and Canadian immigrants who use textile arts to discuss their experiences and observations in the crossing of cultural boundaries. Layne will include a few examples of her own work. Immediately following the lecture will be a reception called "May I Take Your Hat," in the Textiles, Clothing and Design Department Gallery.

Layne is on sabbatical leave from Concordia University in Montreal, where she is graduate director of the master of fine arts studio arts programme. In her current creative work she examines cyberspace as a place to conduct research and collect information through the Internet. In her installations, she uses a combination of electronic and conventional textile art material and processes and explores issues surrounding new technologies, gender and cultural boundaries.

She is working with Wendy Weiss, associate professor, textiles, clothing and design, to direct a graduate seminar in TCD. The class format combines readings and a creative production experience examining the idea of "collecting culture."

Students have been reading about the process of collection and the relationship of the collected object to the presentation of culture and ultimately will prepare the exhibition identified above.

Students participating in this project are Deena Douglas, Myron Moore (art and art history), Shelley Howe, Jenney Yearous (museum studies), and Michael Mamp (textiles, clothing and design). The installation will be open to the public from Nov. 18 to Dec. 19 in the TCD Gallery. The public is invited to the lecture and the reception. Layne's visit to campus is in part supported by the UNL Research Council Visiting Scholar Fund. For more information contact Wendy Weiss at 472-6370.

Sheldon Awarded Foundation Support For Sculpture Catalogue

George Neubert, director of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, has announced a recent grant award from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation in support of the publication of a catalogue documenting the gallery's sculpture collection.

"Receipt of this award from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation is not only very important to the last phase of this three-year project but to the Sheldon Gallery as well," said Neubert. "Support from a foundation based in Akron, Ohio, that recognizes the national significance of the Sheldon's sculpture collection and our educational efforts to broaden access to it, is especially gratifying."

The $10,000 grant will support the publication of a fully illustrated catalogue to document and interpret the nearly 300 works in the permanent sculpture collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden. The publication will also serve to complement the award-winning publication, The American Painting Collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, published in 1989. The sculpture collection catalogue also will be published by the University of Nebraska Press, as was the painting collection catalogue.

Author Jordan to Give Reading Nov. 12

Teresa Jordan, author of Ridinq the White Horse Home, will give a public reading from her just-completed novel, Sleeping With the Animals; at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in 228 Andrews Hall. The reading is open to the public.

Jordan is also the author of Cowgirls: Women of the American West and editor of Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women.

On Nov. 11 Jordan will meet with students and faculty. Jordan's book Riding the White Horse Home is used in 14 sections of English 150 at UNL.

Sponsors of Jordan's visit include the ADAPT Program, the Center for Great Plains Studies, the Department of English, and Women's Studies.

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