2002 Syracuse Symposium will take a multicultural, multidisciplinary look at beauty

2002 Syracuse Symposium will take a multicultural, multidisciplinary look at beautyJanuary 09, 2002Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

“Exploring Beauty” is the theme for the 2002 Syracuse Symposium, an annual University-wide intellectual and creative festival hosted by Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with schools and colleges from across the University.

The symposium will include exhibitions, music and dance performances, lectures, seminars and workshops, all designed to enable members of the University and Central New York communities to engage and reflect upon beauty broadly and deeply. The opportunities provided by the symposium are consistent with initiatives in the University’s Academic Plan directed at expanding opportunities for multidisciplinary intellectual discourse for students.

All of the events, which will take place throughout the Spring 2002 semester, are free and open to the public.

In addition to the public events, the Syracuse Symposium will include two special course offerings, “The Elegant Universe: Where is the Poetry in Science; Where is the Science in Poetry?” taught by Dympna Callaghan, professor of English and the William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities, and Kamesh Wali, professor emeritus of physics; and “Beauty in Cross Cultural Contexts,” taught by Felicia McMahon, Ph.D. research associate in anthropology.

“The events will present beautiful things, performances and ideas, all of which are designed to enable participants to experience, explore and experiment with beauty on multiple levels,” says Eric Holzwarth, assistant dean in The College of Arts and Sciences.

The symposium will focus on four major themes that link beauty with an aspect of human endeavor or an area of wider cultural life-Beauty and Science, Beauty in Cross Cultural Contexts, Beauty and the Human Body and Beauty in Everyday Life. Details of all of the events will be announced as they occur throughout the semester. Information will soon be available on the 2002 Syracuse Symposium Web site, http://symposium.syr.edu.

The inaugural event for the symposium will be a performance by the New York City-based a cappella group “Anonymous 4” at 8 p.m. Jan. 22 in the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium in SU’s Crouse College. The concert is part of a gala evening designed to also highlight the Setnor Tuesday Night Concert Series, sponsored by the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The evening will include a pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. by art historian Laurinda Dixson, professor of fine arts in The College of Arts and Sciences, and a post-concert panel discussion featuring the members of Anonymous 4 and SU faculty. The lecture and panel discussion will be held in the Setnor Auditorium.

A second kickoff event is three exhibits currently on display at SU’s Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery in the Shaffer Art Building-“Hollywood Icons and Local Demons: Ghanaian Popular Paintings by Mark Anthony,” “Nude or Naked? Perceptions of the Female Body” and “Italy in the Shadow of Time.” A closing reception for the exhibitions will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 24.

Other events (grouped thematically) include:

Beauty and Science

Presentation:

? Author and theoretical physicist Brian Greene will present “The Elegant Universe” at 7:30 p.m. March 21 in SU’s Grant Auditorium.

Exhibits:

? “Fractal Art,” an exhibit in the Physics Building beginning March 21.

? “Ancient Microworlds: The Inner Beauty of Fossils,” photographs by Norm Barker and Giraud Foster will be displayed at a location to be announced in April.

? “Antique Scientific Instruments” from the collection of Jonathan Riechert, courtesy of TeachSpin, Bird Library, first-floor exhibit area, March 1 to 31.

? “Towards a Modern Beauty: Berenice Abbott and Scientific Photography,” Lyman Hall foyer, March 1 to 31.

Beauty in Cross Cultural Contexts

Presentations:

? Les Merveilles de Guinee, a New York City-based African Dance Troupe will perform in Setnor Auditorium at 8 p.m. March 19. A pre-concert lecture by the artists will begin at 7 p.m.

? Tibetan Mandala Painting: Tibetan Monks will be in residence in the Heroy Geology lobby from March 21 to 27 creating a sand mandala. This will be a rare opportunity to observe the creation of an art form that is also a religious and spiritual practice.

? Vijaya Nagarajan of the University of California at San Francisco will present “South Indian Kolam: Women’s Threshold Designs” at 4 p.m. March 26 at a location to be announced.

? Vidya Dehejia will present “Women, Beauty, and Power” at 7:30 p.m. April 1 in the Shaffer Art Building’s Shemin Auditorium.

? “Islamic Calligraphy” presented by Sylvia Safiya Godlas, lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 3 in Room 102 of the Hall of Languages; workshop at 10 a.m. April 4 in Room 134 of the Comstock Art Building adjacent to Manley Field House.

? “Adi Shakti: Dawn of the First Goddess,” Indian Classical Dance by Roxanne Gupta, 7:30 p.m. April 17 at The Underground, located in the Schine Student Center.

? “Sarod and Kathak Dance,” 7:30 p.m. April 22 in Gifford Auditorium, presented by Massachusetts Institute of Technology lecturer George Ruckert, a master sarodist and a disciple of the legendary Ali Akbar Khan; and Gretchen Hayden, a Kathak dancer and disciple of the renowned Kathak dance master Chitresh Das.

Exhibit:

? “Hollywood Icons and Local Demons: Ghanaian Popular Paintings by Mark Anthony,” poster paintings for Ghanian street bands, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery through Jan. 31. A closing reception will be held 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 24.

Beauty and the Human Body

Presentations:

? Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of the acclaimed “The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls,” will present “From Corsets to Body Piercing: A Historical Perspective on American Girls and Their Body Projects” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in Watson Auditorium.

? Richard Wilk will present “Gendered Food and Drink in the 19th Century: The Globalization of a Binge Economy” at 4 p.m. Feb. 20 in Room 341 of Eggers Hall.

? David Allen Brown, curator of the Italian Renaissance Painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will present “Virtue and Beauty: Renaissance Women in the Mirror of Art” at 7:30 p.m. March 6 in Watson Auditorium.

? Valerie Steele, chief curator of the museum at the New York Fashion Institute, will present “The Corset: A Cultural History” at 7:30 p.m. April 16 in Watson Auditorium.

Exhibits:

? “Nude or Naked? Perceptions of the Female Body” at the Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery through Jan. 31. A closing reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 24.

? “Beauty Box Project,” an exhibition of 25 photographic portraits of women by Yvonne Buchanan, assistant professor visual communications in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, will be on display in the Shaffer Art Building foyer Feb. 20 to 27.

Beauty in Everyday Life

Presentations:

? Vesna Sin will present “Keranje: Domestic Arts and Bosnian Moslem Women” at 3 p.m. Jan. 30 in Room 205 of the Hall of Languages.

? The Sojourner Storytelling Conference, “Memory and Re-memory,” a celebration of beauty, narratives and everyday life, will be held in Hendricks Chapel on Feb. 8 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. The keynote address will be given by Sally Roesch Wagner at 7 p.m.

? Jonathan Nelson will present “The Power of the ‘Night’: Death, Disease and Beauty in Michelangelo’s New Sacristy” at 4:15 p.m. Feb. 18 in Kittredge Auditorium, located in Huntington Beard Crouse Hall.

? The Lost Boys of the Southern Sudan will present “Musical Traditions of Sudanese Refugees” at 3 p.m. March 4 in Room 205 of the Hall of Languages.

? Former Berkeley, Calif., Mayor Gus Newport, executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, will present “Beauty and Community Building” at 7:30 p.m. March 25 in Room 207 of the Hall of Languages.

? Harvey Teres, associate professor of English, will moderate “American Beauty: Aesthetics and Ordinary Life,” presentations from members of the University and Syracuse communities, at 7:30 p.m. April 3 in Room 102 of the Hall of Languages.

? Pauline Yarema will present “The Wedding Cake as Folk Art in the Ukraine and the United States” at 10 a.m. May 2 in Room 205 of the Hall of Languages.

? Exhibits:

? “Italy in the Shadow of Time,” photographs by Linda Butler, will be on display in the Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery through Jan. 31. A closing reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 24.

? “Campus and Community Quiltmakers” will be on display in the Hendricks Chapel Noble Room in March.