Student Musicians Wow Crowd

An audience of more than 300 community leaders enjoyed the talents of more than 20 Ohio State students and faculty from the School of Music at last week’s Columbus Council on World Affairs awards luncheon at the convention center. Ohio State was recognized at the event as the International Organization of the Year; President E. Gordon Gee accepted the award and was keynote speaker. A student jazz combo (left) played cool jazz tunes as people registered and networked in a reception area. Percussion students (above) – led by Susan Powell and Joe Krygier (Music) – provided upbeat entertainment on stage during the event, as did 11 opera singers (below) – directed by Peter Kozma and accompanied by Edward Bak – who belted out the finale from the Marriage of Figaro.

The OSU Urban Arts Space and its February 2008 grand opening event (below) and opening exhibition, Midnight Robbers: The Artists of Notting Hill Carnival (co-curated by Lesley Ferris, Theatre) were honored last week with the Artistic Excellence award by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. The $10,000 prize is given annually to an arts organization that has demonstrated innovation, risk and artistic excellence. Several of the other nominees have close ties to Ohio State too – including the Columbus Museum of Art, led by alumna Nannette Maciejunes (Art History), and its Objects of Wonder exhibition, curated by alumna Melissa Wolfe (Art History), and the Columbus Dance Theater, headed by Dance alum Tim Veach.

Twenty school teachers from central Ohio public schools – including Metro High School, Linden-McKinley High School and its feeder schools, and Reynoldsburg City Schools – have been chosen as the first participants in the Ohio State / Royal Shakespeare Company Partnership. They include 11 high school, 2 middle school and 7 elementary school teachers. Starting this summer, the group will work with RSC actors and educators and OSU faculty in an intensive teacher education program based upon the Stand Up for Shakespeare experiential learning program. Plans are also underway for a one-day workshop next fall for teachers from a wider range of schools.

Speaking of the Royal Shakespeare Company, you can catch its production of King Lear, starring Sir Ian McKellen, on WOSU TV/HD at 8 pm March 25 and on WOSU PLUS digital channel at 8 pm March 26. The 3-hour show is presented by Great Performances.

There’s never a shortage of arts events on campus. . . but the area around campus is ripe with live music and arts events too. One newcomer to the university area is Wild Goose Creative, an organization committed to “creativity, hospitality, education and community.” Formed by six friends who went to college together in Michigan – including Nick Dekker and Jessie Boettcher (Theatre) and alum Beth Dekker – the group recently moved into space at Summit and Hudson Streets. Wild Goose Creative hosts a Third Thursday group – where an artist is invited to share his or her work – as well as a painters’ and writers' groups, a Shakespeare group and more.

Voting has begun in the Music Video Challenge sponsored by the Ohio Film Office. You can give your opinion by logging on the YouTube site and casting your vote.

Guggenheim Features Hamilton Work

Ann Hamilton (Art) has an installation -- human carriage -- in a new exhibition, The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia: 1860-1989, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The exhibition, which opened Jan 30 and continues until April 19, features 250 works by 100 artists and literary figures in a broad range of media, including the site-specific commission by Hamilton. The show explores the impact of Asian art, literature, music and philosophical concepts on American art. Hamilton's piece was created for the Guggenheim's rotunda. Focusing on themes of transmission and transformation, she devised a mechanism that traverses the entire Guggenheim balustrade, in the form of a white silk "bell carriage" with Tibetan bells inside. As the cage spirals down, the purifying bells ring. The system is propelled by a pully system and weights composed of thousands of cut-up books. According to Hamilton, the elements of human carriage compose a visual metaphor for the processes of "reading which leaves no material trace but which might forever change you."

Notable News

Drums Downtown VI comes to the Riffe Center's Capitol Theater this Fri, Feb 27, and Sat, Feb 28 at 8 pm. The popular production features percussion, dance, art and multimedia, with OSU’s Percussion Ensemble and guest students and faculty from OSU Dance—a tour de force collaboration! Click here for details and ticket info.

Calling artists! Ohio Staters Inc. and Major Campus Events Committee (MCEC) are interested in your talents. During the week of April 20, the groups will host Festival of the Finest to showcase the artistic variety and skills of OSU students and student groups. Any and all mediums, from fine art to performance, are welcome to apply. Click here for guidelines and an application. Submissions and questions should be directed to applications.osu@gmail.com by 5 pm March 6.

The Ohio Film Office launched the Ohio Film Music Video Challenge Feb 18. A production team has 3 weeks to partner with a musical act, create a concept, shoot the music video and post it (to be judged) on the official YouTube challenge site. Winners will be selected from a panel of professionals in the music and film/video industries.

Central Ohio Schools Join RSC Partnership

A group of about 20 Ohio public school teachers will be the first to participate in an extensive teacher leadership education program that’s at the core of a new partnership between The Ohio State University and UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), according to Karen Bell, associate vice president, The Arts Initiative at Ohio State. The first cohort of teachers will come from Franklin County’s Metro High School; Columbus City Schools’ Linden-McKinley High School and its feeder schools; and Reynoldsburg City Schools. The schools are STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) schools affiliated with the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN).

“We’re delighted to be working with these central Ohio schools in the venture with the RSC,” says Bell. “At first it may seem like a surprising fit to explore Shakespeare in STEM schools, but in fact it’s a perfect fit. Like scientific investigation, the RSC’s drama education program is all about creative learning, experiencing and exploring.” For the entire story, click here. (Photo of the RSC's Stand Up for Shakespeare program by Ellie Kurrtz.)

Notable News

Art Ed alumna Ivy Chevers (PhD) has orchestrated upcoming events celebrating the life and music of Bob Marley, at the King Arts Complex in Columbus. Events include a documentary film on Fri, Feb 6, at 6:30 and 9 pm, and a Marley tribute concert at 8 pm Sat, Feb 7. For info, click here.

The Ohio Art League presents its 98th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition at the OSU Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus through March 27. The exhibition features works -- including this one by Ardine Nelson -- selected by juror David Pagel. For more, see the OAL website.

John Hemingway, grandson of Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway will read from and discuss his new memoir, Strange Tribe -- which explores the similarities between his transsexual father (Hemingway's youngest son) and Ernest Hemingway -- at a talk on Tues, Feb. 17 at 7 pm in the Wexner Center Film and Video Theatre. This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of English, OSU Sexuality Studies Program, Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities and the Wexner Center for the Arts.

A community choir based at the campus-area church Summit on 16th will join forces with choir and band students from Indianola Middle School to present a short concert (and lots of chocolate) on Sat, Feb 14, 6 pm, at Indianola Middle School, 420 E 19th Ave. The community choir of about 25 singers under the direction of Sheena Phillips will sing choral arrangements of love songs by the Beatles, Elton John, Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and some up-tempo gospel music. Admission is free; donations will benefit the music program at Indianola.

Alum Presents Dance at King Arts Complex

Photo of the Week

Dance alumna Kristina Isabelle's Dance Company presents Levels & Lines this Saturday (Jan 24) at the King Arts Complex in downtown Columbus. The performance is a multi-dimensional exploration in movement, video, light and sound, inspired by abstract expressionist painter Joan Mitchell. The evening length production incorporates "dynamic dancing on the ground, in the air and in all the space in-between." In honor of the inauguration of the country's new president and to reaffirm a commitment to the community, the King Arts Complex is offering admission to the performance on a "pay what you can" basis. Above, dancers are Jeff Fouch, Zoe Rabinowitz, Maggie Page, Jessica McKelvey and Kristina Isabelle. Photo by Stephanie Matthews.

Notable News

The Andy Warhol show at the Wexner Center continues to draw big crowds. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) recently called the show "deeply illuminating" and "easily one of the major cultural events in Ohio at the moment." Check out the show before it leaves Feb 15. Upcoming events include a talk by Susan Rossi-Wilcox about a Warhol cookbook on Jan 28, the next First Sunday on Feb 1 and several closing events. Thursdays feature free admission 4-8 pm.


Ohio State’s Cartoon Research Library has a new name -- the Cartoon Library and Museum. The new designation comes on the heels of the acquisition of the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, which brings its holdings to more than 400, 000 original works of art used in its active exhibition program. The Cartoon Library and Museum is exploring options for a possible new location with museum-quality galleries and additional storage for its rapidly-growing collection. (No Honest Man Need Fear Cartoons, Homer Davenport, 19th century. From RSWCGA - Richard Samuel West Collection.)

Jan 25 is the last day for the Non Fiction Design Collective exhibition Shakespeare Wooden Minnow at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. The Columbus-based collective is a group of four artists working together: Rebecca Harvey and Steve Thurston (Art) and alumni Guy Michael Davis and Katie Parker, who join forces in the creation of tableware, bricks, lighting and other objects. The show is the first to come from the Clay Studio's call for curatorial proposals.

ACCAD Brings Thurber Dogs to Life

Students at Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) have been busy bringing the beloved drawings of dogs by humorist James Thurber to life via animation. The animated illustrations will be projected during a concert performed by Columbus’s ProMusica Chamber Orchestra on Jan 10—11, and will accompany Peter Schickele’s Thurber’s Dogs – Suite for Orchestra, a piece originally commissioned by ProMusica in 1994. The musical composition is based on six of Thurber’s short stories that incorporate his much-loved line drawings of dogs. The project is a collaboration with ACCAD, ProMusica and Thurber House.

Nine Ohio State graduate students worked as a team to animate six sequences involving the dogs. The students built the animations around the music, tightly timing them to the piece. Using research, storyboards, 3D modeling and animation, the group spent months creating character movement that simulated hand-drawn animation and remained true to Thurber’s unique style. The project was directed by Vita Berezina-Blackburn, animation specialist. For an overview of the project, visit the website.

Notable News

Ohio State folks can see the preview of the Evolution Theatre Company production of Frozen -- Bryony Lavery's award-winning British drama -- on Jan 14 at 8 pm. Anyone with a BuckID (students, faculty, staff) can get tickets for that show for $2.50. The production features OSU's Mandy Fox and is directed by Jimmy Bohr (Theatre), and is presented at the Columbus Performing Arts Center downtown. Artistic director of the new theatre company is Theatre PhD student and Music staffer Paul Lockwood. Tickets can be purchased (cash only) at the door, or email lockwood.38@osu.edu. For more details, go to Evolution's website.

Cinema Latino kicks off at the Wexner Center for the Arts. For the third year, the Wexner Center is presenting Cinema Latino, with the best in new film from Latin America. The acclaimed Pope’s Toilet kicks it off, a Uruguayan film about a poor town preparing for the Pope’s visit, called “alternately heartbreaking and hilarious” by the Village Voice. It’s showing Friday night (Jan 9) at 7 pm, with a free public reception prior to the screening. Another featured film is Silent Light on Feb 15, about German-speaking Mennonite farmers in Mexico, called dazzling by the New York Times. “To miss this film would be a sin,” wrote critic AO Scott. For the full schedule, click here.

OSU alumnus Tom Harbrecht has an exhibit -- Landscapes and Seascapes -- opening Jan 8 and continuing until Feb 20 at the OSU Faculty Club. A reception is planned Jan 16, 6:30-8:30 pm. The paintings include scenes from central and southeastern Ohio, and rural Florida.

Michael Layne, a Jamaican student in Art Education's "mostly online MA" program sends photos of a community mural his high school students completed in Port Antonio, Jamaica (above). The mural, which garnered the attention of Jamaica's minister of education, is one of several the group is creating. The MA program is a partnership with the Edna Manley College of the Arts in Kingston.

Urban Cabaret

Photo of the Week

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.