Arts and Humanities Reports; Arts and Humanities Reports #13

lately visitors to the University of Oklahoma are merely those driving down Boyd Street in Norman will have noticed a new group of rather large inhabitants on the university lawns. These new objects are the works of internationally renowned sculptor Alan Hauser. The sculptures are part of the exhibit Alan Hauser, a life and art currently showing at the Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art on the OU campus. Hauser is a member of the Chiracawa Band of Apache Indians. Hauser's sculptures are exhibited in public places throughout the world, including offering of the sacred pipe at the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York City and as long as the waters flow on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol building. According to museum director Tom Toperser, the exhibition which runs through September the 13th is a very special one for Hauser. It's literally retrospective in that it shows work by Alan from his very early days as a student up to work as I say that were made especially for this exhibition. We have one piece that will be out of doors titled May We Have Peace which is being cast in bronze literally as we speak in

Chidoni Foundry in Santa Fe 11 foot tall. American Indian holding a peace pipe above his head which we will show here probably will not go through rest of the tour. It's a special feature in having the exhibition here in Oklahoma. He's coming home and he's very excited about it. He's looking forward to being here and going out of his way to show us and his all of his friends and relatives and so on. His most recent work. Museum director Toperser feels that Hauser is not only an important contemporary artist but also the last of a dying breed. He is without a doubt the last major living connection with the tradition of American Indian art. Everyone who studied every student who studied sculpture who was an American Indian and spent some time with Alan Hauser. He was their mentor. He is looked to by American Indian artists

as literally the godfather of this medium. The more I'm involved with this exhibition, the more people that I talk to on the telephone or meet in person who who have a story or an anecdote about working with Alan spending time with Alan how he influenced their lives and their studio and so on. He is highly thought of in the American Indian artistic community as well as the museum community. Alan Hauser is an artist that provides a bridge between elements of tradition and the elements of the present. Alan Hauser is a unique American Indian artist and that he both relies upon the traditional images and the traditional narratives and the traditional points of departure for making art that most American Indians

continue to return to but he has taken these traditional formats, these traditional images and abstracted them and pushed the boundaries. He's really unique in that that he has both feet firmly planted in the past and in the present and I believe some of his work is even giving us a hint of the future that we will see artists who return to the American Indian imagery the direction they will be going. He's very influential in this whole arena within the art world. Alan Hauser, a life in art, is on display on the north oval of the University of Oklahoma and his smaller sculptures and paintings are on exhibit in the museum gallery. The Fred Jones Jr. gallery is up in 12 noon to 4 pm Thursday through Sunday. For more information about the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art or the Alan Hauser exhibit, call 325-3272. For the art report,

I'm Kelly Reigns. If you love jazz but your wife and kids don't, here's an excuse to get your whole family down to the sooner theater on a Friday night to hear the Howard Hanger Jazz fantasy. Jazz for the whole family including children. Here's Kim Bracken of the sooner theater. For quite a while he has traveled all over the country and parts of the world as a jazz musician

and has worked with different musicians for quite some time. I want to say probably within you know a decade even if not more. Howard Hanger has a family approach to his music that is really growing. Right, he, as I understand his concert, will give you a taste of just about every growing jazz style from blues to mainstream to Dave Brubeck style, etc. He has appealed the children. It stems from his work within the school systems and working with kids in workshops to introduce them to jazz as an American art form and music form. That's how he stated that his youth synthesizers with the kids, they really key into it because they know that sound from video games and that they play and can really identify with it. If you're not a jazz

fan, the odds are before the Howard Hanger Jazz fantasy concert is over, you will be one. I don't know, I think he's been with the state arts council touring program here for quite some time as well as in North Carolina and sets up workshops, not only with children but with adults as well across the country. He is an, as I mentioned, an ordained minister and kind of started in that realm and with his music influence moved into the workshop and concert and recording. He also has a recording artist as well. I understand there's about 11 albums to his name. It would be a good concert for kids and for their families, a little different bent than what maybe some people are used to in a jazz concert and I think a broad range of people who really like

this concert especially if someone is out there who maybe not doesn't know how they feel about jazz or don't think of themselves as a jazz fan. This would be a good concert to come to as I think they will be being a jazz fan. Your chance to enjoy the Howard Hanger Jazz fantasy will be at the Sooner Theater Friday September 18 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. The Sooner Theater is located at 101 East Main for further information about the 1992 93 Sooner Performance Series called Kim Bracken at 321-9600. For the Arts Report, I'm Dan Daniels. Norman is a community blessed with an abundance of talented artists, singers, and dancers.

On Sunday September 27th, the Norman Arts and Humanities Council is giving these folks a chance to show off and share their talents at Art in the Park. Art in the Park, part of the City Arts celebration, is free to the public and will take place from 1 to 8 p.m. at Andrews Park. Art in the Park organizer Martida Stern describes the motivation behind Art in the Park. It's the showcase. It's where everybody gets a chance to come and you can come and just find out about all the different organizations. They're going to be booths and tables where you could find out what the Museum of Natural History does. You could join the firehouse if you wanted to. You could go and check out the Historical Society or find out what the Norman Coral Society does and you know get information on their performances they have scheduled this year or

find out about seeing in it if you wanted to. It's a place to find out about everything in Norman as well as you know do a few things and see some examples of the kind of work that the state performance did. Aside from the various artists displaying and selling their artwork, the centerpiece of Art in the Park has always been the performances on the Andrews Park amphitheater stage. The stage performances will take place on the amphitheater stage at Andrews Park. We will have a very nice sound system so everybody will be able to hear all that's going on. We will have poetry readings and in addition we'll have dancing from Silva's Fine Arts Explosion. We'll also have dancing from the American Social Dancing Group and they're going to do ballroom dancing and the Norman Ballet Company will do traditional ballet. Theater groups they're performing include the Stage Door, the Stone Soup Theater, the Norman Dance Theater, and the Renegade Shakespeare Company. We'll also have singing by the Simla Uncircuit Opera Company

and the Norman Community Coral Society and Music will be provided by the OU School of Music in the College of Fine Arts. Another traditional element of Art in the Park is a community hands-on art project. This year the Community Art Project will be a huge mural. We'll have eight columns that are going to be available for adults and children to paint live in Norman, scene-term live in Norman. The columns are going to go, we think, to the park between the post office and the library for the winter and then that will be moved someplace else. We're hoping to create a sort of outdoor art project for the moment that everyone gets a chance to participate in. In an effort to make Art in the Park absolutely free to the public, another feature this year will be a transportation service provided by the cart. The special art in the park express will feature two routes. Route one will begin at Norman High and make stops at

the Firehouse Art Center, Kirkpatrick Manor, the Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art, Pathways, and Andrews Park. Route two will begin at Andrews Park and make stops at Pathways, Campus Corner, the OU Museum of Natural History, Rivermont, and the U.S. Postal Training Center. The trolleys will be lift equipped and run approximately every 30 minutes. Art in the Park, sponsored by the Norman Arts and Humanities Council, Sunday, September 27th, from 1 to 8 p.m. and Andrews Park in Norman. Andrews Park is located at Webster and Dawes. For more information about Art in the Park or any of the other city arts events, call 360-1162. For the Art Report, I'm Kelly Reigns. Local humans will once again be thrilled by the incredible talents of Cleo Lane and John Tankworth as they appear in Norman on Wednesday, September 30th in a bit of a concert for the

Simmeron Circuit Opera Company. Lane and Tankworth's performance will take place at Homeburg Hall and the University of Oklahoma Campus. According to the Simmeron Circuit Opera Company's Executive Director, Sonia McCaskill, Norman is one of Lane and Tankworth's favorite places to perform. I'm excited to see him. I think they're hot. I think they're going to be fantastic. I think they're going to blow us away. I'm going to get to blow the walls off the Homeburg Hall. I know it. They're loud. They're good. They're exciting. They do great music. They do all kinds of music. I think that Norman cut us looking for some jazz. I know they know Norman likes jazz. They're into this too. They're coming early. They're going to do some interviews. They're going to hang out. I'm excited. I think everyone should come. Collier Lane is one of the most active jazz vocalists in the business, having released three albums in just the last two years. This is a selection from a 1991 release entitled Jazz.

On September the 29th, at the first Presbyterian Church in Norman, at 8 p.m. the Simmeron Circuit Opera Company will also be giving a special tribute performance for Lane and Tankworth. For God's sake, it'll be from a wide range of offers. Special guest performance by Thomas Karen. It's for our sponsors and patrons. It's for the people who sponsor this show, the people who help bring them and as well as our church, friends and associates.

And the public is welcome. Welcome as it has been announced in City Arts Week calendar. The profits from the Cleo Lane and John Tankworth concert will help to keep Simmeron Circuit Opera Company operating. We'll also help pay the cost of their upcoming productions. This is to support our activities as a touring opera company. We tour around the state of Oklahoma. We tour the Metro in Norman, schools, communities. We do probably 60-77 performances a year. During performances, we do a residency in October and April as a senior theater. It takes a lot. Tickets for the concert are available in advance for $15 and they're going fast. All tickets are reserved and while there may be some tickets available at the door, Executive Director McCaskill advises to buy tickets early. We're expecting a sellout. We're doing really well in ticket sales

right now and if you want tickets you better re-ingit them because they're going fast. Cleo Lane and John Tankworth appearing at a benefit concert for Norman Simmeron Circuit Opera Company at Homebird Hall on the University of Oklahoma campus September 30th at 8 p.m. For advanced ticket purchases, more information about the concert or any of CCOC's future events call 329-8962. For the Arts Report, I'm Kelly Reigns. Dancing to the wonderful music, tasting the delicious food and contributing to Norman People's Life are what you can enjoy on the evening of February 13th, just before Valentine's Day. Today I've invited Mrs. Kathy Valentina, chairman of the Junior League of Norman to talk about this

special event. Hi Kathy, would you please say something about the charity ball and the pastures affair? It's an annual event and it's held by the Junior League of Norman who is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. We're doing something a little bit different by having our ball in the winter on a holiday. We've had it in spring the past few years and we chose Valentine's Day because we're calling it an evening of romance and we think it applies. We're very excited to have it at the Union Ballroom here on the OU campus and work with the great people over there in the office, such as Judy McCowon, who's been a very solicitor organization and doing everything she can to make it a memorable evening. What does the Junior League of Norman engage in cafe? The Junior League of Norman is a dedicated group of women who work in our organization for educational purposes and charitable purposes. We have an actual committee that goes out into the community

and sculpts out where we need to be with our volunteer hours. What will make a difference in Norman? What will make Norman a better place to live? Through our committee, we have found out that areas that need to be addressed are with children, with elderly projects that work in these areas mostly. We start as young, helping out as young as new babies that haven't even been born through our better babies project and we take it all the way through to helping teenage moms stay in school at Norman Highs by watching their children and training them to be better parents and we go up as far as our elderly get out, which is a program that we have been using the father and resources for. They have the father and church have a little house that we're using, with director Debbie Johnson having up the project and we will actually give caretakers of elderly parents and relatives time off while we watch their relatives and they can have time

to run errands, doctors appointments, a lot to lunch, just take a bite. So as you can see we're addressing many different areas of the community. The junior league ball is our way of raising money through ticket sales, auction items. What's the schedule and what kind of activities will people have in that event? Each person comes to the union ballroom at 60 o'clock, fifth Saturday night, February 13th and enjoys cuisine from 20 different restaurants in Norman. From 67-30 there will be samples of their wonderful cuisine. From that point we will move up to the ballroom and Dean McCowan will be our auctioneer for our early oral auction. We'll have some fabulous packages, trips, paintings. We even have a hot air balloon ride complete with lunch this year from one of our great relatives and women. Thank you very much and he'll be doing the oral auction.

All of this money will go towards projects in the junior league to keep our region. The next auction is the early bird auction and that's for people that want to come to the ball, have a great time, eat, dance, that they might want to leave a little bit early because these balls go down to one o'clock. So they can gamble a little bit there to see now, they can eat, they can dance, and then they can use part of their to see their money towards the early bird auction items. That closes down at I want to say 10-30 and then we move on to the silent auction which has already been in progress in a room where people can go through look at items. I decide which packages we have over 60 packages in the silent auction and they can definitely be able to tap with their to see no money. So if you want to have fun gambling in the casino with the modes of Columbus and dancing to the music of the live guys and enjoying it, some through the breakfast that 10-30 provided by the union, the ball will continue at one o'clock.

And hopefully everyone who had had a wonderful evening will have celebrated bell and times day and we've made it a memorable occasion for you and you in turn have made it a memorable time for the normals unionaries through your contributions to our projects which will in turn go out to help our communities. Thank you Kathy. Okay everybody call the office of the junior league at 3-2-9-9-6-1-7. Again, 3-2-9-9-6-1-7 and go to the ball have lots of fun for the art report I'm Lin Thong. When you use a glass cup to drink, when you look through the window of your car, the Rotterscope, a microscope, eye glasses and a camera lenses, have you ever wonder when glass was

discovered and what the history of glass is? Well today, Susco Field co-offered June's Junior Museum art will tell you about all these issues and the glass exhibit they have now in the museum. Hi Lin, I am really delighted to be here with you today and talk about the glass exhibit that is currently being shown at the Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art here on campus in Norman. We actually have two exhibits going concurrently, the Leonard Good Exhibit which is a retrospective of eight decades of his work. Professor Good is an emeritus professor from the art department here at the University. The other exhibit and the one that I'm going to talk most about today is called Glass from Ancient Craft to Contemporary Art 1962 to 1992 and beyond. Glass originally was probably discovered around 5,000 years ago in the ingredients. The very first things that man made of glass

were kind of crude glass beads. The Egyptians learned to work glass by modeling threads of glass around a mud and straw form and even then began to dip that form into the hot molten glass much as we would dip candles to create vases. They could then scrape the mud mold out and have their container. Those were the primary uses of glass for several thousand years but then man learned the wonderful trick of blowing glass and from that time on glass became a medium that could be molded and worked in a variety of ways. But all this time glass was being made to be used. It had a functional purpose as glass workers became more skilled in developing color glasses, ways of working the glass so that they could make beautiful objects. Beauty was still the secondary aspect. That continued to be so throughout the several thousand years of glass working until 1962.

When two men Harvey Littleton and Dominic Rabino got together and had a workshop which for the first time showed that an individual artist working alone could actually work with the glass. The first 20 years after the artist began to work with glass in this movement by the way is known as the Studio Glass Movement. The artist were really exploring the techniques and the technology of working glass. Glass blowing itself is a highly skilled craft. The early works that you see in this exhibit showing the results of the glass blowing are really fairly naive works and you'll be able to pick them out as you come and walk through the exhibit. The artist are learning to deal

with the medium and as I say for about 20 years with increasing sophistication they did indeed work with the glass primarily blowing glass. But as they mastered those skills they started looking for new ways to work with glass and some of the ways they developed have produced some of the most fascinating things that you can imagine. These are truly pieces of art. They are there for your enjoyment to challenge the mind to engage the emotions. Do you have other events in conjunction with the exhibit soon? In conjunction with these exhibits we have several special presentations. On Sunday February the 14th at 2 o'clock in Holmberg Hall's auditorium Craig Callenberger, an internationally known glass artist from Tulsa, will be giving a talk and slide program. This will be followed by refreshments at the gallery. We will also be showing a 26 minute video on February 21st at 2 in the

afternoon. This video is by Dale Chihuly, one of the earliest of the artist working with glass and one of the founders actually of the studio glass movement. It's an excellent video and one which will show not only the techniques of working glass but in which Dale Chihuly will describe his experience and appreciation of the material. Also in conjunction with the Leonard Good exhibit we do have a children's printmaking workshop on Saturday, February 27th from 3 to 4 30. For advanced registration in that workshop you can call 325-3272. Thank you Sue. The glass from ancient craft to contemporary art 1962 to 1992 and beyond is now on through March 7th in Fred June's junior museum art and the working in glass lecture is on February 14th in Holmberg Hall auditorium. For the art report I'm Lin Tong.

There are a wide variety of birds in this world. Can you recognize them? Birds of rare exhibit were let to wander in the world of birds. But what are the birds of prey? Having this question I visited Mr. Peter Thierryl, assistant director at Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Mr. Thierryl, would you please tell us what the birds of prey are? Primarily this exhibit concerns eagles, hawks, falcons, owls and then also vultures. Some people don't think of vultures as birds of prey but technically they're related to eagles and hawks. What do you have in this exhibit?

This exhibit is up right now and it has about 50 specimens and it also with some paintings of birds of prey and some other items that relate to birds of prey. And the primary reason that we did this painting is because many people or did this exhibit is because many people are interested in birds of prey. Of course these birds have been part of history as a part of feudal Europe. There have been people who have been involved with falconry with birds of prey and if you watch any of the recent car commercials you see that frequently birds of prey are involved in attempts to sell cars or in attempts to show something about the U.S. Postal Service. And of course we have a bird of prey, the bald eagle, that is our national symbol. Have you had this kind of exhibit before?

This is a brand new exhibit. These mounted birds or stuff birds as people might call them and have never been exhibited for the most part before in our museum. We have also bought a few specimens from other university collections around the region. This really is a brand new exhibit and something special for people to see. In the wintertime in particular we have lots of hawks that migrate into the state, particularly with the cold weather now coming here in January and February. A lot of hawks come into the state, people don't know what they are and this gives them a chance to come into the exhibit and see some of the birds that they might wish to identify. What's the unique specimen do you have in this exhibit? We have some very special and unique specimens in this exhibit. We're fortunate to have examples of the bald eagle, which as I said is our national symbol and in Oklahoma there has been

a project in near Bartlesville that has helped reintroduce the bald eagle to this area. So for those of you who have never seen a live bald eagle, now is a good time to go out but if you can't come to the exhibit and take a look at the mounted specimens that we have. We also have specimens of the Peregrine Falcon, which has been an endangered species across our country. It's now doing much better but this is a bird that very few people ever get to see and there are some fine specimens of this bird in the exhibit. Peter, you have mentioned that there are some artworks on before. Would you please tell us something about this? Some people may remember Dr. George Miss Sutton, who was a curator at our museum and also a famous artist and ornithologist and there's a large collection of his paintings

here on campus that belong currently to the OU Foundation and we have borrowed some of the paintings from the foundation and they are paintings of birds of prey that are in the Arctic and one of the paintings is of a Jerf Falcon. It's a large beautiful Falcon that lives in the Arctic, occasionally gets to Oklahoma and then also there is a painting of a snowy owl and these again are found in the Arctic and occasionally come to Oklahoma under with very severe winters. So this is an opportunity to see some very famous paintings of birds of prey as well as to see specimens of birds of prey. Thank you Peter. Birds of prey is on currently to your February 28th. The museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a weekend from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Enjoy yourselves for the art's report on Lenton.

Bradleyville, Texas. It's another Saturday night in the cattleman's hotel, third floor in the rear, if you're white. All the brotherhoods meet and they're all getting high as a kite. But nobody cares so everyone says it's all right. Theodore Norman has revived the award-winning play The Knights of the White Magnolia.

On stage at the sooner theater in Norman serves thee through Saturday, March 4th, 5th and 6th. Knights deals with issues of group preference with a touch of humor. David Slemmons, artistic director and Mark Dellen, director of Knights, tell of the significance of the play. The emphasis in this show is really on the acting and the script because it takes place in one evening's time and the span between the axes is literally 30 seconds. The lights go out and there's 15 renomission but no time has passed. And so the group that I have developed a really nice rapport with each other and the relationships are coming out very strongly and I'm really pleased with the cast. David Slemmons is in the show playing one of the principal leads. Music associated with the show is played by medicine park all-boy derelict band. When I directed the show about 15 years ago there was a local band called, well actually the band was out of lot but it combined people in Norman called Phil Sampson and medicine park. Phil Sampson

has gone on and written top selling country western tunes. I gave him a copy of the script back then and he wrote a song which was played on the air of all the different local stations. Well that band has sort of not gotten back together but they've just gotten through cutting an album of the songs that they did years ago and it's really nice having Phil Sampson and it's the medicine park all-boy derelict band and they did a performance here in Norman in one time in London this fall and this song is part of their album and we're really delighted to be able to use it. The issue of social elitist organizations and the value of membership is brought into the spotlight. It's a bit of a satire on a lot of social elitist organizations who think they're being very exclusive to their membership but when the fact would come

right down to it the people that they're excluding would really have no desire to be a member of that club anyway and that's one of the ironies of this show is that there is a character in the show whose name is Ramsey Eis Blankenship and he's a 78-year-old black man and he has worked at the Caldermont's hotel where the meetings are held for a number of years and he's very good friends with the owner of the hotel and he takes care of things and watches over the kernel and such and the play sort of pivots around him he is one of those people that really has no desire to be a white magnolia but the nights of the white magnolia enjoy the fact that they're excluding him from their club. Theatre Norman is also in a revival with this production. Approximately last October we decided to revive a failing theatre Norman it was down to one board member and a debt and in that period of time we've revived the board, gotten financially

sound and as artistic director one of the things that I was responsible for was choosing the shows and the types of shows that we wanted to do especially to get developed. The last meeting of the nights of the white magnolia was a show that I had directed 15 years ago at the University of Oklahoma and it was incredibly successful. I think the feeling that it gives for the area and the way that people related to it made it a very good choice for theatre Norman. The nights of the white magnolia is on stage at 8 o'clock PM March 4th 5th and 6th at the sooner theatre in Norman. So unplug your VCRs, turn off your television and come see live theatre. For the Arts Report, I'm Mary Collins. Hi, I'm Lin Tong. Last time I invited Sue Schofield co-offer

to the studio's junior museum art to talk about the discovery of glass and the history of glass. Today she will tell you more about the studio glass art movement and exhibits which they have now in the museum. Okay Lin, as I mentioned earlier the studio glass art movement began in March of 1962 and in the 30 years of that movement there are three distinct periods. The first period runs through the 60s and 70s into the early 80s. At this time the artists were working with the techniques and the technology of glass making. They were learning how to handle this medium. One thing to

remember about glass is that technically it is a liquid that is cooled at a low temperature to the solid state but the forming of this liquid into a shape that will maintain its shape as it cool takes an incredible amount of skill and talent and that's what these artists were working with for the first 20 years in the studio glass movement. Some of the Europeans who came over and looked at what they were doing thought there was no future to it. They could not envision working glass individually in a studio. In Europe the designers who created the patterns for the vases, the crystal, the various glass pieces, always turned those designs over to a team of skilled glass workers. The idea of the designer working the glass was not a part of the European tradition and when the European glass workers saw what they were doing in America they thought it would never work. Well as it turned out it worked and it worked wonderfully well. By the early 1980s the artist

were going beyond blowing glass. They were working with the other technique slump moldings and casting, laminating, cutting the glass, fitting it not only into other glass pieces but into wood and stone using fabric and other materials to enhance their sculptures. The work of the 1980s is very strong, very appealing and really fascinating as you sit there and look and try and understand how the pieces were actually made. One thing that began to happen at this time was that the scale of the work increased. Early glass had been limited by the size of the bubble you could blow at the end of a blowpipe. As they learned to work with the blowing of glass it became possible for them to blow larger and larger pieces. We have in the exhibit one called Bola Fruit that is a huge blown glass pair as well as other large blown glass fruit pieces.

What is happening today in the studio glass movement is an increasing scale. Now artists are creating works of glass that are room sized. They are architectural elements and buildings. The exhibit shows a model of the Transportation Center in Veil, Colorado where the artist has actually created a full window wall which represents the exuberance, the excitement, the feelings of the visitor who has come to Veil whether winter or summer for skiing or what mountain climbing. It's a marvelously active and enthusiastic piece of glass. We also have scale models of large, massive glass sculptures worked with granite and glass. There is also the model of a Japanese artist who works at his works at five to six feet tall and also with a complex one this morning combining photographs and glass and other materials.

What do you think of the exhibit that you have now in the museum zoo? I think the exhibit is something that any viewer will find to be truly challenging and exciting. As you walk through it you can recognize the stages of the development of glass as art. It is something that is really quite obvious even to the untrained eye. You can pick out pieces that were made in the 60s and you can pick out those that are made in the 90s. With the future of glass holes beyond this increase in scale I really don't know. I think that it is limited only as much as the material itself is limited and certainly fluid is indeed hard to remember. Thank you Sue. The glass from ancient craft to contemporary art 1962 to 1992 and beyond is now art through March 7 in Fred Jo's junior museum art for the art report I'm Lin Tong.