The academic year is back in full swing, and with it comes plenty of academic events that are free and open to the public. Here are a dozen events happening on campus you can check out in September.
WHAT: Opening Reception for the “The Great War: Experiences, Representations, Effects”
WHEN: September 4th from 6-8 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody, Champaign
ABOUT: The U. of I. is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I with a cross-campus initiative that includes theater productions, a film series, concerts, lectures, symposiums, an art exhibition and a general education course. “The Great War: Experiences, Representations, Effects” is designed for Illinois students and the local community to gain a new understanding about the first industrialized conflict carried out on a global scale. An opening reception for the initiative will be held on Thursday, September 4, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Krannert Art Museum.
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WHAT: Piano Concert featuring Junghwa Lee
WHEN: September 5th at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Smith Memorial Hall Recital Hall
ABOUT: This performance is free and open to the public.
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WHAT: AsiaLENS: AEMS Documentary Film and Discussion Series at the Spurlock
WHEN: September 9th at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
ABOUT: This series of public film screenings and lecture/discussion programs is organized by the Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) at the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies. It is planned in collaboration with the Spurlock Museum and presented in the Knight Auditorium. Guest scholars and members of the campus and local communities will introduce the films and lead post-screening audience discussions.
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WHAT: Exhibition Opening: “First Global Conflict: Contemporary Views of the Great War, 1914-1919”
WHEN: September 10th from 3-5 p.m.
WHERE: 346 Main Library
ABOUT: The Rare Book & Manuscript Library will host a free opening reception for its exhibit on materials from the Great War.
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WHAT: SPEAK Cafe: Passion, Pleasure & Pain: The Making of a Poet
WHEN: September 11th at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Palette Cafe
ABOUT: SPEAK Cafe is an open-mic public event for hip-hop, activism, and expression of the African American experience. The event is organized and moderated by Aaron O. Ammons.
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WHAT: St. Louis Symphony
WHEN: September 14th at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
ABOUT: Fusing a rich history with exhilarating vision, the St. Louis Symphony and its music director, David Robertson, inspire and enthrall audiences and fellow musicians alike. Founded in 1880, the St. Louis Symphony is the second-oldest orchestra in the country and is widely considered one of the world’s finest. Robertson is a consummate musician, master communicator, and dynamic presence whose passion for music is contagious. At Krannert Center, they are joined for Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 by Yefim Bronfman, “a regal bear of a pianist with seemingly limitless technique,” who made his triumphant first Krannert Center appearance in April 2014 with Pinchas Zukerman on violin and viola. The Los Angeles Times says that “Bronfman covers the keyboard like an ace sleuth leaving no corner unturned.” The program also features violinist Erin Schreiber on Vaughan Williams’ gorgeously ethereal The Lark Ascending, which was named in a recent BBC poll as Britain’s favorite “desert island disc,” and Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s “Inextinguishable” Symphony, which was composed against the backdrop of World War I and which at its first performance bore the program note “Music is life, and like it inextinguishable.”
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WHAT: Visitor’s Series Lecture: “A People’s Art History of the United States” by Nicolas Lampert, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
WHEN: September 15th at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Auditorium, Lower Level, Room 62
ABOUT: The School of Art + Design Visitors’ Series presents Nicolas Lampert, whose book, “People’s Art History of the United States: 250 Year of Activist Art and Artists Working in Social Justice Movements,” focuses on art history by relating to politics, social struggles and the fight for justice. He shows the critical role that art plays and has played in society.
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WHAT: Thursdays@12:20 Concert Featuring The Derick Cordoba Jazz Quartet
WHEN: September 18th at 12:20 p.m.
WHERE: Beckman Institute Atrium
ABOUT: This event is free and open to the public.
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WHAT: Exhibit Opening Celebration: Artists of the Loom: Maya Weavers of Guatemala
WHEN: September 20th from 1-4 p.m.
WHERE: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana
This event features a full day of activities celebrating the artistry and endurance of Maya weaving traditions in Guatemala. From 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, meet Rafaela and Edgar Apen, visiting artists from San Antonio Aguas Calientes who will demonstrate the weaving style of their community in the Central Core Gallery.
From 1:00 to 4:00 pm, enjoy the exhibit and a reception, including a presentation on weaving as an expression of identity given by guest curator Margot Blum Schevill with Rafaela and Edgar Apen at 2:00 pm in the Knight Auditorium.
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WHAT: TRANSLATION STUDIES – Author/translator Evan Fallenberg, “Reading Globally”
WHEN: September 23rd at 4 p.m.
WHERE: Room 2092B, Foreign Languages Building
ABOUT: Literature in translation offers readers a glimpse into other cultures and writing styles, the chance to eavesdrop on the conversation that members of a certain language and culture are holding with one another. But translated literature in the US still represents a minuscule portion of the books published annually. In this talk we will consider a few facts and figures about translation in the world market before focusing on several general and several specific aspects of translation that affect us all. Evan Fallenberg is author of the novels “Light Fell” and “When We Danced on Water” and a noted translator of modern Hebrew fiction, libretti, plays, and film. He has won or been shortlisted for many prizes, including an American Library Association Award for fiction, the Edmund White Award for fiction, the PEN Translation Prize and the Times Literary Supplement Translation Award. He is coordinator of fiction and literary translation at Bar-Ilan University of Israel and an instructor in the MFA program in creative writing at City University of Hong Kong. The recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the National Endowment for the Arts, Fallenberg serves as an advisor to several literary prizes.
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WHAT: School of Art + Design “Agency” Lecture: “Reverse Archeology: The Creation of Decay and Other Uncanny Transformations” featuring Valerie Hegarty, artist
WHEN: September 25th at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Krannert Art Museum Auditorium, Lower Level, Room 62
ABOUT: The School of Art + Design Visitors’ Series presents a lecture by practicing artist Valerie Hegarty, whose paintings, sculptures, and installations employ a variety of techniques and media to construct images of ruin. In this lecture, she will discuss “reverse archaeology” and artistic process.
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WHAT: Guest Lecture: Dr. Yuri Gurevich:”Impugning Alleged Randomness”
WHEN: September 26th at 4 p.m.
WHERE: 2405 Siebel Center
ABOUT: Yuri Gurevich is Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA. He is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, ACM Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, EATCS Fellow, a foreign member of Academia Europaea, and Dr. Honoris Causa of a Belgian and Russian universities.
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We live near a major university and a community college. There are smart people that come here every week to talk to the general public about interesting topics. Here’s a sampling of the talks and events you can find in the not-so-ivy-covered buildings near you. These events are free and will fill your brain with yummy knowledge (and sometimes will fill your stomach with free eats).