Black Students Alliance New England Regional Conference
The Black Students’ Alliance hosts their New England Regional Conference at Smith College. The conference theme this year is “Breaking Boundaries: Reconstructing the Perception of Blacks in the Media.” The keynote speaker will be Beverly Bond, the CEO/Founder of Black Girls Rock!, Inc. During the day there will be multiple workshops and in the evening there will be a formal banquet and keynote address. For more information please visit: http://smithbsaconference2013.eventbrite.com/ or contact Taylor Goodridge (tgoodrid@smith.edu).

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James Welling: Open Space An exhibition detailing the photographer’s work in New England from 1970-2010
January 31 - May 5, 2013

Reception for the Artist
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
5:00 - 7:00 PM

In Conversation: James Welling with Lorne Falk
5:30 PM

The University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst is pleased
to announce an exhibition of work by the Los Angeles-based artist
James Welling. This exhibition will focus on the photographer’s work
in New England from 1970 to 2010. Included are Welling’s earliest
experiments in photography, video, and watercolor, all harking back to
his formative years in Connecticut. The exhibition concludes with his
remarkable Glass House series (2006 – 2010). This architectural
landmark by Philip Johnson in New Canaan, CT, became a laboratory for
Welling’s ideas about transparency, reflectivity, and color. His
recent videos, taken at the Glass House at different seasons of the
year, will also be premiered in this exhibition.

James Welling has created beautiful and challenging photographs for
over thirty-five years. His practice has addressed an impressive range
of issues and ideas: the tenets of realism and transparency,
abstraction and representation, optics and description, personal and
cultural memory, and the material and chemical nature of photography.
His photographs are as much about vision, light, negative, and solid
as they are about the depicted image and subject. Using an
experimental approach to the medium of photography, Welling
investigates a variety of formal and theoretical ideas about picture
making. His work has helped transform the history and practice of
contemporary photography.

James Welling is Head of Photography at UCLA and was a Visiting
Professor at Princeton University in fall 2012. His work is held in
major museum collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou,
Paris; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; Los
Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum
of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The
Museum of Modern Art, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography; and the Whitney Museum of American
Art, NY.

Lorne Falk has worked in the arts and education for 38 years as a
teacher, dean of faculty, residency program director, gallery
director, curator, writer, and consultant in the arts and education.
He is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at Hampshire College,
where he teaches courses in contemporary art history and culture.

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Exhibit: “Pioneers of Mass Aggie: Founders, Builders, and Innovators”
Exhibition runs through May 13, 2013. “Pioneers” is the first of three exhibits to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the University of Massachusetts and will focus on the early history of the Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Talk and reception Friday, March 1, 2013, at 4pm.

More info: http://bit.ly/exhibitpioneers.

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Botanical Printing: Artful Collaboration on Paper and Cloth
Works by Leverett artist Leonore Alaniz using nature printing to merge botany and art seamlessly. The technique involves inking specimens and imprinting them onto paper, cloth, and other surfaces. Through February 10. More information at:

http://www.smith.edu/gardens/exhibits/exhibitions.html.

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Collecting Art of Asia
Marking the 100th anniversary of the first gifts of Asian art from the preeminent collector Charles Lang Freer, “Collecting Art of Asia” will highlight transformative moments, people, and gifts in the history ofcollecting and displaying Asian art at Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA). The exhibition, spanning two floors of the Museum, will include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South and Southeast Asian art from the permanent collection of SCMA, as well as promised gifts. The galleries will feature: traditional art; prints from 1950 to the present; contemporary painting, sculpture, and installation; and video art. Freer’s close association with painter and Smith professor Dwight Tryon will be examined in the exhibition and in the accompanying illustrated publication with highlights of SCMA’s Asian holdings. Through May 26 The Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for students and $2 for youth ages 6 to 12. Free admission to all the second Friday of the month, from 4 to 8 p.m. Free passes are available at Forbes Library, 20 West St., with a Forbes Library card. For more information, including open hours, visit http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum

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James Welling: Open Space Photography Exhibition
January 31 - May 5, 2013
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 30, 5-7pm

In Conversation: James Welling and Lorne Falk* at 5:30pm

The University Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by the Los Angeles-based artist James Welling. This exhibition will focus on the photographer's work in New England from 1970 to 2010. Included are Welling's earliest experiments in photography, video, and watercolor, all harking back to his formative years in Connecticut. The exhibition concludes with his remarkable Glass House series (2006 – 2009). This architectural landmark by Philip Johnson in New Canaan, CT, became a laboratory for Welling's ideas about transparency, reflectivity, and color. His recent videos, taken at the Glass House at different seasons of the year, will also be premiered in this exhibition.

James Welling has created beautiful and challenging pictures for over thirty-five years. His practice has addressed an impressive range of issues and ideas: the tenets of realism and transparency, abstraction and representation, optics and description, personal and cultural memory, and the material and chemical nature of photography. His photographs are as much about vision, light, negative and positive space, as they are about the depicted image and subject. Using an experimental approach to the medium of photography, Welling investigates a variety of formal and theoretical ideas about picture making. His work has helped transform the history and practice of contemporary photography.

James Welling is a seminal figure in the "Pictures Generation," a group of photographers (including Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, and others), who emerged in the U.S. in the 1970s. In 2009, Welling's work was featured in the critically acclaimed historical survey, The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Welling's work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. James Welling is Professor in the Department of Art at UCLA and was a Visiting Professor at Princeton University in fall 2012. His work is held in major museum collections all over the world.


Related event in conjunction with the exhibition:

In Conversation: James Welling with Lorne Falk
Wednesday, January 30, 5:30pm

*Lorne Falk has worked in the arts and education for 38 years as a teacher, dean of faculty, residency program director, gallery director, curator, writer, and consultant in the arts and education. He is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at Hampshire College, where he teaches courses in contemporary art history and culture.

Museum Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 11:00 AM – 4:30 PM, Saturday/Sunday 2 – 5 PM
Closed Mondays, holidays, and spring break (March 16 – 25)

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Black History Month Event: Bamboozled
The Student Event Committee (SEC) presents Bamboozled, a dark, biting satire of the television industry, focusing on an Ivy-League educated black writer at a major network. Frustrated that his ideas for a "Cosby Show"-esque take on the black family has been rejected by network brass, he devises an outlandish scheme: reviving the minstrel show. The hook: instead of white actors in black face, the show stars black actors in even blacker face. The show becomes an instant smash, but with the success also comes repercussions for all involved. Shown in conjunction with the Smith Black Students Alliance's conference.

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Turn Me On: What's Your Sign? Speed Dating and Dance Party
A black light party hosted by the Network $5 at the door.

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"Renaissance Man: The Many Roles of Singer"
The Amherst College Department of Music will present “Renaissance Man: The Many Roles of Singer,” a senior recital by Hilary Cullen Budwey ’13, on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 5 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center. The concert is free and open to the public; seating is by general admission.
“Renaissance Man: The Many Roles of Singer,” featuring a wide repertoire, explores the various roles of a vocalist spanning from Medieval chant to contemporary songs. Budwey will be joined by Professor Robert Eisenstein, Grant Moss and other musicians from Amherst College and the Five College Early Music Program.
For a complete listing of upcoming Amherst College Department of Music events, visit us on the web: www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/music/events.

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South Africa's Magnet Theatre presents: Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking
Only two actresses appear in Magnet Theatre’s play, Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking, but aided by a moving score and some evocative props, they build an entire world on stage. This performance piece is about a young refugee in an unknown francophone country in Africa who loses her home. Forced to journey to a new place through many dangers and uncertainties, she walks a path towards healing and recovery with her mother.

The South African theater company that created the piece, Magnet Theatre , will make its Massachusetts debut at UMass in January with a Five College Multicultural Residency. Magnet Theatre’s residency includes performances of Every Year, Every Day… from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, the Rand Lecture and discussion on Jan. 29, and a number of special events, many of them free and open to the public. See a listing of highlights at the side, and visit our website for full residency details.

The company’s trip to the Pioneer Valley is a result of the efforts of Professor Megan Lewis, herself a native of South Africa and a longtime fan of Magnet Theatre and this play. Every Year, Every Day… blends seamlessly into the Department of Theater’s 40th anniversary season focusing on female playmakers.

“This play deals with the theme of our 40th Anniversary, and I think it is important that if you are celebrating women to remember and include the international or global perspectives of women,” Lewis explained. “I wanted to share the work that this company has been doing over the past 25 years, which is physical theater that is socially conscious. They create phenomenal performance events that are aesthetically beautiful, emotionally evocative, and politically relevant.”

The actresses who perform in Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking, Jennie Reznek and Faniswa Yisa, both had a hand in creating the story they tell onstage. In an interview posted on the company’s website, Yisa, who speaks Xhosa as well as English, said the show’s message transcends language. “The power of physical theatre is that everyone can read the body. We don’t have to rely on a specific language. The show can travel.”

“A lot of people are not used to reading the body. They are used to being told exactly what the story is about verbally. This piece (and physical theatre) asks people to engage imaginatively with the images that they see in the space. It’s a challenge of the style,” added Reznek.

Beyond the performances of the actresses, a key element of the show is the music composed by Neo Muyanga, of Soweto. “The music is also a character on its own that intertwines with the bodies,” said Yisa.

The artists will be sharing their talents not only on stage, but in a variety of workshops and other events open to the public. Please join us for the following FREE PUBLIC events:

Tuesday, January 29 at 4:00PM – The Rand Theater Lecture: “Magnet’s Theatrical Labors in South Africa,” with members of Magnet Theatre and Professor Megan Lewis moderating. There will be a public reception in the Fine Arts Center Atrium immediately following the lecture.

Wednesday, January 30 at 4:00PM –“ ‘Lapsing’ into Democracy: Un(der)speaking Theatre in the Transitional State” at Amherst College’s Stirn College with the artists from Magnet Theatre led by Mark Fleishman.

Also, please join us at the post-show discussions following the performances on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1.

For a full event listing, please visit http://www.umass.edu/theater/magnet.php.

This residency would not be possible without generous funding and support from The College of Humanities and Fine Arts; Five College Multicultural Theatre Committee; Edinburgh After-Festival; UMass Arts Council; Amherst College English Department; Five College Lecture Fund; Interdisciplinary Studies Institute; Hampshire College Department of Theater; and UMass Departments of Theater, History, Afro-American Studies, Music and English. Thank you for your support! Thanks also to the UMass Hotel and Conference Center for providing accommodations.

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