Framework V: Restoring the Boundaries
“Framework V showcases the results of the ongoing work by museum staff and students to conserve frames for the Smith College Museum of Art’s painting collection. In this apprenticeship program, now in its fifth year, Smith College and other Five-College students are trained by Chief Preparator William Myers and Associate Director David Dempsey in the techniques of frame conservation. The featured frame in this installation was created in the appropriate Pre-Raphaelite style for Meditation (1873), a portrait by John Everett Millais and a recent gift to the collection. Through Nov. 1.For more information about this exhibition, museum hours, and other museum informatin, see: www.smith.edu/artmuseum/.

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William Kentridge: What Will Come
This installation features the debut of an important new addition to the SCMA collection, “What Will Come” (2006), a major film by the South African artist William Kentridge. One of the most innovative aspects of Kentridge’s work is his hand-drawn films. “What Will Come” takes its title from a Ghanaian proverb: “What will come has already come," a sentiment reflected in the imagery of the film, which speaks to the range of conflicts that have marked modern human history. This work also displays Kentridge’s keen interest in optics. The film is projected from the ceiling onto a round metal table which bears a polished circular column in its center. The images are reflected on the surface of the column, which corrects the perspective of the drawing for the viewer. The images circumnavigate this column, changing form as they move to a haunting musical track. Through Dec. 31. For more information abou this exhibition, museum hours and other museum information, see www.smith.edu/artmuseum/.

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Kindergarten Artwork
Students in EDC 231, Foundations and Issues of Early Childhood Education, taught by Susan Etheredge, explored how young children think and learn. They examined the teaching/learning relationship in the early childhood classroom using the Lyman Conservatory as a laboratory. In the investigation of leaves and bulbs, students used inquiry-based teaching with kindergarteners of the Campus School. Together they engaged in a collaborative inquiry through observing, collecting data, sketching, photographing, generating metaphoric language, and learning scientific language to describe the leaves, reading and writing poetry, keeping journals and notebooks, and contributing to a small exhibition at the Plant House on their inquiry and study. Through October 9, 2009.

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Botanical Architecture: ARS285 Student Projects
Students in Smith College's Introduction to Architecture: Language and Craft studio (ARS285), taught by Jim Middlebrook, were asked to reinterpret the spatial language of flowers. Each student chose a flower from the Botanic Garden. She photographed this flower and analyzed its spatial character in terms of certain organizational principles. The student built a model to abstractly re-present the flower according to this visual ?language.? Finally, these forms were appropriated by the student in the design of a theoretical pavilion for the display of flowers next to Paradise Pond. On display in the Church Exhibition Gallery are the photos, models, and pavilion designs. More information is online: http://www.smith.edu/gardens/exhibits/exhibitions.html

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Renaissance Center Theater Company Announces Auditions for Fall Show
Open auditions for The Renaissance Center Theater Company’s fall production, Francis Beaumont's ground breaking 17th century comedy, Knight of the Burning Pestle are scheduled for Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30. The show runs October 9-11, 15-18. Auditions are open to all. Please come ready to cold read and prepared to list scheduling conflicts for September and October. A prepared monologue would be welcome but is not necessary; it won't count against you if you do not have one. Francis Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle, is a staggeringly funny satire of the English Renaissance stage and popular treatments of chivalric romance. The play revolves around two central plots: the first a parody of early modern city comedies which focuses on an apprentice who is in love with his master's daughter, while the second expounds upon the misadventures of a heroic grocer named Rafe. The play is filled with comic fights, romance, silly monologues, and ridiculous characters, all written in a style which seems more like a Monty Python film than a Shakespearean comedy. Please email the director, Nate Leonard, at nleonard@english.umass.edu with questions. For directions to the Renaissance Center, call 413-577-3600, or visit our web site at www.umass.edu/renaissance. This is the Renaissance Center Theater Company’s first production of the 2009-2010 academic year. An unconventional staging of the well-known medieval morality play Everyman is planned in February, 2010; Christopher Marlowe’s powerful portrayal of the human face of the battle of good and evil, Doctor Faustus is scheduled for April, 2010. The Renaissance Center Theater Company is the performance arm of the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, an institute of UMass Amherst, whose mission is to contribute to the field of Renaissance studies with research, teaching, and outreach to the campus, the community, and beyond.

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