Ross
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IU Kokomo Gallery a community cornerstone Mexican artist Elizabeth Ross will bring some of her “ancient forms” to the IU Kokomo Art Gallery April 12–May 9, in the exhibit NOTLALLO: my body, my earth.
A word from Ross’ native nahuatl language, “notlallo” can be translated, according to the artist, as both a person’s “body,” as well as the ground, or “earth,” on which she stands. It alludes to the shapes and the natural materials—clay, bone, wood, sea sand—that Ross incorporates into her ceramics, installations and mixed media sculptures. She has shown her work in Mexico, the United States, France, Ireland, Canada, Cuba and Portugal.
NOTLALLO: my body, my earth opens with a 4–6:30 p.m. reception on Monday (April 12). Ross will attend the opening and present a ritual performance at 5 p.m. She also will talk with students that day.
The show marks the second consecutive spring that a Mexican artist will be featured at IU Kokomo. Ross’ show complements the successful Lucia Maya project in 2003. The exhibitions are part of a three-year plan to bring Hispanic arts to the region.
The gallery was the only Midwestern stop for ARTS for the PARKS last year, 100 paintings depicting scenes from the U.S. National Park Service, and in its Indiana debut, AMERICA from the Heart filled the gallery with 125 emotionally stirring quilts made in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Quilting leagues, including the Kokomo Piece Makers and the Old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild, as well as numerous individuals involved in quilting arts, provided funding for the show.
Earlier in the academic year, the gallery featured a show by painter/printmaker Ed Funk and sculptor Kevin Leslie; traditional and digital photography by Alisa Fox and the Ohio Valley Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers; and an exhibit double bill of ceramics by Matt Mulinaro and drawings and paintings by Dean Habegger.
Annual exhibitions of art created by area elementary and high school students rounded out the art gallery’s busy schedule.
All exhibitions and activities at the IU Kokomo Gallery are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; Wednesday, until 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sundays noon–4 p.m. For more information, call 765-455-9523 or visit:
http://www.iuk.edu/artgallery
Saving the arts Visual and performing arts are in store on campus Saturday, April 17, when the IU Kokomo Art Gallery joins in the community-wide “Save the Arts” showcase. From 3–7 p.m., the public is invited to visit the gallery and five other Kokomo sites to get to know local arts organizations. Kokomo Civic Theatre members will present scenes from the musical Guys and Dolls at the gallery, a preview of full performances planned April 23–25 at Havens Auditorium on campus.
“Save the Arts” will conclude with a 7:30 p.m. performance by the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra in Havens Auditorium.
Don’t forget to VROOOM! VROOOM. Art in Motion: Art Inspired by Motorcycles opens June 11 at the IU Kokomo Art Gallery in conjunction with the 17th annual Indiana State H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) Rally in Kokomo June 11–13. The show runs through July 16.
Minority students assist with student recruiting IU Kokomo freshmen Krystle Baker, Dara Johnson, Cory Jones and Sean Temoney went back to high school last year to offer prospective students a first-hand opinion on college life. Under a special IU student retention program, they visited local schools with Melissa Smith, admissions counselor, and Catherine Barnes, director of campus climate, to help recruit underserved high schoolers. Baker is Hispanic, and Jones, Johnson and Temoney are African American.
In their late teens, the IU Kokomo students drew the younger students “like a magnet,” Smith said, “even when we went to a high school where there was no connection to (the recruiter’s) race or culture.” Smith visited three local high schools with Jones. “He didn’t sound scripted. That brought it home to the students,” she said. “They really connected with him.”
All four recruiters are top academic students, Barnes said, and have experience as tutors. “We’re sending out some of our best,” she said.
Stouse (left) and Giovanni
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Stouse meets Giovanni Join IU Kokomo’s Karla Stouse for a conversation with poet Nikki Giovanni in IU Home Pages’ archived audiostream, “Conversations online,” at this Web site:
http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/121203/text/conversations.shtml
Giovanni taught at the IU Kokomo campus several summers ago and still maintains ties with the campus community. She made a visit to campus last semester.
Composers and authors inspire plays IU Kokomo’s University Theatre presented three original plays last year, featuring student, alumni and community actors. Alumna Betty-Joyce Symphony of Kokomo wrote two of the works. Her Alasin… An Exploration of the Seven Deadly Sins debuted in April, borrowing characters and situations from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Dante’s Divine Comedy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, to offer satirical commentary on modern culture. Symphony had earlier in the spring collaborated with Colin Black, associate professor of communication arts, on A Room of One’s Own. The play looked at early 20th-century British novelist Virginia Woolf and readers reflecting on Woolf’s writings. The one-act play shared a bill with Meet Clara Schumann: A World of Sound, written by Black and communication arts major Ed Faunce of Tipton. The play intertwined piano recital pieces with excerpts from a marriage diary kept by husband and wife composers Robert and Clara Wieck Schumann.
Mexico trip marks first ‘traveling’ class Last year, in the first IU Kokomo class designed specifically around travel, nine IU Kokomo students visited Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Instructors for the class, “Recent Hispanic Literature,” were Karla Stouse, lecturer in English, and Catherine Barnes, director of campus climate, who escorted the group. Before the trip, the students read three novels set in Central and South American countries.
While in Mexico, the students researched cultural and political themes central to the novels. As a requirement of the course, students had to interview at least two local residents in Mexico. Students also participated in events at the eco-park Xcaret, including a Mayan cultural show and a visit to the Mayan ruins at Tulum.
“The chance to expand one’s world view changes everything—and the kind of education offered by this kind of travel makes learning practical rather than merely theoretical,” Stouse said. “This program offered all of us such positive experiences.”
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