Arts and Culture Week, the annual celebration of University of Colorado Boulder artistic and cultural resources, begins Sept. 12 with a variety of free and low-cost events for campus and community audiences.
A highlight of the week will be the free public performance from noted author, poet and screenwriter Sherman Alexie, "An Urban Indian's Comic, Poetic & Highly Irreverent Look at the World." Alexie is nationally recognized for his poems and short stories of contemporary Native American reservation life. The event will be in the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University Memorial Center on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. A public reception and book signing will follow the evening's presentation.
The following evening, Sept. 14, brings the community-favorite presentation, "Native American Star Lore" by John Stocke, a professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at CU-Boulder. Stocke will share the traditional star knowledge of the Lakota, Pueblo and Navajo peoples on the planetarium dome, highlighting the beautiful and ingenious methods used by ancestral members of those tribes to keep an accurate calendar and time their religious ceremonies. The show begins at 7 p.m. and advance reservations are recommended.
Notable art events during the week include the Sept. 15 lecture and exhibition tour of the CU Art Museum exhibit, "Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War and the Holocaust" hosted by co-curator and author David Shneer, director of the Program in Jewish Studies. The exhibit features photographs spanning the Nazi-Soviet war from June 22, 1941, until V-Day on May 9, 1945, and features an opening section that places these images within the context of Soviet photography of the time. The lecture and tour begin at 7 p.m. at the CU Art Museum in the Visual Arts Complex. Earlier in the week in the Visual Arts Complex, the Visiting Artist Lecture Series will host a presentation from performance artists Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. in room 1B20. Miller and Shellabarger are known for exploring the dynamics of love and loss through their performance pieces.
Throughout the week, exhibits across campus include "Ray Tomasso Master papermaker and paper artist" at Norlin Library; "Image Clash: Contemporary Korean Video Art," "Points of View: Selections from Seven Colorado Collections" and "The Anxiety of Influence: Selections from the CU Art Museum's Ceramics Collection" at the CU Art Museum; and "Building the University: The First 30 Years" at the CU Heritage Center in Old Main.
Music performances for the 2011 Arts and Culture Week begin Monday, Sept. 12, with a 7:30 p.m. performance by the Tesla Quartet in Grusin Music Hall in the Imig Music Building. Free performances include the "Music Inspired by Children" performance of the CU-Boulder Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band starting at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium on Sept. 13, and the Sept. 17 Horn Studio Concert in honor of Stephen R. Dudley, held at 11 a.m. in Grusin Music Hall. The internationally acclaimed Takács Quartet will close out the week with performances on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 4 p.m. and Monday, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. While these performances are typically sold out months in advance, on-stage seating for both performances may be available.
Saturday, Sept. 17 is also Family Day at the CU Museum of Natural History. The museum will feature the topic "Feathered Friends: All About Birds" from 1 to 4 p.m., in conjunction with the exhibit "Bird Shift: The Anthropogenic Ornithology of North America," which explores how human activity affects local bird behavior. In addition to several long-term exhibits, the museum is currently featuring "Burning Issues: The Fourmile Canyon Fire," which explores circumstances during the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, the ecological importance of fires and how environmental and human factors affect fire activity.
Other unique events throughout the week include four screenings from the International Film Series, including a filmmaker-hosted screening of the film "Repo Man" on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in Muenzinger Auditorium. The Dennis Small Cultural Center will host several student-centered events throughout the week, including a 9 a.m. Coffee Hour on Sept. 13, an Interactive Theatre Presentation of "Too Soon?" at 6 p.m. on Sept. 14 and a Culture Sip at 4 p.m. on Sept. 15.
Arts and Culture Week is presented through the cooperation of the Arts and Culture Roundtable of CU-Boulder in recognition of the student fee funding support that is vital for cultural institutions on the Boulder campus. For more information about the wide variety of events hosted during the week visit inthemix.colorado.edu.
CU-Boulder hosts thousands of lectures, exhibits, performances and sporting events each year. For a full listing of campus events visit www.colorado.edu/events.
