School of music faculty present talent

The School of Music is showcasing some of its talented members with a series of faculty recitals. During the first two weeks of October, distinguished faculty members Paul Barte, organ; Matthew Morris, bassoon, and Sylvia Eckes, piano, will present their talents for the community.

"As a faculty musician, you strive to tell the composer's story," said Morris, a visiting assistant professor. "It's like time travel; I connect with them across time. It's as if I animate the bones of a dinosaur and make it get up and walk around the room."

Morris will showcase his love for 20th century English composers at 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 4, at the School of Music Recital Hall in Glidden Hall. The works included in his recital are pieces he is preparing to record for a CD project.

"The CD will showcase the English gift for lovely melodic writing and the depiction of vivid images," Morris said.

Barte performs at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2, at Galbreath Chapel and Eckes performs at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the School of Music Recital Hall. Admission is free to all concerts.

'Moving Bodies' redefines dance

Ohio University's School of Dance and faculty-led professional African dance and music ensemble, Azaguno, has reached across the Atlantic Ocean to create a dance concert that combines European and African contemporary dance.

Featuring the Cathy Sharp Dance Company from Basel, Switzerland, "Moving Bodies: A Euro-African Contemporary Dance Concert" will take the stage at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3.

"With funding for dance absent from public schools it is imperative that university dance programs work diligently to provide exposure to and training in contemporary dance forms, especially of diverse backgrounds, to ensure the position of dance in American cultural tradition," said Assistant Professor of Dance Zelma Badu-Younge.

The Cathy Sharp Dance Ensemble is an international group comprising six dancers from Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium and Japan. Sharp, a native of Nashville, Tenn., was a soloist with the renowned Basel Ballet in Switzerland for 15 years before co-founding her company in 1991.

Azaguno is directed by Badu-Younge and Associate Professor of Multicultural Music Education Paschal Younge. The group is a colorful and vibrant multi-ethnic ensemble that focuses on research, preservation, education and performance of traditional African music and dance.

The concert is free for OHIO students with a valid ID, $9 for non-OHIO students and $12 for general admission. In addition, a free lecture and demonstration will be presented from 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2, at the Shirley Wimmer Dance Theatre in Putnam Hall and a free children's dance class will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3, at Arts/West on W. State Street.

"DeWitt Godfrey: Drawings"

Visiting artist DeWitt Godfrey gives a new meaning to the art exhibit by focusing on the process of making art in his current showing at the Ohio University Art Gallery.

Godfrey, associate professor of sculpture and director of the Institute of Creative and Performing Arts at Colgate University in New York, is best known for his large, abstract sculptures of circular, weathered steel that draw from his training as an architect. But for this exhibit, Godfrey changes directions and shows the process behind his structures.

"I have seen DeWitt's work and was interested in bringing him and his work to the galleries," said Petra Kralickova, curator of the Kennedy Museum of Art. "In keeping with the missions of Ohio University's galleries, it's important to bring art to the region that can not otherwise be seen or found unless you travel to a larger city such as Columbus or Cleveland."

His conceptual renderings not only show his architectural background, but also portray the link between form and context that includes the material, process, place and collaboration that go into one of his sculptures. The drawings on display include Godfrey's sketch titled "Exchange (Greenwich South Proposal)" of his well-known stacked spherical designs in New York City's Greenwich Village. Viewers get a sense of its enormous scale because cars are depicted driving through it.

"These preparatory drawings help the artist better realize the project and think about the scale, material, funding, viewers, environment among other aspects," Kralickova said.

Included in the exhibit are drawings and a folio of work correlated to an upcoming installation at The Ridges, just next to the Kennedy Museum of Art. That installation will be completed in May 2011.

The exhibit also includes graphite drawings of blocks, showing the artist's signature style and message on how shapes can fit together to create something lucid.

The Ohio University Art Gallery is located on the fourth floor of Seigfred Hall. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free. Visit www.finearts.ohio.edu/art for more information.

"L'Histoire du Soldat"

The Marshall Chamber Players, comprising Marshall University music faculty, will visit Ohio University to perform Stravinsky's famous "L'Histoire du Soldat" ("The Soldier's Tale") at 4 p.m. Sunday at the School of Music Recital Hall in Glidden Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The piece, composed in 1918 during World War I, tells the story of a soldier coming home from war, who trades his fiddle to the devil for a book that knows the future of the economy -- something that many people wish they could obtain even 90 years later.

"It's really completely different from the work Stravinsky was writing at the time," said Michael Parkinson, director of the School of Music. "With the influence of the war, he didn't write the huge works he is so known for because many musicians had been enlisted."

Because so few musicians were available, each part includes only one instrument, meaning only the most talented musicians would be able to perform its difficult score that encompasses multiple genres.

"It includes elements of ragtime, early jazz and classical -- it almost sounds like the folk music of a 'town band' that gets together just for the joy of playing music," Parkinson said.

Meant to be a theatrical work, it includes narration and is told by three characters: the soldier, the devil and the narrator, all played by faulty members from Marshall University.

"It's such a great way to start the year with such a great concert. There's a lot of sarcasm and memorable melodies in the piece and people should be prepared to laugh throughout the performance," Parkinson said.

Prints kick off Hispanic Heritage Month

The Multicultural Center will host a selection woodblock prints created by the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca (ASARO), a collective of young Mexican artists, in a new exhibit on display through Oct. 9 in its gallery on the second floor of Baker University Center.

"These prints give their makers the ability to voice their discontent in an expressive, evocative and direct way," said Caitlin Nolan, co-curator and a printmaking graduate student. "Because of the tumultuous political situation in Oaxaca many ASARO artists remain anonymous and would have great difficulty bringing their work out of the country for exhibition."

Seldom seen in the United States, ASARO's remarkable woodblock prints are part of Mexico's long tradition of popular revolutionary art. The artists sell woodblock prints for 100 pesos, roughly $10, in Oaxaca's zocalo, or the public square. ASARO's main objective, however, is to use the artwork in activist statements that highlight injustice and the turmoil of the area.

ASARO's acts have included creating paper stencils of an arrested comrade and painting her portrait over the walls of the historic city center. The group also printed 3-foot-tall woodblock prints of goose-stepping police monsters on tissue paper. By dawn a chorus line of mutant police was pasted to a cathedral's wall.

The exhibit was curated by Nolan and Kevin McCloskey, a professor at the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where the prints are on loan from its collection.

The exhibit will conclude on Oct. 9 with a lecture and reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. The gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Treasure hunting in Athens and Ohio University

Internationally known artist Mark Dion will shine his spotlight on the collections from both Ohio University and Athens community members at the Kennedy Museum of Art in the exhibit "Collections Collected: The University Collects and Athens Collects Miniatures" running from Sept. 24 to Nov. 29.

Dion, an installation artist, examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. A Mark Dion gallery space is unique because of the way he brings together objects from a variety of collections. He visited many departmental collections, including those from the anthropology and geology departments, the College of Engineering, athletics and aviation.

Royal Mapes, professor of geological sciences, oversees the university's paleobotanical collection and is eager to see the completed exhibition.

"I know [Dion] will put the collected objects in a format to excite people's interest and make them ask questions," he said. Mapes added that Dion was interested in objects such as mineral and fossil specimens and even an old miner's hat.

Dion chose visually compelling objects that represent aspects of the university and its researchers. He likens his process to treasure hunting, explaining that he looks for things that are unique to a particular collection, but also may represent the direction of that collection. He is especially enthusiastic about bringing people together from the community and revealing treasures from the collections he visited.

To complement the Kennedy's exhibit, the School of Art will host "Mark Dion: Collected Editions 1992-2009" in Trisolini Gallery from Sept. 18 to Nov. 14. The exhibit will feature limited-edition prints and multiples created by Dion between 1992 and 2009.

Opening receptions with the artist will be held at Trisolini Gallery in Baker University Center from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, and at the Kennedy Museum of Art from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24. Both events are free and open to the public.

Located in Lin Hall at The Ridges, museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 12 to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 12 to 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and holidays. Parking and admission are free. Visit www.ohio.edu/museum for more information.

Trisolini Gallery is located in Baker University Center 405. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free. Visit www.finearts.ohio.edu/art for more information.