University of Iowa News Release

Sept. 1, 2004

Year Of The Arts & Humanities Projects To Engage UI, Iowa Audiences

Some 50 University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students have received more than $127,000 in grants for 38 Year of the Arts and Humanities (YAH) projects to be conducted throughout the academic year.

The grants were awarded following a review of more than 90 proposals by a UI faculty-staff review panel. Projects represent a wide range of arts and humanities activities, some centered in Iowa City and others reaching across the state. All projects will connect the UI with the local and statewide community either as a partner in the project or as audience members. Several grants will support collaborations with public libraries, museums, historical societies, schools and community groups across the state.

Three different storytelling projects will gather stories from Iowans young and old across the state. Projects focused on Czech culture, Jewish writing, Middle Eastern women and international theatre will offer new cultural perspectives and demonstrate Iowa's connections with the global community.

One project will showcase work by Iowa artists worldwide via the Internet. Another will bring the world's oldest living art form to Iowa when a Chinese brush painter visits several towns across the state.

The range of funded project represents the broad scope of the arts and humanities at the UI and across the state, supporting UI President David Skorton's goal in declaring the 2004-05 academic year to be the Year of the Arts and Humanities. The YAH is a time to celebrate the rich tradition of arts and humanities on campus and throughout Iowa and forge cultural linkages between the academic community and communities around the state. The Year of the Arts and Humanities is supported by the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice-president for Research and the Graduate College.

Projects funded by the YAH include:

Charlotte Adams, Dance
Dance Gala, $2,750
YAH funds will help promote the event with increased marketing and outreach to young dancers in Eastern Iowa.
UI Sponsor: Dance

Venise Berry, Journalism and Mass Communication
Free Within Ourselves: A Celebration of Black Art and Literature, $2,000
YAH funds will help support a Black Art and Literature celebration.
UI Sponsor: Journalism and Mass Communication

Jen Bills, Writers' Workshop
United Action for Youth Writing Studio, $1,000
Writers' Workshop students will mentor high school students during creative writing class.
UI Sponsor: Writers' Workshop

Stephen Bloom, Journalism and Mass Communication
Shoedog Travels to the Iowa Heartland, $5,000
Bloom's play, "Shoedog," will be performed in Decorah, Dubuque and Perry.
UI Sponsor: Journalism and Mass Communication

Julie Bobitt, Center on Aging
Janet Specht, Nursing
The Arts and Humanities as Intervention: Affirming Identity Through Creative Group Storytelling, $5,000
Stories will be collected from the aged and then used as inspiration for art to be displayed in the spring. The project will collaborate with seven senior centers and long-term care facilities in Johnson County, Marion, Leon and Sigourney.
UI Sponsor: Center on Aging

Matt Brown, English
Book Arts at the Public Library, $2,500
The UI Center for the Book affiliates will teach workshops on calligraphy, bookbinding, papermaking, at several Iowa libraries.
UI Sponsor: English

Howard Collinson, Museum of Art
Art Museum Week, $5,000
To celebrate Museum Month in Iowa, Oct. 18-24 will be declared Art Museum Week with a special statewide celebration on Sunday, Oct. 24. Art museums in Ames, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Mason City, Muscatine, Okoboji and Waterloo will join the UI Museum of Art in this effort.
UI Sponsor: Museum of Art

Diana Davies, International Programs
The Czech and Slovak 20th Century in Retrospect: Czechoslovakia Behind the Iron Curtain, 1948-1970, $1,000
As part of the series, The Czech and Slovak 20th Century, YAH funds will help support a conference: Czechoslovakia Behind the Iron Curtain.
UI Sponsor: International Programs

Denise Dooley
Iowa Writes, $604
Showcasing the wealth of resources available to writers and readers, Iowa writes is a weeklong celebration of the craft.
UI Sponsor: English

Denise Filios, Spanish & Portuguese
Linda Kroon, WRAC
Celebrating Middle Eastern Women, $4,000
For International Women's Day in March, YAH will support a celebration in music, dance, etc. of Middle Eastern women.
UI Sponsor: Women's Resource and Action Center

Leslie Finer, Performing Arts
Arts Share, $5,500
Arts Share will extend its reach, taking artists and authors to underserved counties, creating theater and opera programs and sponsoring collaborations with schools.
UI Sponsor: Arts Share

Nona France, Nursing Services
Dialogo della Musica Antica et della Moderna II, $1,285
Dialogo della Musica Antiga will bring woodwind artists to Iowa for musical performances and workshops.
UI Sponsor: French and Italian

Carin M. C. Green, Classics
From Villa to Grave: the Defeat of the Roman Legions, $1,500
YAH funds will help support lectures on Roman life at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Arts and the UI.
UI Sponsor: Classics

Loreen Herwaldt, Internal Medicine
Blessing the Boats, $1,000
Sekou Sundiata, a performance poet and jazz musician, will participate in a public panel discussion on transplants and other health-related public programs as part of a residency at the UI Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics in conjunction with his two performances of "Blessing the Boats" at Hancher Auditorium in January 2005.
UI Sponsor: Internal Medicine

William LaRue Jones, Music
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, $2,000
Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will provide master classes with local public and private school students, in conjunction with her performances at Iowa City's Englert Theatre.
UI Sponsor: Music

Linda Kerber, History
Collaboration with historical societies and museums in Iowa, $4,000
The history department will develop a collaborative relationship with historical societies across Iowa.
UI Sponsor: History

Joan Kjaer, Ben Kieffer, Alan Kern, Gayane Torosyan, Broadcasting Services
KSUI/WSUI YAH Programming, $5,000
UI Sponsor: Broadcasting Services
WSUI and KSUI will provide arts and humanities radio programming originating on the UI campus and at sites around Iowa.

Lauren Klich, Fine Arts Council
Fine Arts Council Shows, $500
YAH funds will help the Fine Arts Council promote their arts markets and activities to new communities.
UI Sponsor: Fine Arts Council

Rudi Kuenzli, English
Kembrew McLeod, Communication Studies
Collage as Cultural Practice, $3,000
YAH will help support a conference and exhibit at the UI Museum of Art on Collage as Cultural Practice.
UI Sponsor: English, Communication Studies

Aviya Kushner and Lara Trubowitz, English
Jewish Writers Series, $1,000
YAH funds will help support special public sessions of the Jewish Writers Series.
UI Sponsor: English

Adele Lozano, Opportunity at Iowa
Hispanic Heritage, $3,000
YAH funds will help support public events held in conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month.
UI Sponsor: Opportunity at Iowa

Phillip Lutgendorf, Asian Languages and Literature
Satish Rao, Internal Medicine
Srutilaya Dance Troupe, $4,000
" The Ideal King," an Indian classical ballet, will be performed.
UI Sponsor: International Programs

Alan MacVey, Theatre Arts
Theatre International, $4,000
International playwrights will come to UI for public performances and workshops.
UI Sponsor: Theatre Arts

Karen Mason, Iowa Women's Archives
Mujeres Latinas: Preserving the History of Iowa Latinas and their Families, $2,000
YAH funds will help the Iowa Women's Archive gather the stories of Latina women by funding visits to seven Iowa communities between September 2004 and June 2005 to promote the project and encourage Latinas to participate. The communities visited will be Fort Madison, Muscatine, West Liberty, the Quad Cities, Des Moines, Mason City and Sioux City.
UI Sponsor: UI Library

Jennifer Proctor and Shannon Silva, Cinema and Comparative Literature
IC Microcinema Series, $2,000
To support IC Microcinema's work promoting independent film, YAH will help fund a video race (24-hour filmmaking competition) and visit by the director Matt McCormick
UI Sponsor: Cinema and Comparative Literature

Buffy Quintero, International Programs
Understanding the World of Child Labor through the Visual Arts, $3,310
Workshops will teach children about the practice of child labor and guide the creation of artwork.
UI Sponsor: International Programs

Gary Race, Music
Amahl and the Night Visitors, $5,000
The opera "Amahl and The Night Visitors" will be performed at the Englert Theater and include local talent.
UI Sponsor: Music

Laura Rigal, American Studies
American Studies Public Programs, $3,000
Funding will support a lecture series, "The Arts in America: History, Politics, Practice." KSUI will produce a Know the Score program with Dave Zollo and Dan Knight. Kelly McLaughlin will install a new media project and work with 8th graders.
UI Sponsor: American Studies

Helen Shen and Chuanren Ke, Asian Languages and Literature
Chinese Brush Painting Across Iowa, $5,000
Guiyuan Liang, a noted Chinese brush painter, will visit towns in Iowa for demonstrations, workshops, and exhibitions, some in conjunction with Asian Heritage Month.
UI Sponsor: Asian Languages and Literature, Center for Asian and Pacific Studies

Dorothy Simpson-Taylor, Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity
Nancy Humbles, Opportunity at Iowa
Dream Sharer, $3,500
To help at-risk youth with literacy and community building, the project will work with children to take oral histories and learn storytelling techniques.
UI Sponsor: Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity

Margaret Stratton, Art and Art History
Thunder Over Iowa, $5,000
YAH will help fund a documentary on community fireworks celebrations put on by the Iowa Pyrotechnics Association.
UI Sponsor: Art and Art History

Bonnie Sunstein, English
Writers Gone Public, $1,000
To increase awareness of nonfiction as a genre, writers from UI's Nonfiction Writing Program will conduct readings at the semester's end. Readings will be held in Iowa City and in selected students' hometowns.
UI Sponsor: English, Curriculum and Instruction

Charles Swanson and Judith Hurtig, Hancher Auditorium
Joe Lovano: The Living Language of Bebop, $7,500
Joe Lovano passionately recognizes his spiritual and musical connection to the great masters of the bebop era and expands and refreshes bebop as a living musical language. His UI residency will explore that living legacy in a variety of activities including a radio program on KSUI and jam sessions and workshops with high school and college students in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. The Joe Lovano Nonet performs at Hancher Auditorium on March 1.
UI Sponsor: Hancher Auditorium

Steve Thunder-McGuire, Art and Art History
Iowa Stories, $7,000
Story swaps will be conducted from locations around Iowa and broadcast on KSUI.
UI Sponsor: Art and Art History

Myron Welch, Music
UI Symphony Band performance, $4,025
The University of Iowa Symphony Band will be featured at the Iowa Bandmasters' Association gathering in Des Moines.
UI Sponsor: School of Music

Burns Weston, Center for Human Rights
The Kite Runner, $1,300
In conjunction with the Center's annual Johnson County Reads program, author Khaled Hosseini will visit the UI Nov. 12 to speak with community members reading his book, "The Kite Runner," and to engage with junior high school students from Waterloo who are involved in a peace and social justice project.
UI Sponsor: Center for Human Rights

Rachel Williams, Art Education
Devery Mock, Curriculum & Instruction
The Lost Girls: Stories from the Iowa Juvenile Home, $6,000
Girls from the Iowa Juvenile Home will participate in workshops, performances and recordings of their stories.
UI Sponsor: Teaching and Learning

Jon Winet, Art and Art History
The Daily Palette, $7,500
Work by UI artists will be rotate as desktop backgrounds on UI public computers and be featured in links on the UI homepage.
UI Sponsor: Art and Art History

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa News Services, 300 Plaza Centre One, Suite 371, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-2500.

MEDIA CONTACT: Mary Geraghty Kenyon, 319-384-0011, mary-kenyon@uiowa.edu.

OTHER INFORMATION: YAH Web site, http://yah.uiowa.edu