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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Humanities Festival

Jim Leach

An all-star cast of 19 arts and cultural leaders from across the state will participate in the inaugural Iowa Humanities Festival March 9 at Salisbury House & Gardens. Inspired by the Chicago Humanities Festival, the public event will focus on importance of art, literature, libraries and museums.

Iowa-based scholars, museum directors, librarians and collectors will present the daylong series of panel discussions, presentations and lectures related to museum work and collections. Presenters include Jim Leach, longtime Iowa congressman who now is chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Jeff Fleming, director of the Des Moines Art Center; J. Eric Smith, executive director of the Salisbury House; and Chris Rossi, executive director of Humanities Iowa.

Carl and Edith Weeks, who built the Salisbury House in the 1920s, "amassed an extraordinary collection of rare books and documents, very few of which have been studied, researched, interpreted or discussed with any sort of academic rigor," Smith notes. "I see the inaugural Iowa Humanities Festival as a first step toward correcting this situation, since it will allow us to shine a light on some of our hidden treasures with the general public and with some of our state's finest scholars." 

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $10, which includes a box lunch and light refreshments at a reception at the end of the day. For tickets, click here. 

Opera Tickets

Single tickets are now available for Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) 2013 season, which will include Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes,"Richard Strauss' "Elektra" and Charles-Francois Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet." Prices range from $42 to $92 for adults; $21-$39 for students (Tuesdays and Thursdays only). Other DMMO news: 

• The opera has launched "Vivace," a 16-page four-color magazine-style print newsletter that will be published twice a year. To receive a copy, call the opera office at 961-6221.
• The organization is seeking a freelance sales consultant to sell advertising for its summer program. Interested candidates should contact Nick Renkoski, director of marketing and communications, NRenkoski@dmmo.org. 

Exhibit Opening

The opening of "Transparencies: Contemporary Art and a History of Glass" at the Des Moines Art Center has been rescheduled for Feb. 28 because of last week's snowstorm. The party starts at 6 p.m., with member hour starting at 5 p.m. Admission is $5; members free. The exhibit focuses on glass as both a medium and subject matter, featuring the works of 10 national and international artists, including Jim Dingilian (United States), Monir Farmanfarmaian (Iran) and Luke Jerram (Great Britain).

Pictured: "Convertible Series, Group 11" (2011) by Monir Farmanfarmaian (Iranian, born 1924), mirror and reverse glass painting on plaster and wood, eight parts. Work and image courtesy Haines Gallery, San Francisco. 

New Playhouse Season

Season tickets are now on sale for the Des Moines Community Playhouse's 2013-2014 season, which was announced last week. "Legally Blonde: The Musical" kicks off the season, followed by "Fiddler on the Roof," the show most requested by audiences and volunteers. The season also will feature a musical version of "Peter Pan" as the annual holiday show; the musical drama "Les Miserables"; the new play "Red," about abstract artist Mark Rothko; the drama "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; and the farce "Boeing-Boeing." John Viars, the Playhouse's executive director, and Kathy Pingel, director of education and youth programming, talk about the upcoming season in this video.  

New Ballet Director

Carolyn Jenison has joined Ballet Des Moines as executive director. Previously, she was managing director for the Des Moines Social Club and executive director of One Iowa.

Naked Trike Angel

Remember the "naked trike angel" at Merle Hay Mall? The statue of a winged naked man riding a tricycle abruptly disappeared from the mall in 2000. Where did it go? Writer Adam Selzer made it his mission to find out. Read about his quest here.

Literary Submissions

dsm magazine seeks short fiction stories, poems and short personal essays for its "Showcase" section. Send submissions to dsmeditor@bpcdm.com. Space is limited, so the shorter the length, the better. Read Calla Devlin's short story "A Knot in the Wood" and C. Michael Cox's poem "happy endings" in the current issue by clicking here.

One-Man Band

Keith Lynch

Performing under the name Unknown Component, Keith Lynch stars as a modern-day one-man band, where every aspect of his musical process is self-contained. Find out how he does it by reading Chad Taylor's story. Watch Lynch's new music video, "Through the Surface." Stream/purchase his new album, "Blood v. Electrictiy," here.

Digging It

Madai Taylor

When artist Madai Taylor was growing up, he spent a lot of time outside wandering in the woods. "Inside the home there was often chaos," says the Fort Dodge artist, who was raised in poverty in the Arkansas Delta region. "Outdoors I found serenity." Rainy days didn't even keep him inside. Instead, "playing and scratching around in the mud" calmed him, he says.

Taylor never outgrew his boyhood fascination with mud. Today, he uses it to create compelling and surprisingly nuanced and diverse abstract "paintings" and three-dimensional works, some of which are currently are on display at Moberg Gallery. To make his pieces, he gathers soil, sifts it into a fine dirt and mixes it with water and a bonding agent. He applies the mixture to large sheets of wet paper and then draws, using tools and instruments such as sticks, branches, combs, rocks, high-pressure water hoses and rakes, as well as his hands--but never brushes or sponges. He then "wipes the excess dirt away," he says, forming the work through a reductive process.

Taylor has traveled to Mexico, Central America and around the country to gather dirt. Each locale contains soil with varying textures, color tones and gradations, creating a range of palette possibilities, he says. For example, in Iowa, he's worked with rich, dark soil as well as gypsum found in strip mines near Fort Dodge.

Wherever the dirt is from, though, Taylor says he views the medium as divine, a link between spirit and life on earth. "It's timeless and of the soul," he says. "It's something everyone can relate to; it's a part of them." He adds that he believes he was "divinely led" to work with the earth in his art. "I didn't have the money to spend on paint," he recalls. "Out of the hardships of my life came this creative spirit, and the medium itself was the result of divine channeling. There are definitely forces at work greater than myself." 

The Moberg exhibit runs through March 23.

The Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon

"The Book of Mormon," which played the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines Jan. 24-Feb. 3, had an economic impact of $9 million--a record for a two-week run. More than 36,000 people attended the show's 14 performances. Every dollar of ticket revenue generates $3.50 of local economic impact, benefiting hotels, restaurants, retail stores and other businesses, according to The Broadway League, the national trade association for the theater industry. 

Bravo Bash

Eileen Gannon, Wicker Van Orsdel, Robert Myers and Julie Stewart at the Bravo Gala.

A record-setting crowd of 1,360 people attended this year's Bravo Gala, held Feb. 2 at Hy-Vee Hall. Find out the scoop by reading Wicker Van Orsdel's blog post about the lively evening. 

Music and Reading

Music instruction and activities significantly increase preschoolers' development of reading and writing skills, according to a new study from the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education. Find out more. 

If you're involved with an arts organization or are a visual, performing or literary artist, we'd love to hear from you. Email us at dsmeditor@bpcdm.com. The deadline for the next issue is March 10. Also, get the word out about your upcoming event by listing it on our online community calendar. Go to dsmMagazine.com and follow the instructions. You also can go to our website to find out how to submit party pictures from your organizations for dsm's rsvp section.