Celebrating the arts

Plethora of arts events in Bloomington includes ‘The Welcome Table’

By Susan Williams

Richard Florida, an economic development analyst, believes there is a definite link. He will speak Wednesday (Jan. 22) as a kick-off to Bloomington and Indiana University’s 19th “Arts Week”

A plethora of entertaining and enriching opportunities, designed to showcase the performing, written and visual arts of the community, extends through Feb. 9.

The formal opening event is scheduled at 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 24, in the atrium at the IU Art Museum.

Following a welcome from Gerald Bepko, IU interim president; Sharon Brehm, IU Bloomington chancellor; and City of Bloomington representative Tom Guevara, Anya Royce, IU professor of anthropology, will moderate a panel discussion on “Beauty in Contemporary Art: Compliment or Criticism?” Participants will be IU faculty Georgia Strange, visual arts; Howard Jenson, theater; Imre Pallo, music; and Karen Hanson, philosophy. A reception following will include music and food.

The Arts Week 2003 “playbill” will offer some regularly scheduled programming, such as Fosse at the IU Auditorium. But other events are specifically created for this celebration.

Consider attending The Welcome Table, created for Arts Week by musician Malcolm Dalglish and produced by the Lotus Festival Foundation. Billed as a “midwinter feast of song, dance and theater,” the event includes a sumptuous dessert party around artist Dale Enoch’s limestone table sculpture on the lantern-lit street. It is scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Buskirk Chumley Theatre, and there is an admission charge of $10, which will be waived if you bring a home-baked pie.

On Friday, Jan. 31, consider attending the IU dance faculty performance at 8 p.m., also at the “Bus-Chum,” featuring, among others, Diane Buzell, George Pinney, Iris Rosa and Liz Shea. The next day, from 1-5 p.m., follow up with “Tango for Two/Town and Gown,” free 45-minute dance classes in salsa, tango and swing.

There will be a mini-play festival camp offered on two consecutive Saturdays by the Bloomington Playwrights Project, and IU and the Bloomington Area Arts Council will sponsor a writing symposium with IU faculty Kevin Young, Tony Ardizzone, Dana Johnson, Maura Stanton, Richard Cecil and Cathy Bowman.

All My Sons, by Arthur Miller, the musical The Wiz and Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, are among the theatrical possibilities. The IU Opera Theatre will debut Jeppe, an opera by IU music professor Sven-David Sandstrom.

There is more, including “The Dean and the Diva,” a one-day workshop on managerial improvisation, negotiation and nonverbal communication with Dan Dalton, dean of IU’s Kelley School of Business, and professionals from IUB’s jazz and theater departments, plus a lecture by Royce on “Superstars of Performance Arts.”

The list goes on, but the best way to see it all is to check your campus mail for the Arts Week calendar recently distributed or go to the following Web site:
http://www.iub.edu/~artsweek/