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The “playbill” for the Indiana University and City of Bloomington’s
20th annual Arts Week unfolds Friday, Feb. 6, with a reception
and arts preview open to the public from 5-7 p.m. at the downtown
Waldron Arts Center.
The arts “week” has evolved during two decades into nearly a month of activities that includes artistry, scholarship, entertainment and a rich view of the talents of resident and visiting artists who leave a defining mark on the cultural landscape of southern Indiana. Arts Week was founded by the late IU choreographer Fran Snygg.
Among visitors of note will be architect Daniel Libeskind,
who recently won the commission for the World Trade Center
Ground Zero memorial site (March 1); IU historian Claude Clegg,
author of The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the
Making of Liberia (Feb. 28); and Kenyon College professor
and cultural studies scholar Lewis Hyde, author of Trickster
Makes This World (Feb. 27).
Other highlights will be the performance of Spring Song 2004: The Legend of Taliesin, a multimedia performance featuring poems from local school children set to music by IU School of Music luminaries Don Freund, David Baker and Cary Boyce; a presentation by IU President Adam Herbert titled “Cultural Outreach: Integrating Community Through the Arts,” sponsored by the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation (Feb. 28), and a special Science Meets the Arts Series.
Intertwined in the celebration will be art exhibitions, humanities lectures and classes, regularly scheduled musical offerings (Miss Saigon, IU Auditorium, Feb. 24-29, and the IU Opera Theatre’s The Ballad of Baby Doe, premiering Feb. 6), ) and special performances and events, including a Black Culture Festival for youth (Feb. 7); an evening of Hasidic chants, and a “homecoming” for School of Music alumnus and instrumentalist Edgar Meyer, appearing with Bela Fleck at the IU Auditorium Sunday, Feb. 8.
Arts will be the focus, too, on the IUPUI campus with the 15th annual Joseph Taylor Symposium Feb. 19-20 in Indianapolis. “Arts in the City: The Power of Culture” will begin Thursday, Feb. 19, with an evening performance at the Indiana State Museum called The Hoosier Renaissance: Life on the Avenue, a play that references Indy’s renowned Indiana Avenue and the contributions of African-American Hoosiers during the 1920s and 1930s. The symposium honors the memory of the Indianapolis campus’ first dean of the IU School of Liberal Arts.
To explore offerings at both events, go to these Web sites:
http://www.iub.edu/~artsweek/events.htm
http://liberalarts.iupui.edu/taylor.html
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Hyde