Slow down at the Spencer and spend time getting to know one great work of art. Slow Art Sunday features one work for visitors to contemplate and converse about with Museum staff.

Spend time getting to know one great work of art through relaxed contemplation and guided conversation. This month, slow down with Tom Knechtel's “Diaspora.”

Join us for a moderated conversation with Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., cousin and childhood best friend of Emmett Till and the last living eye-witness to the whistle and the kidnapping that set the tragedy in motion. A book signing will follow the discussion. The Raven Bookstore will sell books on site. Seating is limited; free tickets are required. Register for tickets at the following link and bring your confirmation email as proof of ticket: https://kusurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9H1ZXZCT5pZmQZ0

Join Curators Susan Earle and Kate Meyer and Collection Manager Angela Watts to learn about art from Africa and the African diaspora in the Spencer’s collection. Q&A follows the presentation. This is the second in a series of public conversations about the Museum’s collection, exhibitions, and programs.

Patrisse Cullors is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, artist, and abolitionist from Los Angeles. In her remarks Patrisse will discuss the complexity of acknowledging the suffering that pervades our personal and collective human experiences. She will then shift towards explaining the boundless possibilities that imagination unfolds for creating a future anchored in care, empathy, and mutual support.

The plan is to discuss how we can use art/artifacts/historical events to encourage students to engage big questions across disciplinary boundaries. I’m also hoping we can at least start the dialog about who has access to certain stories and how to handle some of those difficult conversations.

As mentioned in the previous e-mail, we will have 10 faculty members plus Benjamin and me during the 45-ish minute visit, and our primary focus will be on the Emmett Till installation, although suggestions for other Spencer resources are certainly welcome as part of the conversation!

Harbor cities usually display the amalgamation of two, though entwined, urban systems: an open public space for the exchange of traded goods – usually a market or piazza located next to, or at, the port – and a protected and defensive architectural set of buildings attuned to the contemporary technologies of war. It is the collision of two vectors: one which promotes the freedom of movement and of social mingling and the other which stages the presence of control, surveillance and the power to protect through display of fortified and armored architecture.

In this short paper I would like to discuss several Portuguese footholds along the Atlantic coast of Morocco, in which the Moroccan harbor cities were transformed into military strongholds for securing maritime trade. I argue that these cities went through a sudden transition of turning harbor cities into military strongholds. I also suggest that this specific change involves the reverse of the gaze, in which the guarding ‘eyes’ of the harbor city was set over the open sea. Thus, the Imperial Portuguese project of building strongholds along the African coast caused a rupture in the architectural urban history of the Moroccan port cities and situated these spaces as part of the global display of Portuguese power along the expanded empire’s frontiers.

This talk will be Live Streamed via YouTube, @KUArtHistory.

Tracy Miller is a renowned expert in Chinese architecture. Her research focuses on the culture of ritual sites in middle-period China (618-1644 C.E.), specifically the ways in which identity was expressed visually through the media of temples and their artistic programs. She is author of The Divine Nature of Power: Chinese Ritual Architecture at the Sacred Site of Jinci (Harvard University Asia Center, 2007) and has published articles in the Art Bulletin, Asia Major, and Archives of Asian Art.

Spend time getting to know one great work of art through relaxed contemplation and guided conversation. This month, slow down with Nick Cave’s “Head Dressed” and “Expo Chicago” on view in our new exhibition “One History, Two Versions.”

Join the Federal Bar Association Chapter for the districts of Kansas & Western Missouri for Intro to Art Law/Holocaust Art Restitution, featuring attorney Raymond Dowd. The program begins with an “Introduction to Art Law” panel discussion, followed by a presentation from Dowd on related litigation and topics of interest. The evening concludes with a reception in the Museum. This event is free and open to the public but an RSVP is required. To RSVP and learn more, please visit: https://fedbarkanmo.org/ajde-events/art-litigation-panel

“Laissez les bon temps rouler!” Celebrate Mardi Gras and learn about one of New Orleans’s most enchanting figures, Creole Vodou practitioner Marie Laveau (1801–1881). Spencer graduate intern Connor Joseph will give a short talk on Ulrick Jean-Pierre’s painting of Laveau in the “Empowerment” exhibition. Afterwards, join us for a special Mardi Gras edition of Textile Tuesday in the Lee Center.

Slow down at the Spencer and spend time getting to know one great work of art. Slow Art Sunday features one work for visitors to contemplate and converse about with Museum staff. In September, get to know "Parable of the Sower: Oya's Dream" by Fahamu Pecou.

Slow down at the Spencer and spend time getting to know one great work of art. Slow Art Sunday features one work for visitors to contemplate and converse about with Museum staff. In October, get to know "The Conqueror Worm" by Claude Buck.

Slow down at the Spencer and spend time getting to know one great work of art. Slow Art Sunday features one work for visitors to contemplate and converse about with Museum staff. In November, get to know "The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley" by Thomas Hart Benton.

Thank you so much, Celka! Yes, inside in the galleries sounds great. We will head over for 3:50 so that students can see the panel in the gallery and then you can join us when it works for you. Class goes until 5 so this will give us time to head back to the classroom for wrap up discussion at about 4:15. Thank you for being agreeable to this at the last minute! I appreciate it. Emily

Join Spencer Museum Director Saralyn Reece Hardy for a tour and discussion of darkness, light, and winter/time. We’ll savor this shortest day of the year in the company of art and community. The tour is offered at 2:00PM and 4:00PM.

Join Curator Kate Meyer and graduate intern Claire Cox as they discuss the history and continued relevance of Jacob Lawrence's prints depicting the life and death of abolitionist John Brown.

Join Curator Kris Ercums and Collection Manager Sofía Galarza Liu to learn how artworks enter the Spencer Museum’s collection. Q&A follows the presentation. This is the first in a series of public conversations about the Museum’s collection, exhibitions, and programs.

B.L.A.C.K. Lawrence members Alex Kimball Williams and Anthony Boynton share their research and its relationship to art displayed in the exhibition “One History, Two Versions.” Williams will speak about police brutality and protest art and Boynton will discuss Afrofuturism.

During the 19th century, making lace transitioned from a hand process to a machine process as part of the Industrial Revolution. Retired textile professor Tess van Groll discusses this shift using examples from the Spencer's collection. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults but open to all.

Learn the true story of a sign that was stolen, throw in a river, replaced, shot, replaced again, and shot again. Follow the sign as it travels from rural Mississippi to the Smithsonian to the White House to Lawrence with KU Professor Dave Tell, author of the 2019 book "Remembering Emmett Till." Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults but open to all.

Experience the splendor of the Spencer's iconic "Tympanum with the Lamentation (Pieta)." Graduate intern and art history doctoral candidate Sarah Dyer explores the history, original location, function, and style of this impressive portal sculpture once placed over the entrance of a Late Gothic Spanish church. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults but open to all.

Curator Kate Meyer leads a tour of the exhibition "Jacob Lawrence and the Legend of John Brown," discussing the artist and his series of prints as well as John Brown and his ties to Kansas. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults but open to all.

Students will look at art objects on the top floor, mostly East Asian objects, including ceramics and paintings. The students will observe artworks that are related to the Visual Arts of East Asia course and make notes for their worksheet.

Celka leading her class, topic "Museums and Wellness" - in Black Writing and collection galleries, esp. Intersections and Empowerment

Join Curator Sydney Pursel for a discussion of the exhibition "One History, Two Versions," which features art by contemporary Black artists, and how it connects to themes in the traveling exhibition "Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See."

Lowrider artist Erik Erazo speaks about connections between lowrider aesthetics and U.S. Chicanx and Mexican-American histories, and visual artist Tommy Lomeli shares the influence of lowrider aesthetics on his work. View Erazo’s featured lowrider, samples of Lomeli’s work, and Luis Jiménez’s sculpture “Howl,” on display in the Kress Gallery.

KU Professor of American Studies Araceli Masterson-Algar showcases a selection of works that speak to U.S. history from Mexican and Mexican-American experiences. The talk will discuss the themes, motifs, and stories we can access through these works and how they invite viewers to consider the experiences of underrepresented populations.

Join Paul Farber, director and co-founder of Monument Lab, to explore the relationship between public space and public memory. Farber will examine case studies of communities who tackled complex legacies of injustice inscribed into public spaces and shed light on how monuments can be transformed into sites of healing and repair. The In’zhúje’waxóbe / Sacred Red Rock Project is sponsoring this talk to learn more about how our Lawrence community may reimagine Robinson Park going forward. For more information visit www.sacredredrockengagement.com

Hello, Celka,
I will be hosting approximately 50 career advisers and recruiters from across the state and Kansas City area as part of the Kansas Association of Colleges Employers Summer Drive-In conference on Wednesday, July 19, at Stauffer-Flint Hall. Close to 30 of them plan to take a tour at Spencer Museum of Art between 1:15-2:30 p.m. We shouldn’t need a guide. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.

Thanks,
Steve

Kansas-based artists Lisa Grossman, Lilly McElroy, Marie McInerney, and Erin Wiersma discuss their work in the exhibition “Reading the World” with Spencer Curator for Research Joey Orr.

Join us for the release of “Why Reproductive Justice?,” a collaborative zine project organized by the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity, Students United for Reproductive & Gender Equity, the Spencer Museum of Art, and The Commons at the University of Kansas. After contributors reflect on their submissions, we will open the space for Q&A.

Join keynote speaker Imani Wadud (she/her) for a talk focusing on decolonial and Black feminist ways of approaching creativity as liberating practices. Wadud will zoom in on socio-political zine histories to ask how they inform and address contemporary making practices to produce alternative spaces of belonging and resistance.

Join film director Linda Hattendorf, KU Art History Professor Maki Kaneko, and Spencer Curator Kris Ercums as they discuss artwork by Jimmy Mirikitani in the Spencer’s collection that will be featured in an upcoming exhibition. This talk is in conjunction with the Global Asia Film Series and Global Speaker Series organized by the KU Center for East Asian Studies. A screening of Hattendorf’s film “The Cats of Mirikitani” will take place the same day at 6PM in the English Room of the Kansas Memorial Union.

Yukio Lippit (Harvard University) highlights techniques being used in Japan to create replicas from the Shoso-in, an imperial treasury in Nara, Japan, that houses over 9,000 objects and ancient documents dating to the eighth century or earlier. A reception follows at the Spencer Museum of Art.
This program is made possible through support from the National Association of Japan-America Societies, Kyoto Bunka Kyokai and the United States-Japan Foundation (USJF).

Anna Atkins’s cyanotypes, or blueprint photography, featuring algae and ferns do not disclose much about the social and political upheavals of the mid-19th century. In this talk, Siobahn Angus (Carleton University) shows how the materiality of Atkins’s work reflects industrial growth, linking cotton, paper mills, the railway, and plantation slavery.

Photojournalist Aileen Smith speaks about the life and career of her spouse and partner, photographer W. Eugene Smith. Her discussion will cover Eugene’s retrospective exhibition “Let the Truth Be the Prejudice” and his last photo essay on Minamata disease. Seating is limited. Register for a free ticket online: https://kusurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8ic2sxulJZoy7eS

Andrew Watsky (Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University) examines how 16th-century practitioners of tea ceremonies in Japan assessed and amplified the value of vessels through the formulation of aesthetic criteria, the bestowal of proper names, and an inclination for anthropomorphic embrace. 

KU art history alumna and 2023 Franklin D. Murphy Distinguished Alumni Lecturer Patricia Fidler presents an overview of her career in art book publishing, from her initial experiences at the Spencer Museum of Art to her current role at Yale University Press.

Learn about the process of creating “here-ing,” a walking labyrinth in the shape of the anatomy of the human ear at the KU Field Station. Presenters include Melinda Adams (KU Geography & Atmospheric Science and Indigenous Studies), Janine Antoni (New York–based artist), Joey Orr (Spencer Museum of Art), Sheena Parsons (KU Field Station), and Keith Van de Riet (KU School of Architecture & Design). The “here-ing” project is a collaboration of the Spencer Museum of Art, the KU Field Station, and the DesignBuild Studio in the KU School of Architecture.

Join artist Fahamu Pecou as he discusses his painting “Parable of the Sower: Oya’s Dream,” this year’s KU Common Work of Art. Commissioned by the Spencer Museum, the work symbolizes the new beginnings that emerge when one embraces the inevitability of change.

Experience the special exhibition Black Writing with co-curators Joey Orr (Spencer Museum of Art) and Ayesha Hardison (History of Black Writing). They will discuss how the artwork presented in the exhibition connects with History of Black Writing’s mission to preserve and archive Black storytellers.

Spencer Curator Kris Ercums discusses Nihonga or "Japanese Painting" currently on display. Nihonga is characterized by its use of mineral pigments and traditional techniques that emerged in response to the rise of western-style oil painting in late 19th-century Japan.

Artist Janine Antoni and Professor of the Arts Carol Becker (Columbia University) discuss Antoni’s recent project "here-ing", a walking labyrinth located at the KU Field Station.

Spencer Curator for Research Joey Orr discusses the special exhibition "Black Writing", which explores the power, politics, and complexities of language in contemporary Black culture. The exhibition is a collaboration with the KU research center History of Black Writing.

Spencer intern and PhD candidate in musicology Sara McClure explores the intersections between visual art and music. We'll examine several music-related works on display and hear musicians perform a piece inspired by art.

Join Spencer Museum Director Saralyn Reece Hardy for a tour and discussion of darkness, light, and winter/time. We’ll savor this shortest day of the year in the company of art and community. The tour is offered at 2:00PM and 4:00PM.

Alexis Nikole Nelson (@BlackForager) is a forager and outdoor educator using her platform to celebrate the edible plants hiding in plain sight and peel back historical layers on African American food traditions that have been repressed. Tickets are free but required. Reserve at https://www.universe.com/events/ku-commons-presents-alexis-nikole-nelso…

Join Collection Manager Angela Watts to learn about Native American potters Maria Martinez and Nampeyo of Hano, including the artistic legacies they inspired within their families. We will explore several generations of examples on view in our collection galleries. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults, but open to all.

Whether you are a high-school student, senior in college, senior adult, or some age in between, we invite you to connect across generations through art about growing up, growing old, outgrowing, and other life transitions. This tour led by Abby Bishop and Tess van Groll will move through the collection galleries and pause in our seated conversation spaces for discussion of artworks in the context of aging, communication across cultures and generations, and the passage of time.

KU alum, artist, and writer for Reservation Dogs Ryan RedCorn (Osage) returns to campus to set free Indigenous storytelling with a keynote talk for the national conference of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. RedCorn uses humor and satire to reclaim representation and cut through complex histories. This talk is free and open to the public, but reservations are required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-sovereignty-unedited-voices-an-even…

Join artist Lisa Grossman for a discussion of her paintings and prints focused on the tallgrass prairies and Kansas River Valley, including her painting “Navigating” that is on view. She will offer insights into her creative process and the rewards and challenges of plein air painting. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults, but open to all.

Professor Anne D. Hedeman delves into representations of history using one sacred Northern European example, the Master of Frankfurt’s “Descent from the Cross with Scenes from the Passion,” and one secular Italian example, the Master of the Apollini Sacrum’s “Assassination of Julius Caesar.” The discussion will focus on the storytelling practices represented in these paintings and consider the experiences of their makers and viewers. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults, but open to all.

Artists Miller & Shellabarger (Dutes Miller & Stan Shellabarger) have been performing Untitled (Pink Tube) together since 2003. Artists Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens have collaborated on multimedia projects since 2002. Following Miller & Shellabarger’s performance at the Spencer Museum, Sprinkle and Stephens will join them for a candid conversation about their years of performance work and what it means to perform as couples.

The Repatriation Education Series continues with a session on repatriation from a Tribal and museums perspective. The featured speaker James Pepper Henry serves as the Vice Chairman & Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Kaw Nation and Director of the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.

Can the surrealist group ethos of "permanent strike"—a life lived in total avoidance of paid work—be considered a form of progressive post-work imagining, or was the surrealist advocacy of laziness and work resistance just another indication of class privilege? In a lecture stemming from her recent book “Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work,” Abigail Susik (Willamette University) grapples with the ethical implications and aesthetic applications of the surrealist war on work in Europe and the United States between the 1920s and the 1970s.

Come learn about the Sacred Red Rock Project and receive a free activity guide with interactive prompts exploring history, monuments, reimagining and more. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will visit Robinson Park together. Snacks will be provided.

Led by members of the Kaw Nation in collaboration with the City of Lawrence, University of Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art, Kanza Heritage Society and others, the project is focused on the return and relocation of Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe, the 28-ton red Siouxan quartzite boulder currently located in Robinson Park, to the Kaw Nation, who have a centuries’ long relationship with the Rock and value it as a sacred item of prayer.

Visit sacredredrock.com for more information.

Artists of all disciplines are invited to learn how to apply for Rocket Grants—funding for innovative, artist-driven projects in surprising places. Rocket Grants administrator Kimi Kitada and Spencer staff member Adina Duke will share the application process and timeline, budgeting tips, and the types of projects the program funds, and past awardee Mona Cliff will share her experience developing and implementing a successful proposal. All three speakers look forward to answering your burning questions. Parking is free on Mississippi St and in the lot directly behind the Museum. Details about the Rocket Grants program are online at https://rocketgrants.org/apply/. Rocket Grants is a partnership between the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Spencer Museum of Art supported by funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Rocket Grants awards up to $6,000 to individuals or collaborative groups within an 80-mile radius of Kansas City.

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry including Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His first collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. His latest collection of essays, Inciting Joy, was released in October 2022.

Free tickets are available at https://www.universe.com/RossGay. The Raven Book Store will be on site to sell books for a signing following the lecture.

Tour the exhibition "Dissent, Discontent, and Action: Pictures of US by Accra Shepp" with the photographer. Shepp, a New York-based artist, will share insights related to his two photographic projects, "Occupying Wall Street" and "The Covid Journals" that form this exhibition. Please note that space in the gallery will be limited and this tour will be repeated on Friday, April 21, at 10:00 am.

Tour the exhibition "Dissent, Discontent, and Action: Pictures of US by Accra Shepp" with the photographer. Shepp, a New York-based artist, will share insights related to his two photographic projects, "Occupying Wall Street" and "The Covid Journals" that form this exhibition. Please note that space in the gallery will be limited and this tour will be offered on Thursday, April 20, at 6:00pm as well.

This is a follow-up to the Indigenous community forum held in September 2022. We invite members of the Indigenous community to drop in for any portion of the two-hour event to learn about the Spencer’s current initiatives and projects inspired by the last forum, receive updates on repatriation efforts, discuss contemporary museum issues, express concerns, and provide input through various activities

New Zealand artist Simon Denny (HFBK Hamburg) shares about his work, including a two-year collaboration with artist Stephanie Dinkins commissioned by the Spencer’s Arts Research Integration program and KU’s Institute of Information Sciences. Based in Berlin, Denny makes exhibitions and projects that unpack the stories technologists tell us about the world using a variety of media, including installation, sculpture, print, painting, video, and NFTs. He represented New Zealand at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.

Artist Stephanie Dinkins (Stony Brook University) shares about her work, including a two-year collaboration with artist Simon Denny commissioned by the Spencer’s Arts Research Integration program and KU’s Institute of Information Sciences. Dinkins is known for creating art about artificial intelligence as it intersects with race, gender, and history. Her recent major solo exhibition “On Love and Data” was organized by the Stamps Gallery (University of Michigan) and traveled to the Queens Museum in New York.

Join KU Professor and Chair of Art History David Cateforis in exploring three major works in the Spencer collection: Elaine de Kooning’s "Arena" (1959), Louise Nevelson’s "Seventh Decade Garden IX-X" (1971), and Elizabeth Murray’s "Chaotic Lip" (1986). The discussion focuses on the artists’ distinctive uses of abstraction – a key feature of much modernist art – both as a vehicle of personal expression and to invite the viewer’s creative engagement with the artwork. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults, but open to all.

Learn how objects in the Spencer Museum’s collection intersect with the Japanese tradition of tea. Dale Slusser, who has studied and taught the Urasenke tradition of tea for nearly 40 years, provides an introduction to tea practice and shares how aesthetics, craft, and tea have interacted over time. Senior sessions are designed for older adults, but open to all.

Slow down at the Spencer and spend time getting to know one great work of art. Slow Art Sunday features one work for visitors to contemplate and converse about with Museum staff. In February, get to know the Raqs Media clock, Night & Day, Day & Night.

Beronda L. Montgomery, vice president for academic affairs and dean at Grinnell College, discusses her perspectives on leadership and cultivating a vision of purpose. Montgomery’s research interests include plant biochemistry, equitable mentoring, and progressive leadership. Named one of Cell's 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America, Montgomery won the 2021 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award and the 2022 Adolph E. Gude Jr. Award for outstanding service to the science of plant biology for her book Lessons from Plants.

Gabrielle Civil is a Black feminist performance artist, poet, and writer whose work aims to open up space. Originally from Detroit, she currently teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. Civil has premiered 50 performance artworks around the world and her memoirs include the déjà vu, Swallow the Fish, Experiments in Joy, (ghost gestures), and in and out of place.

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry including Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His first collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. His latest collection of essays, Inciting Joy, was released in October 2022. Free tickets are available at https://www.universe.com/RossGay. The Raven Book Store will be on site to sell books for a signing following the lecture.

For the second year in a row, KU will participate in the Worldwide Climate Justice Teach-In, organized by researchers at Bard College. This interdisciplinary event is an opportunity for local researchers, community leaders, practitioners, students, and creative scholars, among others, to share their unique contributions to the work of addressing climate change. Register for this hybrid event at https://thecommons.ku.edu/climate-teach-in.

Explore the Zen paintings and calligraphies of Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768), the most famous Zen monk-artist of Japan’s Edo period with Yukio Lippit (Harvard University). Lippit examines Hakuin’s incorporation of different voices from Edo popular culture to communicate religious meaning, and considers Zenga’s construction as a category in the modern era.

Celebrate the release of a free collaborative zine exploring disability, ableism, gender, and feminism inspired by the KU Common Work of Art by Harry Bertoia and the KU Common Book “Disability Visibility.” Contributors reflect on their pages followed by time for questions and discussion. The first 10 people will receive a free zine making kit. What’s a zine? Check out https://emilytaylorcenter.ku.edu/making-zines-doing-feminism.

The extraordinary quilts by Emporia native Rose Kretsinger are frequently requested by visitors but have not been shown in more than 10 years. Join Curator Susan Earle for a special viewing of these quilts in the new Lee Study Center to learn about Kretsinger’s brilliant designs and techniques. Senior Sessions are designed with accommodations for older adults, but open to all.