Here's a look at what's in the limelight this week in local arts news.
IU Bloomington's SoFA Gallery To Be Renamed
The School of Fine Arts Gallery At Indiana University will be renamed the Grunwald Gallery of Art in honor of a generous endowed gift given in honor of John A. Grunwald by his widow, Rita Grunwald. John Grunwald was a prominent member of the Bloomington community. A survivor of the Holocaust in his native Budapest, Grunwald emigrated to America as a young man, graduating in 1956 with a degree in economics from Indiana University. Later in life, he remained active in IU's Hungarian Studies Program and mentored international students at IU's Kelley School of Business. Rita Grunwald's decision to make the donation began during plans for an exhibit to open in the gallery in the fall: photographs taken by photographer Yuri Dojc in a Jewish school in Eastern Slovakia, which has remained undisturbed since 1943, when its teachers and students were captured by Nazis. The exhibit will open September 2, followed by an official unveiling of the newly renamed gallery.
- Read the news release via IU's newsroom.
- Visit the SoFA gallery online.
ArtsWeek 2011 Coming Right Up
IU's 27th annual ArtsWeek runs February 17 through 27. Among the more than sixty events to be held at the winter festival are lectures on this year's topic, ‘Arts Teach,' and performances at the Jacobs School of Music: IU Opera Theater will stage a new production of Charles Gounod's Faust, and the world-renowned Orion Quartet will perform works by Schubert and Beethoven. The events are not limited to the Indiana University campus; the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center will also host a visit by the award-winning film director Spike Lee.
- Find out more information about ArtsWeek.
Elementary Students Submit Original Instruments In National Competition
Students at Chapelwood Elementary School in Indianapolis are in the running in a national contest sponsored by the idiosyncratic theater troupe, The Blue Man Group. The group's Invent An Instrument Contest will be judged by the blue men themselves along with celebrity guests, including the hip hop artist Ludacris. The winner-there will be only one-will be awarded $5,000 and a trip to New York City to see a Broadway performance, where the group will use his or her instrument to create an original song.
- See images of the students' submissions on the website for the Indy Star.
2011 Recipients Of Outstanding Junior Faculty Awards Announced
Recipients of Indiana University's 2011 Awards for Outstanding Junior Faculty were announced last week. Among them was Michael Foster, professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Foster joined the faculty in 2008 as an assistant professor; in 2009, he also became an adjunct professor in the departments of Anthropology and Cultural Studies. A graduate of Stanford University's PhD program in Asian Languages, Foster's research concerns Japanese folklore, literature and film, and monster and supernatural studies; he is the author of Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yôkai, published in 2009. The other award-winning junior faculty are Joshua Brown, in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Ilana Gershon in Communication and Culture; Amit Hagar in the History and Philosophy of Science; and Eden Medina in Informatics and Computing.
- Read the press release.