March 21, 1997
At the Watering Hole
Ants gather around a tiny pool of water in this remarkable scene from
Microcosmos,
now showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. Critic Larry Worth of
the New York Post. calls Microcosmos "a film fan's
dream."
Also showing is a short feature, Picasso Would Have Made a
Wonderful
Waiter by Jonathan Schell, a riveting yet poetic look at the artistry,
struggles,
and humor of the waiter-artists who are the cogs in the wheel of New York
City's preeminent catering company.
Microcosmos and Picasso Would Have Made a Wonderful Waiter
are showing March 21 through 23 and March 27 through 30. Screenings are
at 7 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3, 7, and 9 p.m. on
Saturdays;
and at 3, 5, 7, and 9 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $6; $5 for students;
and $4 for senior citizens, children, and members of the Friends of the
Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.
The movie opens with the camera sweeping down over the countryside and
burrowing
down into the grass (a deliberate echo of Blue Velvet). For the
next
75 minutes, this French documentary offers a miraculous you-are-there
close-up
of the insect kingdom, a world of such teeming beauty and sophistication
it suggests a sci-fi zooscape designed by Dr. Seuss.
Plains Literature is Symposium Focus
"Literatures of the Great Plains" is the title of the 21st
annual
interdisciplinary symposium of the Center for Great Plains Studies April
3-5. The three-day conference will be at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and on
City
Campus.
Papers will be presented on issues and myths in Plains literatures, women
writers, Native American non-fiction, teaching plains literatures, Plains
classics, and oral traditions. Featured events will include the U.S.
premiere
of "Rebels and Rabble Rousers" by Ken Mitchell of Saskatchewan;
plains poet Linda Hasselstrom reading her work; a Coffee House
entertainment
on Friday evening, and a mystery writers panel on Saturday evening.
University of New Mexico history professor Richard Etulain will present
the keynote address at 7:30 p.m. April 3 in Love Library auditorium. The
lecture is free to the public.
Additional sponsors include Nebraska Bookstore, Nebraska Wesleyan
University
and the Canadian Consulate General of Minneapolis. University of Nebraska
sponsors include the College of Arts & Sciences, Department of
English,
Native American Studies, and the Research Council Montgomery Lectureship
and Visiting Scholar Awards.
Registration is $50 before March 21; $60 after. Student registration is
waived. Some events are free to the public.
For more information: contact the Center for Great Plains Studies at
472-3082
or e-mail: cgps@unlinfo.unl.edu or visit the web page at http://www.unl.edu/plains/.
Feminist Art Pioneer Miriam Schapiro Is Visiting Artist
Internationally known artist and feminist art pioneer Miriam Schapiro is
the University of Nebraska President's Distinguished Visiting Artist this
spring. Her visit March 31 through April 3 will include major addresses
on each of the three university campuses in Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney,
including a lecture at 7 p.m. April 1 in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
auditorium. In addition, there will be an open forum with Schapiro from
2 to 4 p.m. April 1 in the Gallery of the Department of Art and Art
History
in 102 Richards Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.
Schapiro was born in Toronto in 1923 but received her B.A., M.A. and
M.F.A.
degrees from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Trained as a
painter,
Schapiro, who now resides in New York, has spent much of her career
paying
homage to traditionally female art forms that have often gone
unrecognized
by the fine-art establishment.
It was in 1970 that Schapiro met artist Judy Chicago. Together, they and
21 other women artists created "Womanhouse," a landmark art
project.
"Womanhouse" turned an abandoned Hollywood mansion destined for
demolition into a public statement by transforming each room into a
celebration
of women and their roles.
In the mid-70s she began a group of works for which she is most
well-known.
By combining acrylic painting with pieces of colored and patterned
fabrics,
photographs, silhouetted images, beading and sewing, Schapiro created
large-scale
collages called "femmages." She continued with these femmages
until the mid-80s.
Her most recent paintings continue another group of paintings/collages in
which she pays homage to individuals such as Mexican painter Frida Kahlo
and Russian artists Sonia Delaunay and Varyara Stepanova.
For more information on Schapiro's visit to UNL, contact Karen Kunc at
472-5541.
Southwest China Tribal Textiles at Lentz Center
The Lentz Center for Asian Culture at the University of Nebraska in
Lincoln
will present "Textiles of the Hill Tribes of Southwest China"
March 23-July 6.
The display comes from the collection of John Gillow of Cambridge,
England,
and includes colorful hand-constructed costume pieces and embroidered
fabrics
that tell the decorative history of the hill tribes of southwest
China.
Women of the Miao, Dong, Yi and Yao tribes make the textiles using
traditional
cloth preparation practices and sophisticated embroidery techniques. The
mountainous terrain of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces provides an
environment
in which members of these groups live in small, compact communities with
strongly defined and individualized costume traditions.
The Asian Arts and Culture Guild will host a presentation by Gillow at 2
p.m. March 23 at the Lentz Center, 329 Morrill Hall, 14th and U streets
on the UNL city campus. The display and Gillow's presentation is free and
open to the public, but a $2 donation is suggested for visitors over the
age of 2 to the University of Nebraska State Museum.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by Louise Wickstrum of Omaha. Major
funding
was provided by the Nebraska Humanities Council, an affiliate of the
National
Endowment for the Humanities, and the Office of the Chancellor.
Individual
pieces have been prepared for exhibition by UNL graduate students in
textile
conservation under the direction of Patricia Crews, professor of
textiles,
clothing and design.
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For questions regarding these Scarlet pages, contact:
dtaurins@unlinfo.unl.edu
(402) 472-8518, Fax: (402) 472-7825