arts

Mill Art Features K Professor

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Glass sculptures at Western Michigan University’s Richmond Center for Visual ArtsAssociate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley has an exhibition with her husband, Norwood Viviano, opening this month at Western Michigan University’s Richmond Center for Visual Arts. The show, set for April 25 to May 23, will explore the way industry affects communities and the environment.

Lindley’s sculptures, made from clay and handmade paper, deal with abandoned paper mills in Allegan County and their impact on the Kalamazoo River. She and Viviano became interested in the mills after moving to Plainwell, where they have a home studio. Viviano commutes from there to his job as an associate professor of art and design at Grand Valley State University, in the Grand Rapids area.

Viviano will display glass sculptures modeled after abandoned Detroit factories and their surrounding landscapes and may exhibit drawings from a piece in last year’s Art Prize competition in Grand Rapids. The two artists also plan to exhibit at least one collaborative piece that was in the 2011 Art Prize contest.

Richmond Center gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and noon to 6 p.m. Saturday in April and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday in May.

Works for the exhibition were created with support from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo KADI grant,  the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Directions Grant, the John Michael Kohler Center Arts-Industry program and/or the Peter S. Reed Foundation.

K Senior’s Documentary Poetry Project Cited in “Gay Military Signal”

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English major Gabriella Donofrio ’13 completed what English professor Diane Seuss calls “a remarkable Senior Individualized Project!”

Donofrio wrote a book of documentary poetry about life in the military (before and after the repeal of the “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” policy) for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer soldiers serving their country. She was on study abroad when the policy was repealed in September, 2011, and didn’t give it too much thought until three months later.

She wanted her SIP to be a book of poetry, and based hers on Mark Nowak’s collection of documentary poetry titled Coal Mountain Elementary. “I first interviewed several military members about their experiences of being gay in the military,” wrote Donofrio. “I then transcribed the interviews and framed poems around the stories that seemed most poignant to me.

The result is a collection of pieces in the voices of seven members of the LGBTQ+ military movement.” Her SIP includes some 75 pieces, some of which were published with a story about Donofrio and her project in the monthly web publication Gay Military Signal.

Busting Myths

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K-Desi members performed a South Asian dance at "Mythbusters," the 2013 Asiafest
K-Desi members performed a South Asian dance at “Mythbusters,” the 2013 Asiafest.

In 2012, “Redefining Asian” (aka Asiafest) received the “Program of the Year” award at the Black and Orange Awards Ceremony. In 2013 the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association (APISA), formerly known as Asian Student Association (ASA), produced another spectacular Asiafest: “Mythbusters.” The show took place in a Dalton Theatre packed with by campus and community members. Performing student organizations included APISA, K-Desi, and Cirque du K, and many individual performers participated as well.

“Mythbusters” showcased different facets of the diverse Asian culture, and few forces break stereotypes as effectively as does an awareness of diversity. There were 15 lively performances divided into two acts that included traditional and modern dances, skits, instrumental performances, singing, and poetry reading. The opening piece was a video collection of campus interviews of students who described stereotypes they encounter and shared their opinions about appropriate versus culturally offensive questions. Audience favorites included the Matrix Ping Pong skit, a traditional South Asian dance by K-Desi, and Gangam Style, which received enthusiastic cheering from the audience.

APISA President Pavan Policherla ’13 says, “The purpose of Asia Fest is to aid the club in promoting Asian culture on campus in a fun and entertaining way, as well as try to educate the Kalamazoo community about some issues that the members of the club feel are important and need to be recognized.” Asian students and student organizations start working on the show at the beginning of winter quarter. Each year a new theme is selected by APISA members, one that pertains to issues they think need to be addressed. Asiafest has delighted the hearts of many every year and continues to uphold its tradition of depicting a realistic picture of Asia and its diverse population.

Public Art and Artistic Truth Lecturer at K

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Author, philosopher and theologian Lambert Zuidervaart
Author, philosopher and theologian Lambert Zuidervaart

Kalamazoo College will host two public lectures on “Artistic Truth” and “Public Art” by Lambert Zuidervaart, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and a member of the graduate faculties in theology and philosophy at the University of Toronto. He was recently appointed Director of ICS’s Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics. His recent books include Art in Public (2011), Dog-Kissed Tears (2010), Social Philosophy after Adorno (2007), and Artistic Truth (2004).

On Thursday Feb. 28, his topic will be “Artistic Truth.” On Friday March 1, his topic will be “Public Art.” Both lectures take place in the Olmsted Room, in Mandelle Hall, at the corner of Academy and Thompson streets on the K campus. Free and open to the public, the lectures start at 8:00 p.m. Call (269) 337-7076 for more info.

Zuidervaart is a recognized expert in critical theory, especially the work of Theodor Adorno. His research and teaching range across continental philosophy, hermeneutics, social philosophy, and philosophy of art, with an emphasis on Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Habermas. He is currently developing a comprehensive and transformative conception of truth, in debate with prominent philosophers in both analytic and continental traditions.

Before moving to Toronto in 2002, Zuidervaart was a professor of philosophy at Calvin College for 17 years and served as board member and president of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.

K senior builds her future with help from K’s past

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Eeva Stout-Sharp with a painting
Eeva Stout-Sharp

Eeva Stout-Sharp ’13 is reaching into Kalamazoo College’s past in order to forge her own future after K.

As part of her Senior Individualized Project (SIP) in Art History, the Petoskey, Mich. native has curated an exhibit of portraits from the College’s art collection that depicts K faculty and administrators from the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Ten photographs and oil paintings (plus an additional mystery piece) comprise an exhibit that includes images of James and Lucinda Stone who led the College from 1843-63, College benefactor Mary Mandelle whose oil portrait otherwise hangs in the Olmsted Room in Mandelle Hall, and past K presidents such as Herbert Lee Stetson and Allan Hoben.

“The show is [built] around the idea that at the turn of the 20th century, the American identity through portraiture takes a huge turn,” Sharp said. Portraits from the 19th century represented status and a stoic image of America, she explained. In the 20th century, cameras and other technology became more available, allowing middle class Americans access to portraiture.

As a result, said Sharp, the role of the portrait shifted. “There’s this desire to empathize with a person rather than see a symbol of power,” Sharp said.

Sharp said that putting the portraits on display in a new setting will allow viewers to see them as more than just wall decorations. She has painted the gallery walls red and installed ottomans and a Persian rug in the space, in order to “give people the sense of a turn-of-the-century study, which is where these works would have originally been displayed.”

Sharp hopes to work in the museum world after graduation. This project, along with helping to curate other students’ art projects on campus, has giving her a taste for that. “By teaching myself to curate,” Sharp said, “I’m hoping to build a toolkit of skills and experiences that I can contribute to an arts organization.”

The exhibit runs from Feb. 25 to March 8 in the Light Fine Arts Building gallery at the corner of Academy and Thompson streets. A catalog with supplemental information on the portraits will be available in April.

Story and photo by Maggie Kane ’13

Into the Next Fable

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Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College continues its season of “Fables and Fairy Tales” with the Southwest Michigan premier of Sarah Ruhl’s award-winning comedy In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play). The play opens Thursday, February 28, in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse and plays through Sunday, March 3. Thursday’s performance begins at 7:30 PM, with Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, and a 2 PM matinee on Sunday. Thursday is “pay what you want.” The other performances cost $15 (adults), $10 (seniors), and $5 (students with ID). The box office opens one hour prior to each performance.

In the Next Room was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. The play is set in 1880s America at the dawn of the age of electricity, and it contains adult subject matter and language. It’s also “a modern fable with its own invention, an electric vibrator,” says Jane Huffman ’15, student dramaturge.

“Catherine Givings listens with great curiosity and wonder at the door of her husband’s medical laboratory,” adds Huffman, “as he successfully treats female patients suffering from ‘hysteria,’ a catch-all anxiety disorder with symptoms ranging from restlessness to ‘causing trouble.’ All the while Catherine sits in the next room, burdened with dissatisfaction.”

In the Next Room is directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Karen Berthel, with scene design by Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts, and costume design by Elaine Kauffman. Senior Alden Phillips and sophomore Grace Gilmore, playing the roles of Dr. and Mrs. Givings, lead the cast of K students.

K Jazz Band Performs in Ann Arbor Concert Series

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The Kalamazoo College Jazz Band swings into Ann Arbor as part of a concert series at the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor. The Jazz Band performs at 7:30 PM on March 1, and the performance is free and open to public. First Baptist is a beautiful historic church located at 517 East Washington Street. It’s history is entwined with Kalamazoo College’s–President Allan Hoben (1922-1935) served at the church prior to his presidency, and First Baptist of Ann Arbor is the church home of Marlene Crandell Francis ’58, trustee emerita of Kalamazoo College. A reception with the student musicians will occur following the music! The Jazz Band is directed by Professor of Music Thomas Evans.

K Grad at Work on Basketball Musical

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Ben Harpe ’09 is a cast member of “The Lockout: An NBA Musical,” written by Jason Gallagher and Ben Fort and to be produced by their company Six Hours Short. And Ben is also part of a the KickStarter project to record an album of the musical’s songs. You can see Ben (on left) belting out “I Believe,” a duet with superstar “Macon.” The play grabbed the attention of ESPN.com’s Henry Abbott, who wrote an article about it. “The Lockout” will be presented for the first time in a staged reading at Chicago’s Stage 773 on Friday August 31 and Saturday September 1.

K Undergraduate Poet is Up and Going

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Winter term 2013 finds sophomore Kate Belew working as an intern at the Poet’s House in lower Manhattan. Another stop on the creative journey of this English major. As a first-year student Kate received the Nature in Words Fellowship at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute for Environmental Education (Hastings, Mich.).

“It is an extraordinarily competitive fellowship,” says Kate’s mentor and Kalamazoo College’s Writer-in-Residence Diane Seuss. “And Kate made the most of the opportunity with her project, ’Voicing the Natural.’” According to Kate, the project sought to speak through the plants and animals she encountered during summer at the institute. “I planned to create the project using persona poems, inspired by Conrad Hilberry’s collection of poems, The Fingernail of Luck,” says Kate. “As I wrote, the project shaped itself into sections, and finally into a collection of poems that I named But That Was In A Different Life.” The poems are threaded together by Wild Woman, a voice of nature within a female human. Explains Kate: “I walked the trails, read books of poems, took notes, worked with Di, and took the time to witness what was happening in the natural world.”

Kate has also published poems in national magazines: “Prairie” in Outrageous Fortune; “Spoon Out Indigo” in Cliterature (on online magazine founded and edited by K graduate Lynn Brewer ’05); and “Yarrow” in the print magazine Straylight.

Kalamazoo College Well Represented in the Third Annual Kalamazoo New Play Festival

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The thing’s the plays
In which we see the work of Ks!

“Ks” refers to the Kalamazoo College alumni, student, and occasional professor (and Summer Common Reading author) whose work is part of the Theatre Kalamazoo New Play Festival that will be held January 25 and 26 at the Epic Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo. Dana Robinson ’11 and Rebecca Staudenmaier ’11 are the authors of 10-minute plays that are part of the festival–Outdoors and The House of South, respectively. Outdoors will play at 4 PM on Saturday, January 26; The House of South is part of the 8 PM group of plays on the same day. Current senior Megan Rosenberg is directing the play Bringing Home the Bones by Bonnie Jo Campbell, who was the College’s Summer Common Reading author (Once Upon a River) in Fall 2012. Campbell also is an adjunct professor in the English department. Sponsoring theatres are Farmers Alley Theatre (Outdoors), Fancy Pants Theatre (The House of South), and Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College (Bringing Home the Bones). The Festival is free; no reservations are necessary. For more information please, and to learn the other plays featured in the Festival, please call any participating theatre or log on to the Theatre Kalamazoo website.