Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts will sponsor a series of events starting Nov. 6 in association with UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival.
The seven events will include lectures on art and literature, a roundtable discussion on creativity, a trio of documentary screenings in partnership with the George Foster Peabody Awards and the Athens premiere of a locally produced feature film in partnership with the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Unless otherwise noted, the events are free.
A screening of the PBS “American Masters” documentary “Eames: The Architect and the Painter” will be held Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries auditorium. The screening of the documentary on Charles and Ray Eames, “the first couple of American design” is co-sponsored by the Willson Center and the Peabody Awards. Janice Simon, Meigs Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Art History in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, will introduce the screening.
A roundtable discussion on “Creativity in the Research University” will be held Nov. 7 at 12:30 p.m. in room 150 of the Zell B. Miller Learning Center. The panelists are Nicholas Allen, Franklin Professor of English and director of the Willson Center; Mark Callahan, artistic director of Ideas for Creative Exploration; David Saltz, associate professor and department head, department of theatre and film studies; Martijn van Wagtendonk, associate professor of art, Art X, Lamar Dodd School of Art; and Susan Thomas, associate professor of musicology and women’s studies.
Robert Conner will deliver a lecture on “The Cliff, the River and the Sea: Reflections on Extreme Literature in Ancient and Modern Times” Nov. 7 at 4 p.m. in room 150 of the Miller Learning Center. Conner is a former president and director of the National Humanities Center, and is senior adviser and former president of the Teagle Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to be “a catalyst for change in higher education to improve student learning in the arts and sciences.” Connor’s lecture is part of the Willson Center’s Distinguished Artists and Lecturers series.
Also on Nov. 7, the locally produced feature film “Somebodies” will have its Athens premiere screening at 7 p.m. at Ciné, located at 234 W. Hancock Ave. The 2006 film was written and directed by Grady College alumnus Hadjii, who also starred in the film. It was purchased by a cable television network after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival but never received theatrical distribution. Hadjii and his co-star Kaira Akita will be present to introduce the film and take part in an audience question-and-answer session after the screening. Tickets are $9.75 for general admission and $7.50 for students, seniors and military personnel. For tickets, see the Ciné box office or http://athenscine.com. The event is cosponsored by the Willson Center and the Grady College.
Michael Oliveri, associate professor of art in the Lamar Dodd School of Art and recipient of a 2012-2013 Willson Center Research Fellowship, will present his project “Inner and Outer Space Images from the Micro to the Macro” Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. in room 248 of the Miller Learning Center. The “inner-space” series consists of large-scale images created using an electron microscope. The “outer-space” series consists of images of the night sky. The presentation is part of the Willson Center’s 2012-2013 Fellows Lecture Series.
The PBS “American Masters” documentary “LENNONYC” will be screened Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at Ciné. The film chronicles the former Beatle John Lennon’s residence in New York City during the final decade of his life. David Barbe, director of the music business certificate program in the Terry College of Business, will introduce the screening. The screening is cosponsored by the Willson Center and the Peabody Awards.
The Willson Center’s final Spotlight on the Arts event will be a screening of a 1969 episode of the CBS “New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts” television series with Leonard Bernstein Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. in the Russell Special Collections Building auditorium. The episode is titled “Bach Transmogrified” and features three versions of Bach’s “Little” Fugue in G Minor: a solo organ performance, a symphonic arrangement and a performance on Moog synthesizer. Horace Newcomb, professor of telecommunications in the Grady College and director of the Peabody Awards, will introduce the screening. The event is cosponsored by the Willson Center and the Peabody Awards.
The Spotlight on the Arts festival is presented by the UGA Arts Council, of which the Willson Center is a participating unit. More than 50 events are scheduled during the nine-day festival in November. For more information, see http://arts.uga.edu. For more information on the Willson Center’s Spotlight on the Arts programming, see http://willson.uga.edu/events/category/spotlight-on-the-arts.
UGA Willson Center for Humanities and Arts
The Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts is a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research at UGA. In the service of its mission to promote research and creativity in the humanities and arts, the Willson Center sponsors and participates in numerous public events on and off the UGA campus throughout the academic year. It supports faculty through research grants, lectures, symposia, publications, visiting scholars, visiting artists, collaborative instruction, public conferences, exhibitions and performances. For more information, see http://willson.uga.edu/.