Category: Arts & Humanities

The City of Madison is exploring if, and how, it can preserve a 75-foot-mural at the Madison Central Library by noted artist Aaron Bohrod when the library is demolished and replaced with a new $37 million facility.The mural, which features a series of fantasy-like animals in soft earth tones, is valued for its place in the library and for being a creation of Bohrod, a UW-Madison artist in residence and nationally-known figure who was prolific as a painter, sculptor, print maker, ceramicist and illustrator.

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein has been playing, recording and living with J.S. Bach’s music for years. When Dinnerstein comes to the Wisconsin Union Theater on Friday, Dec. 4, she’ll play a program including Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations, four impromptus by Franz Schubert, Phillip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach and Bach’s own French Suite.

From the wassail to the flaming figgy pudding, Tudor Dinners at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union present an evening thatâ??s positively feudal.

What better time than Thanksgiving week to offer thanks to a Wisconsin treasure.

That would be Jim Fleming, the Wisconsin Public Radio personality who has greeted thousands of state residents weekday mornings with his silken voice and upbeat spirit as he ladles out classical music. Fleming announced his retirement recently. His last â??Morning Classicsâ? broadcast will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Dec. 3.

Innovative choreography, live music and new collaborations will mark the UW-Madison Dance Program Fall Faculty Concert (“SPLASH!”) this Saturday, 8 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

Doris K. Hembrough opened her fine art gallery, the Hembrough Gallery, in Mazomanie in June 2008. A photographer with an eye for sharp, contrasting textures in ordinary scenes, Hembrough said she is sensitive to patterns in light. Hembrough returned to Wisconsin, where she earned a degree in art history at UW-Madison, from Taos, N.M., in 2006.

The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission has awarded 50 grants totaling more than $124,000 for community arts, cultural and local history programs, in the third and final grant cycle of 2009.

The county grants this year were matched by more than $910,000 from local foundations and funds, including the Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times; the American Girlâ??s Fund for Children; the Endres Manufacturing Co. Foundation; Madison Community Foundationâ??s Arts Access Fund; the Overture Foundation; and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

Forty-four project grants totaling $109,700 were awarded in four areas, including visual arts, music, dance and arts in school.

(Among the recipients are UW Cinematheque, the UW-Madison Arts Institute, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Jin-Wen Yu Dance, and the Wisconsin Union Theater.)

Memorial Library accepted WYOU Community Televisionâ??s donation of â??Nothing to Hideâ? videotapes Friday, creating the largest cable access video archive of a show centering on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender topics in the nation.

Chris Newbold, a 1993 UW-Madison graduate, recognized the wide appeal of Bucky Badger (Bucky has more than 18,000 fans on Facebook) and turned his passion for his alma mater into “The Big Bucky Badger Mystery” (University Pride Publishing, $21.95). Writing a children’s book with Bucky as the main character was “the perfect project,” Newbold said in a phone interview from his home in Missoula, Mont. “It’s a way to give back to the community and the UW, while at the same time bringing smiles to kids’ faces.”

“The theater is our laboratory. Itâ??s where our students do their work, where they learn. Our audiences are doubly important in that regard. “So says David Furumoto, the new head of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s University Theatre, and a tenured associate professor of acting in the department of theater and drama. Itâ??s safe to say thereâ??s never been another UT director quite like Furumoto. How many kabuki experts do you know who are also accomplished bagpipers?

This weekend, the University Theatre opens Federico Garcia Lorcaâ??s “Blood Wedding,” a dark, passionate tragedy set in the Spanish countryside, complete with a love triangle and a deep-seated family feud. It marks the debut of the UW-Madisonâ??s MFA acting class of 2012.

Economic struggles were just one of the many subjects filmmakers shed some light on over the weekend at the UW Madison campus. The Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival showcased 50 eco-friendly films from around the world aimed to inspire viewers to take action in their communities.

Writer Dave Eggers and the South Sudanese man whose story he told in his 2006 book “What Is the What” were at UW-Madison on Wednesday to talk about the pairâ??s work in Sudan and to urge the overflow crowd to get involved in efforts to bring peace to the country.”What is the What,” a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, is a fictionalized account of Valentino Achak Dengâ??s experience as a refugee from Sudanâ??s civil war. Proceeds from the bookâ??s sale fund a foundation he runs that focuses on increasing educational opportunities in his home village of Marial Bai. Much of Tuesdayâ??s talk and an accompanying slide show concerned Dengâ??s work to build a secondary school in the remote village.

Writer Dave Eggers and the South Sudanese man whose story he told in his 2006 book “What Is the What” were at UW-Madison on Wednesday to talk about the pairâ??s work in Sudan and to urge the overflow crowd to get involved in efforts to bring peace to the country.

Up until just a few years ago, you knew what you were getting into when you walked into a so-called “environmental film.” Some dewy-eyed shots of trees and birds. Maybe a Joan Baez song on the soundtrack. And, above all, youâ??d be getting a stern lecture on how mankind is squandering its earthly resources and must mend the error of its ways.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Jim Fleming has soothed us with the classics, read to us and informed us. Now, after nearly 40 years, the Madison native is retiring.

NBC 15 anchor and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Carleen Wild has a new country band called Main Street Wisdom.

WYOU Community Television is giving 800 video tapes of “Nothing To Hide,” the late David Runyonâ??s long-running cable access television show, to UW-Madisonâ??s Memorial Library.

UW-Madison alumnus Jeff Skubal makes fight scenes on stage look realistic in  his career as a fight choreographer.

Pianist Christopher Taylor, an associate music prof at the University of Wisconsin, performs the Goldberg Variations on Friday at the University of Chicago. An opportunity to see the Goldbergs is always a treat, and Taylor is an outstanding pianist – his performance of Messiaenâ??s complete, immensely challenging “Vingt Regards sur lâ??Enfant-Jésus,” one of his specialties, last year as part of the Messiaen Festival was one of the most remarkable shows Iâ??ve ever seen.

Moliere named his last comedy “The Imaginary Invalid,” referring to Argan, an elderly hypochondriac. But on stage in the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Mitchell Theatre, “Invalid” is Toinetteâ??s show.

For those unfamiliar with capoeira, the tradition – rich in Afro-Brazilian roots – spans five centuries and is known for its ritualistic movements, combining the two contrasting worlds of dance and martial arts.

The rush of landing a lead role in an opera is often quickly replaced by another cocktail of emotions, with elation giving way to nervousness and fatigue.

University Opera reduces the stress and doubles the opportunities for the young singers at UW-Madison by double-casting its starring roles. And “Thaïs,” an opera by Jules Massenet, has a peach of a lead: a charismatic, priest-seducing courtesan with a heart of gold.

Myths about the arts, business and lifestyle choices emerged during a recent brainstorm in a class at Grainger Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. At the top of the list, guest lecturer Lisa Sonora Beam wrote the biggest, scariest myth of all:

“Artists starve.”

“Revolt of the Beavers,” the season opener for University Theatre, turns the phrase “busy as a beaver” into a singing, dancing socialist parable for kids.

“The Revolt of the Beavers” succeeds in being educational, fun and high-energy, woven around lessons about conservation, teamwork and social responsibility. With 8 and 9-year-old protagonists, itâ??s aimed at elementary through middle school students, but the “Beavers” serve food for thought for grown-ups, too.

After having appeared on both the second and fifth seasons of HBOâ??s Def Poetry Jam,  McConnell will showcase her talents as one of the major attractions at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI)â??s 5th annual Passing the Mic Series, which will be held Oct. 8-10 at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium.

Everybody has to have a hungry heart this week in Madison, with plenty of events leading up to the big Food for Thought Festival this weekend. In conjunction with the UW-Madison’s Go Big Read initiative, the good folks over at the Ebling Library in the UW Health Sciences Learning Center have put together It’s Good For You! 100 Years of the Art & Science of Eating, an exhibit that draws from the collections of libraries across campus.

At first glance, Laura Olear’s painting look simply like colorful abstract art. This one looks vaguely like raspberries, rendered larger-than-life in dark red and bluish-green. That one could be the inside of a walnut. Another looks like a beehive.

But a closer look at a description hanging next to a ghoulish mask reveals it to be a massively inflated rendering of Mononucleosis. Those raspberries are actually Herpes. The walnuts are HIV. The beehive is a virus related to E. Coli.

Olear’s “Pathological Processes” is a series of digital prints, watercolors and large-scale oil paintings hanging in the Ebling Library. The art lines the hallways around the second floor of the Health Sciences Learning Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Eat food.” It doesnâ??t sound like very profound advice, especially coming from a James Beard award-winning food writer. Author Michael Pollan will be explaining his theory when he visits to Madison next week.

Michael Pollan, the acclaimed author of five books, including The Omnivoreâ??s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, will be in Madison next week for a series of events as part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Go Big Read common-reading program and this yearâ??s Food for Thought Festival.

Four puppets used by the UW-Madison Javanese musical ensemble disappeared at the end of July and haven’t been seen since.

They may not have been worth much money, but are of great sentimental value to the owners, Sakti and Steve Laronga.

Hereâ??s a campus mystery: Four puppets used by the UW-Madison Javanese musical ensemble disappeared at the end of July and havenâ??t been seen since.

They may not have been worth much money, but are of great sentimental value to the owners, Sakti and Steve Laronga.

“For us, those are one of the very valuable things we have,” said Sakti Laronga, who is affiliated with the universityâ??s Javanese ensemble.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s fall lecture series will focus on the art of hip-hop with lectures by a variety of prominent speakers.

Topics during the nine-week lecture series will cover subjects such as sociology, history, women’s studies, and communication arts.

Lorrie Moore had just begun working on what would become her new novel, â??A Gate at the Stairs,â? when she told one interviewer that she was writing a book â??about hate.â?

Later she recalled telling someone else that it was a novel about chores.

Since 1984 Ms. Moore has taught creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Lorrie Moore is that rare bird of America, a fiction writer who has found success writing short stories as opposed to novels: Her acclaimed 1998 “Birds of America” became a bestseller, one of just a few short-story collections in the past dozen years or so to resonate with consumers as well as with book critics.

Iâ??m aware of one â?? one â?? reader who doesnâ??t care for Lorrie Moore, and even that one seems a little apologetic about it. â??Too . . . punny,â? my friend explains, resorting to a pun as though hypnotized by the very tendency that sets off his resistance.