Tag Archives: Fine Arts Library

Exhibits, Fine Arts Library, News

Tennessee at College

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Playbill for The Garden Players production of "Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay" by Bernice Dorothy Shapiro and Tom Williams, July 12, 1935. Courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center.

For once, we’re pretty happy that a lack of space has become an issue on campus.

Thanks in no small part to the ridiculously extensive Tennessee Williams holdings at the Harry Ransom Center, the Fine Arts Library has gotten the chance to host an overflow exhibit of materials related to the HRC’s massive homage to the Southern Gothic playwright, “Becoming Tennessee Williams.”

The companion exhibit at FAL, “Tennessee Williams, the College Years” features a limited number of items from Williams’s time in the academy – both at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and at the University of Iowa – including photos, correspondence, manuscripts and more.

The exhibition opens today and runs through July 31 in the Roberts Reading Room at FAL, where it can be viewed Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends from noon to 5 p.m.

 

Events, Exhibits, Faculty, Fine Arts Library

Art On Wheels

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We know that food trailers are all the rage right now, so it seems rather natural that those locations on wheels might find some other uses as well.

Enter the Artstream Ceramic Libary, a unique art exhibition featuring the work of 13 nationally recognized ceramic potters. Housed in a vintage 1967 silver Airstream trailer, the library travels across the country to libraries and organizations interested in sponsoring this project so people from coast to coast may participate in this distinctive cultural exchange.

And what better place to host such a gallery on wheels than at the Fine Arts Library at The University of Texas at Austin.

Similar in structure to a literature-based library, the Ceramic Library loans out unique handmade cups for seven days.  Borrowers from the Ceramic Library are required to take a digital photograph of the cup in use, though other art forms are encouraged as well, including music, video and visual art.  The photographs and art based on the loaned items will be posted online.

Take note, though: the borrowing program is limited to University of Texas at Austin faculty, staff and students.

The Artstream Ceramic Library will be hosted at the Fine Arts Library through March 31.

A reception highlighting the 40 cups available for checkout will take place Friday, March 4 at 5 p.m.  Lisa Orr – a local potter and one of the Artstream artists – will speak at 5:30 p.m. about the Artstream project.

On Monday, March 7 at 9 a.m. there will be a demonstration by Orr and Austin potter Ryan McKerley in the ceramics studio in the Art Building, Room 2.410.

Special thanks to ceramics aficionado Dennis Trombatore for his generous sponsorship of the exhibition.

Books, Fine Arts Library

Kerr’s Name Here

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He may have retired from the Libraries recently, but that hasn’t led Tim Kerr to slow his pace even a step. And since his wife Beth is still plugging away as Theater and Dance Librarian at the Fine Arts Library, we like to occasionally check in and see what he’s up to.

Turns out that in addition to continuing work on his art, Tim has also been working on a book about his art.

Your Name Here includes images of his activism art – paintings, sketches and multimedia endeavors – with handwritten commentary. It also comes with a cassette (yep) of some of Tim’s favorite musical creations.

The book is available (free preview) from Austin’s own Monofonus Press, just in time for the holidays.

Events, Faculty, Fine Arts Library

World AIDS Day at Fine Arts

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The Fine Arts Library will host an event in recognition of World AIDS Day, which occurs annually on December 1.

Guest speaker Akinyi Wadende, a graduate fellow in Education at Texas State University, will be joined by University of Texas Professor of Art History Moyo Okediji to present “Kwe Mosiko: HIV/AIDS, Art and Activism” in the Roberts Reading Room of the Fine Arts Library in the Doty Fine Arts Building beginning at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 1.

“Kwe Mosiko” is a concept among the ethnic Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania that celebrates beauty as a process of physical and emotional healing.

By examining the intersections of beauty and healing in contemporary American art, modern European art and indigenous African art, the presenters will draw on art and activism as creative resources to combat endemic and epidemic aspects of the HIV/AIDS infections. Video and multimedia components will accompany the presentation.

This event is free and open to the public.

Ephemera, Events, Exhibits, Fine Arts Library

“Fantasticks” Creators Talk at FAL

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The Fine Arts Library at The University of Texas at Austin will host an intimate conversation with the creators of the world’s longest-running musical, “The Fantasticks.”

“What Starts Here: A Conversation with Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt” will take place in the Roberts Reading Room in the Fine Arts Library at 3 p.m. on Thursday, October 14. Department of Theatre & Dance faculty Holly Williams will moderate.

Following the event will be a reception for the exhibition In a Major Key: Artifacts from 50 years of The Fantasticks, which features photos, playbills, manuscripts and other ephemera related to the various productions of “The Fantasticks” from the personal collection of Harvey Schmidt.

The exhibition – coordinated by Cathy Henderson of the Harry Ransom Center – is on display in the Roberts Reading Room at the Fine Arts Library through the end of the Fall semester.

The conversation with Schmidt and Jones is associated with the Department of Theatre & Dance’s 50th Anniversary production of “The Fantasticks” which features two performances on October 15 & 16, as well as a gala dinner and panel discussions.

Events

FAL Exhibit Explores an Explorer

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The Fine Arts Library is hosting an exhibition tracking the life and work of Colonel Leo Bond Roberts, an Army civil engineer who traveled extensively in his capacity for the military, taking photographs and collecting ephemera and artifacts from his travels throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

An opening reception takes place from 5-7 p.m., Friday, May 7, in the Roberts Reading Room of the Fine Arts Library. The exhibit will be on view through July.

The exhibit includes materials from all phases of Roberts’ life: childhood, college years, officer during World War I, topographer and explorer during the 1920s and 30s, civil engineer, military engineer and planner during World War II and chief engineer of the Jones Beach Marine Theater on Long Island, NY.

Photographs, publications, military awards, African masks, and lantern slides of travels in the Gobi Desert and in Ethiopia will be on display with many other items from Roberts’s travels.

Items in the exhibition were generously donated to the Fine Arts Library by Roberts’s daughter-in-law, Jan J. Roberts.

If you would like to attend the opening reception, please RSVP to Eve McQuade at emcquade@austin.utexas.edu or call 512-495-4363.

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Events

Science Study Break and Deborah Hay exhibit kick-start the home stretch

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HAL 9000
HAL gets the once-over from Dr. Risto Miikkulainen in 2010's first Science Study Break "Machines Gone Wild"

As always seems the case, the Libraries are ratcheting up the post-Spring Break calendar with a slew of events.

After a brief hiatus, this week sees the return of the wildly popular Science Study Breaks series hosted by the Life Science Library. I won’t bother going into the background of this pop culture meets science program, but you can read about it in our most recent issue of the Libraries Newsletter.

At any rate, this first SSB of 2010 features Computer Science and Neuroscience faculty Dr. Risto Miikkulainen discussing “Machines Gone Wild” using Mr. Data from TNG and HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey as foils for discussion. The program gets underway at 6:30pm, Wednesday, March 24 in Wheeler Lecture Hall (4.102) in Robert Lee Moore Hall.

Also later this week, an exhibit of photos featuring post-modern dance maven Deborah Hay gets an opening reception at the Fine Arts Library. Twenty images Continue reading Science Study Break and Deborah Hay exhibit kick-start the home stretch →

Services

Coming soon to a library near you…

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av_retrieval_graphicThere are no more excuses to be made for not getting knee-deep into the Libraries’ music collections.

The Fine Arts Library (FAL) has officially launched a retrieval service for its combined collection of audiovisual materials. Now users can have CDs, DVDs and other media shipped to the most convenient library branch for pick-up in around a couple of days.

I happened to be working with our Social Work & Government Librarian, PG Moreno for an article in our print newsletter, when I noticed that he had a box set of Stax/Volt Records singles on his desk, and I immediately became covetous. Continue reading Coming soon to a library near you… →