Urban Cabaret

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The OSU Urban Arts Space was transformed into an opera cabaret on Friday, Nov 21, when 14 students and two pianists presented an evening of arias, opera scenes, musical theatre and cabaret in a galleria setting. The festive evening featured 30 excerpts from operas including Bizet's Carmen, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Rossini's Barber of Seville along with selections from Guys and Dolls, West Side Story and Les Miserables, according to Peter Kozma, director of the opera program in the School of Music. The 180 attendees were seated in cabaret style surrounded by artworks in the current exhibitions.

Notable News

The OSU Marching Band is heading to Washington DC in January to participate in the Presidential Inaugural Parade. All 225 band members -- the largest all-brass and percussion band in the world -- will participate the Jan 20 event. The band was chosen after a rigorous application process; it will be the band's fifth Inagural Parade, having marched for Presidents Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, George HW Bush and twice for George W Bush. The trip will be funded by private donations.

Dr. Gerald Buckberg, an OSU alumnus and distinguished professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has found a way to use art to teach about the human heart and heart disease. Buckberg commissioned dancers at the University of Cincinnati to create The Cardiac Dance -- The Spirals of Life, a ballet that can be used as a teaching tool about heart function. Buckberg was back on the Ohio State campus in November to show a video of the dance to medical students and the public, and to talk about his research in myocardial protection and approaches to treatment of acute myocardial infarction.
Photo: University of Cincinnati

Starting this fall, OSU professor Michael Mercil is installing The Virtual Pasture at the Wexner Center for the Arts, in the spot where he previously planted The Beanfield. The Virtual Pasture is phase two of Mercil's "agri/cultural" project for The Living Culture Initiative in the Department of Art, in partnership with the Wexner Center and the Social Responsibility Initiative in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The 500-square-foot site outside the Wexner Center along College Road includes a white post-and-rail fence, livestock forage grasses, a forthcoming apple tree and eventually a virtual flock of sheep. Click here for more information from the Wexner Center. Photo of Mercil by Tony Mendoza.

Alan Price (Design and ACCAD), travels to Linz, Austria, this month, where he has been invited to be part of the grand reopening exhibition at the Ars Electronica Center. His work will be part of a new addition to the center in a virtual environment system called "Deep Space". The high resolution stereoscopic 3D projection spans a two-story high wall and floor with user interaction through touch screens and motion tracking. Price's most recent work, "Empire of Sleep" has been adapted to the display system in collaboration with the Ars Electonica Futurelab team for permanent inclusion in the exhibition space. The public opening is Jan 3.

Student Artwork at Gateway

Artwork by MFA students Bethany Haeseler, above left (glass) and Talia Shabtay (painting) along with that by several other glass students is taking center stage at the new offices for The Arts Initiative at South Campus Gateway. The office, headed by Karen Bell, associate vice president, hosted an open house Nov 14, where OSU President Gordon Gee (below) spoke about the importance of positioning Ohio State as a leader in the arts. Main topic of the evening was the recently announced partnership with Ohio State and the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company.

Notable News

Holiday glass sale at Gateway! Glass students in the Department of Art will sell hand-blown holiday ornaments and more at The Arts Initiative offices at South Campus Gateway this Thursday from 4 to 7 pm. Stop by and browse!

The visit today by Canadian playwright Sandra Dempsey to the Department of Theatre has been canceled.

The December issue of Artforum magazine each year invites a broad spectrum of artists, critics and curators to revisit the year in art and choose their "top 10" highlights. Two contributors in the current issue -- Ann Goldstein and Jack Bankowsky -- both picked the Wexner Center's exhibition Andy Warhol: Other Voices , Other Rooms as #4 in their top picks. To see their choices, click here.

Who's there?: The Ohio State Hamlet Project, an exhibition curated by grad students in the Department of Theatre as part of a class assignment, brings together holdings on many aspects of Hamlet from the collections of the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute (TRI). Ranging from artifacts to essays and playbills, covering multiple centuries and countries, the items selected by the curators underscore the fascination that Hamlet and his interpreters continue to hold for audiences. The exhibition joins the beginning stages of the European Hamlet Project, being celebrated by symposia and culminating in exhibitions across Europe in 2009-10. The OSU exhibition is taking place at the TRI and in the Department of Theatre. For more, click here.

The OSU School of Music presents its annual Musical Celebration Concert this Friday, Dec 5, at 8 pm in Mershon Auditorium. The popular, annual musical extravaganza celebrates the holiday season and showcases the school’s many performing groups, from the OSU Symphony Orchestra to its Jazz Ensemble, Glee Clubs, Symphonic Band and more. Tickets available through the Wexner Center Ticket Office (614) 292-3535.

Royal Shakespeare Company Partnership

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Ohio State formally announced a partnership with the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company Nov 7 at the University’s Board of Trustees meeting. President Gordon Gee calls the international partnership one of the university’s most important initiatives, an opportunity for two world-class institutions to come together to create a premier program for the study, teacher training and production of Shakespeare, inspired by the methodology and highly respected practices of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The partnership – the first of its kind in the US – is spearheaded by The Arts Initiative at Ohio State, and includes the College of Education and Human Ecology, the Colleges of the Arts and Humanities, and the Wexner Center for the Arts. One of its predominant components will be a three-year teacher education program centered upon the Royal Shakespeare Company’s renowned “Stand Up for Shakespeare” program (above). Additionally, the Royal Shakespeare Company / Ohio State partnership will establish a Young People’s Shakespeare Festival, tentatively planned for 2012. For more details, click here. (Photo: Ellie Kurttz) Below, visitors from the Royal Shakespeare Company join OSU leaders at the Board of Trustees meeting. From left, David Frantz, Les Wexner, Gordon Gee, Lady Sainsbury, Karen Bell, Jacqui O’Hanlon, Michael Boyd, Brian Edmiston, Vikki Heywood.
Notable News

The OSU/Royal Shakespeare Company partnership already is garnering some international attention. The UK's Birmingham Post has this to say about it. A feature also appeared in the Columbus Dispatch.

What is The Arts Initiative at Ohio State? It's the office of Karen Bell, associate vice president, formerly known as the Office for Arts and Culture. Why the switch? To more accurately reflect our mission to advance the arts and impact our communities. Hope you enjoy the new blog for The Arts Initiative!

Ohio State recently created a video documentary about the Columbus Museum of Art's exhibition Objects of Wonder from The Ohio State University, which features comments from Karen Bell, associate vice president, and alumna Melissa Wolfe, curator.

It's everything Andy at the Wexner Center these days! Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms continues at the Wexner Center through Feb 15, and features more than 700 items in virtually every medium that Warhol used —film, video, audio material, photography, painting, sculpture, drawings, wallpaper and more.

"Wishes and Dreams" by Retro-Blue is a new jazz CD featuring some OSU folks, including alums and instructurs from Music -- Tom Battenberg, Andy Woodson, Jim Curlis and Don Nichols. Find out more here.

PhD student Loring Resler from Art Education worked with students at Weinland Park to create a mural of Barack Obama. The Obama campaign loved it...and posted it on their website!

Gift shopping! The Department of Art's glass and ceramics students host their annual Holiday Sale in Hopkins Hall Lobby Thurs, Nov 20 and Fri, Nov 21, 10 am-6 pm. All items are handmade by students; you'll find decorative vases, jewelry, cups, plates, sculptural work, handblown Christmas ornaments, candy canes, bowls and more! Proceeds buy supplies and help fund visiting artists. For info, contact Bethany Haeseler at haeseler.4@gmail.com.