From Mubarak to Mao, CU’s a vanguard of culture, art

In one corner of campus, an iconic image of Mao Zedung is punctuated, literally, with wood screws. In another venue, a leader of the successful uprising in Egypt this year enthralled thousands as she shared her perspective of the “Arab Spring.” A few buildings away, a Russian actor this summer directed a Russian play with parts spoken in English and Russian.

These exemplify the “community and culture” that CU fosters, preserves and celebrates. The CU Art Museum, Conference on World Affairs and Colorado Shakespeare Festival enrich the lives of legions But they might not always get the recognition they’re due, observers say.

For that reason, “community and culture” is one of “four pillars of excellence” the university is striving to highlight.

The portrait of Mao Zedung, which is reverently displayed throughout China, is brought into sharper relief with wood screws. Nearby, an iconic image of a Chinese worker’s head is covered in corporate logos. These are two pieces from seven Colorado art collections on display at the University of Colorado Art Museum.

Temporary exhibits rotate frequently, and portions of the 6,000-piece permanent collection are always on display.

Dexter Williams, who got his master’s of fine arts from CU in 1984, serves as a senior vice president at a large Los Angeles-based investment management firm. His vocation is business, but his passion is art. He is a steady supporter of the visual arts at CU.

The Visual Arts Complex, completed in 2010, replaced a shabby 1918 facility with a state-of-the-art structure housing the CU Art Museum and the Department of Art and Art History.

The 170,000-square-foot complex is intended to be the premier visual-arts building in the CU system and the “cultural gateway” for the Boulder campus, officials say. It will also attract visitors from around the metro area, they believe.

Williams agrees: “I really was blown away by how well the VAC turned out.” For students, faculty and the museum visitors, “it is just a great space.”

Williams, who is active in visual-arts venues in Los Angeles, says there’s particular value in a university facility, which can “place an artist in context of what has happened and what is going on today.”

“To me, looking at the visual arts acknowledges something outside ourselves.”

Great art, he adds, makes you think and “takes you to a different place.” The mode of transportation can vary. “Both Rembrandt and de Kooning used paint, but what they did with it is totally different.”

Viewers might not like all art they view. “There are a lot of pieces of art that I don’t like,” Williams says.   But before rejecting a piece of art, however, he suggests that it’s important to fully grasp it. “The best critics may not like something, but they don’t reject it without understanding it.”

The nature of modern culture can impede such understanding. “I do think that in a world made up of 15- and 30-second sound bites, it’s difficult if not impossible for most art to be fully appreciated.”

Helping citizens, students and scholars interpret and appreciate art is the central purpose of the Visual Arts Complex, Williams says. “If you don’t have a common language, you could have the most profound utterance in the world, and nobody hears it, or worse yet, they misinterpret it.”

The world on campus

Like art, world events, culture and history are subject to interpretation. For more than six decades, the Conference on World Affairs has been an open exchange of ideas. If the university were Hyde Park, the conference would be Speakers’ Corner.

Bob Yates, an attorney, is among the Conference on World Affairs’ most-ardent supporters. A Boulder resident for about a decade, he was, initially, “vaguely aware of the conference.” His wife attended some sessions, but he was working full time.

A few years ago, Yates met Jane Butcher, Juli Steinhauer and Jim Palmer, three conference organizers and leaders who gave a presentation at the Boulder History Museum. The museum, for which Yates serves as president of the board, has a monthly speaker series called “Conversations with Extraordinary People.”

Yates says the trio lived up to the billing. That year, Butcher encouraged Yates and his wife to house a visiting speaker. Speakers at the Conference on World Affairs do not receive honoraria and pay their own way to Boulder.

Yates was “intrigued.” Housing a conference speaker was a way to contribute to a community event and promised personal enrichment as well.

The Yates’ first CWA houseguest was Troy Senik, a former speechwriter in the Bush administration, now a writer in Los Angeles. “He’s a conservative, and I’m a conservative,” Yates notes.

The conference has been criticized for a perceived bias toward liberal speakers and liberal issues.

“I think it’s not for lack of trying by the conference organizers,” Yates says. “I think audiences are less receptive here, and I think conservative speakers are reluctant to come here.”

Because he is conservative, the speaker was in high demand. He appeared on two or three panels a day. “He was not a shy person, and he welcomed the give and take.”

That respectful interplay of perspectives is “absolutely central” to the mission of the conference, Yates says. “You don’t learn sitting in a room talking to people of like mind.”

“Like a lot of democracies, we encourage debate and disagreement, and that’s what makes democracy healthy,” he adds.

This year, the Conference on World Affairs attracted 90,000 participants. Yates compares that to the Bolder Boulder, which draws about 50,000 runners.

The Bolder Boulder has a higher profile, perhaps because the conference is perceived as a university activity, Yates says. “Those are all fixable perceptions.”

“There’s no reason this coming year we can’t have 100,000 participants.”

Yates noted that the conference addresses topical issues alongside perennial debates. Gigi Ibrahim, a young woman who was on the front lines of the Egyptian uprising (and on the cover of Time magazine as a leader of the “Arab Spring”), was a smash hit.

Her use of social media to report what was happening in Tahrir Square—ground zero for the protesters who called for President Hosni Mubarak to resign—helped inform both the citizens and the international media.

Macky Auditorium, where she spoke, was packed. Scores listened outside via loudspeakers. “It was great to have the perspective of someone who was living a news event,” Yates said.

The bard and beyond

While the conference keeps the university community abreast of contemporary issues, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival has been a vanguard of theatrical culture for more than five decades. In 1975, it became the first American Shakespeare company to perform all 37 plays of the canon.

The CSF is four plays away from completing the canon a second time. But the festival’s repertoire is bigger than the bard. It regularly produces non-Shakespearean plays, as well.

This summer, the Shakespeare festival hosted a company of Russian artists. A famed Russian directed one of the season’s non-Shakespearean productions, “The Inspector General,” by Nikolai Gogol.

Sacha Millstone, senior vice president of The Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James and Associates, is on the Shakespeare festival’s advisory board and is among the CSF’s strongest advocates.

“I love the arts, and what artists are doing and what they have to say is very important. They give messages that are often both timeless and very on point,” Millstone says.

“Shakespeare happens to be a perfect example of that.”

In the Twitter age, people have ample choices of how to spend their leisure time. “There are a lot of options out there for our time and attention, so it can be harder to break through,” Millstone says.

She understands that people might be intimidated by Elizabethan English. “My experience is that after about 10 or 15 minutes, you just slip into it.” For those who’d like additional guidance, thespians dispense it before each show.

Additionally, Millstone notes, those who have not attended a CSF production in a while are likely to be pleased.

While emphasizing “what an amazing, romantic environment the Mary Rippon Theatre is,” Millstone notes some relatively new features. Audience members are now provided with seats with backs (and need not sit on the stone benches).

This year, an anonymous donor provided funding to put microphones on the actors.  This addressed the concern that actors could sometimes be drowned out by ambient noise.

“The total experience of attending the play has really been elevated.”

And, she adds, the festival is “a treasure for the university.”

For more information on the CU Art Museum, see http://cuartmuseum.colorado.edu. For more on the Conference on World Affairs, see http://www.colorado.edu/cwa. For more on the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, seehttp://www.coloradoshakes.org. And for information on the four “pillars of excellence,” and the Creating Futures campaign of “excellence and impact,” see http://www.cufund.org/campaign.