The Hip Hop Architect: Michael Ford

In collaboration with?the Merce Cunningham Trust, the dance departments of Cornish College of the Arts and 91探花 present the fruits of a two-week immersion in Cunningham’s innovative and influential practices in chance operations. Led by?Merce Cunningham Dance Company alums??and?Holley Farmer?(also a 91探花and Cornish alum), the residency?honors the centenary of Cunningham’s birthday and acknowledges his formative training at Cornish, where he met composer John Cage and formed a partnership that has influenced generations.

Film Screening: “If the Dancer Dances | April 11, 7:00 pm | Henry Art Gallery

Free |

Informal Performance: Exploring the Creative Legacy of Merce Cunningham | April 13, 2:00 pm | Henry Art Gallery

Free |

Faculty Recital: Craig Sheppard, piano

Filippo Gorini

February 15, 7:30 pm | Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater

$10 tickets for 91探花students when you show your Husky ID in advance at the or on the night of the show at the Box Office at Meany Hall. |

Whitney Davis: Pictorial Art and Global Psychological Modernity

February 19, 7:00 pm | Kane Hall

Pictorial art has often been seen as one of the hallmarks of anatomically and cognitively modern, or what might be called “psychologically modern,” human beings. The lecture re-evaluates this notion in light of new findings in prehistoric studies and new arguments in the history and theory of art. How did pictorial art emerge and what does it do for the human species?

Whitney Davis is George C. and Helen N. Pardee Professor of History and Theory of Ancient and Modern Art at the University of California at Berkeley and Honorary Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of York.

This program is a part of the Katz Distinguished Lectures in the Humanities. The gallery space will have an exhibition of work by undergraduates in Painting + Drawing.

Free |

Fefu and Her Friends

November 28 to December 9 | Meany Studio Theater

Professor Valerie Curtis-Newton directs an all-female cast in María Irene Fornés’ most celebrated, realistic and feminist works, Fefu and Her Friends. Fefu turns the “ladies who lunch” trope on its head, bringing together an extraordinary—and regular—group of women who, over the course of a weekend in the country, peel away at each other’s layers, uncovering both the horrors and felicities of contemporary womanhood. Fornés said that Fefu’s realism evolved from the fact that she could feel the characters standing around her, that “one can feel the characters breathe.”

Fornés, who passed away October 31st at the age of 88, has been called “the most important American playwright you’ve never heard of,” and “influential beyond measure.” She is considered by many to be the mother of U.S. Latinx Theatre. This year marks a national celebration of her work, Celebrando Fornés/Celebrating Fornés.

$10 tickets for 91探花students |

Clotilde Jiménez: Apple of My Eye

As an artist, Jiménez was inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s use of form and color to tell stories, “Jacob Lawrence was one of the few artists who showed me that it was not only possible to depict my life as a Black person in my own way but that it was also important and needed. Jacob Lawrence’s forms and color palette gave me the courage to look to my own Black American Puerto Rican roots to channel some of that essence into my work while also candidly telling my own story in the time that I live.”

Donna Haraway: Storytelling for Earthly Survival

November 29 to December 2 | Henry Art Gallery

Gospel Choir

December 3, 7:30 PM | Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater

Phyllis Byrdwell leads the 100-voice gospel choir in songs of praise, jubilation, and other expressions of the Gospel tradition. Byrdwell is Director of the 91探花Gospel Choir, Minister of Music at Mount Zion Baptist Church of Seattle, and a music educator for Lakeside School. She was inducted into the Washington Music Educators Association’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves on the Seattle Symphony Board of Directors.

The Seattle Art Museum will feature work by abstract artist and 91探花 art professor . The exhibit, titled “Disclosures,” will be on display from May 20 through November.

Hurley is a professor of painting and drawing in the whose works have been exhibited and praised nationally.? The exhibit makes a fitting tribute, as Hurley will retire from the 91探花at the end of the school year after 23 years of teaching.

“Hurley is dedicated to abstraction,” SAM curators write, “and his work has centered on the tension between formal elements — either a series of elements within a single painting — or the relationships between paintings and their surrounding architecture in a constellation.”

The exhibit will include paintings from Hurley’s “Glyph” series, a glyph being a Greek term for a symbol conveying information nonverbally. They resemble the sort of placards people carry at rallies and demonstrations.

SAM curators explain: “As most of Hurley’s paintings with this title are densely painted in black — while one work frames the blank white wall — these particular glyphs don’t carry images or slogans. Instead they become abstract and point to their form and function. In the absence of words or symbols, these signs disclose no allegiance to any cause.”

Hurley was born in Barbados, West Indies, and studied at the Portland Museum Art School and the Yale School of Art, where he earned an MFA in 1979. Has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. His work has been included in many group exhibitions, including at the UW’s . His art was previously was shown at SAM in 2003-2004 in an International Abstraction exhibit.

In a 2006 Seattle Times , arts writer Matthew Kangas wrote that artists like Hurley “present a gift to the willing viewer: the pure pleasure of paint on canvas. No muss, no fuss, just enjoyable looking, feeling and thinking.

“Taking months (or years) to complete, each painting consists of numerous layers of oil paint slowly built up, rubbed out or scraped down and corrected to create subtle variations of tone and hue within the solid-color surface. This gives each painting a quietly throbbing appearance that is only perceived by long and slow looking.”

Asked by blogger to describe his work, Hurley said, “I would describe it as rigorous, clearly abstract; about structuring imagery, color and surfaces. I want my work to seem available and open while maintaining its density.” He named Picasso, Matisse, daVinci and Pollock as influences — as well as the UW’s own .

Hurley had several suggestions when asked for advice to aspiring artists.

“Talk to each other; community is important,” he said. “See as much work as you can. Learn to be at one with your own work. Be curious about your choices. Work in many mediums and be open to the demands of process. Realize that it is OK to be alone with your work and yourself. Read history. See something of the country and the world. Talk to your teachers. Have other interests as well. Be lucky!”

He added, “Get good training. Go to museums. Draw, draw, draw!”

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For more information about Hurley and his work, contact him at dh1@uw.edu?

The 91探花 Meany Center for Performing Arts will host the Washington, D.C.-based dance troupe Feb. 16-18 in Meany Hall. Teri Mumme, director of marketing and communications director for Meany Center, conducted an interview with the center’s executive director, about the production, the center’s ongoing mission — and the importance of honoring artist Jacob Lawrence in the 100^th year since his birth.

Why is this project important for Meany Center to undertake now?

I was approached by the dance company, Step Afrika!, with an opportunity to co-commission the remounting of a performance work “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence,” based on the painter Jacob Lawrence’s 60-panel – which portrays the movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North throughout the 20^th century.

The co-commission and presentation of Step Afrika!’s “The Migration” was to coincide with the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of Lawrence’s birth, in 2017. Already an exciting project, it was even more compelling because Lawrence had moved to Seattle in 1971 to teach at (what was then) the UW’s art department, and made a home in Seattle until his death in 2000. His influence at the 91探花and in the city of Seattle was enormous; there are many of his works on campus, including a mural created specifically for the lobby of Meany Hall.

My colleague , director of the 91探花, recounts that Lawrence was deeply drawn to the 91探花— and that his dedication as an inspired educator was central to who he was. This project is important to undertake now, not only as part of the 100^th anniversary of Lawrence’s birth, but also as part of the UW’s participation in the vitally important conversations about African-American identity taking place across the country and the current migrations happening around the world, that are such a focus of contemporary national and international politics.

How does it support the new mission of Meany Center?

Meany Center endeavors to be a national model of innovative performance, public engagement, learning and creative research in the arts. Artistic excellence is a pillar of our mission and Jacob Lawrence and Step Afrika! demonstrate original, innovative and courageously realized examples of human creativity and expression.

The new mission of Meany Center is to nurture a culture of shared discovery through advancing interdisciplinary creative research — here as a supporter of the commission and the remounting of Step Afrika!’s important interdisciplinary work. Meany Center also forges powerful arts engagement and learning experiences by connecting diverse audiences and artists, and bold approaches to audience and student engagement. Step Afrika! will be engaging in a variety of campus and community activities throughout their residency, including a performance at SAM amidst the 60-panel Migration Series itself, where they are on display.

Meany Center is a national model of innovative performance, public engagement, learning and creative research in the arts. Artistic excellence is at the core of our mission and Step Afrika!’s use of Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series to create a new work is a perfect example of how one artist’s legacy inspires the next generation.

One of the goals of Meany Center is to nurture a culture of shared discovery by advancing creative research — here as a co-commissioner of the remounting of Step Afrika!’s important interdisciplinary work. We are also connecting audiences and artists in powerful arts engagement and learning experiences. Step Afrika! will be in residence at the UW, engaging in a variety of campus and community activities, including a performance at SAM, where the panels are currently on display.

The Jacob Lawrence Gallery is also presenting a series of exhibitions and programs in honor of the Lawrence centenary, and the Henry Art Gallery will present an exhibition of Lawrence’s silkscreen prints “Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis.”

What is the production’s connection to the Seattle Art Museum’s exhibition of the Migration Series in February?

The connection to the Seattle Art Museum happened very organically. Chiyo Ishikawa, the deputy director for art at SAM and I happened to be on the same plane returning from Madrid in summer of 2015; I mentioned that we had just secured the co-commission and performance of Step Afrika!’s “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence” and would love to collaborate somehow. The 60-panel series of paintings — jointly owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the , a museum of modern art in Washington, D.C. — was on display at MOMA at that time.

The Phillips Collection was willing to explore the possibility of lending four or five panels from their half of Lawrence’s Migration Series to interested project partners, provided their facilities meet approved museum standards for adequate display parameters, which Meany’s did not.? I suggested to Chiyo that SAM explore this possibility as well as other types of collaborations that we might engage in.

Chiyo not only loved the idea, but shared that SAM’s American Curator, Patty Junker, had already been thinking about the Migration Series, and that they were going to see if they could borrow the entire series. It was our hope together that the timing could coincide with our presentation of Step Afrika!’s “The Migration.” After much back and forth with MOMA and The Phillips Collection, Chiyo confirmed that they could bring the entire series to Seattle for display.

Tell us a little about Step Afrika! and how they will be engaging dance in the exploration of this subject?

Step Afrika! is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of . Stepping in the United States grew out of song and dance rituals practiced by historically African-American fraternities and sororities, beginning in the early 1900s. In addition to step shows and competitions on college campuses, today stepping can also be found in schools, churches and community organizations around the country. Step Afrika! takes this tradition and combines it with African foot dances such as gumboot, originally conceived by miners in South Africa as an alternative to drumming, which was banned by authorities.

In Step Afrika!’s “Migration,” dance and visual art come together, and the painted images — which are projected onto the stage — in essence come alive. The intention was to make the dancers seem to emerge directly from the panels that Lawrence painted. Step Afrika!’s artistic director, Brian Williams, did extensive research into not only Lawrence’s panels and methods, but also the Migration itself, for the troupe’s first mounting of the production in 2011.

Lawrence wanted the series to transcend the specifics of time and place and to express a timeless relevance and ultimately a sense of hopefulness. It is a very interdisciplinary work and in a sense it is a nod to the idea of a very wide range of art forms that influenced Lawrence and even of his use of color and rhythm in his painting. Step Afrika!’s “The Migration” starts by depicting an experience in the South and moves toward the North, but is not chronological. The idea of the train is central to the troupe’s interpretation, as it was the key mode of transportation throughout the Great Migration.

In stepping, there is a movement called Alpha Train, which is specific to one fraternity, and the step basically imitates the sound of the train. In addition, the history of stepping actually parallels the story of the migration — as people from the South coming to the North trying to get better educational opportunities started stepping in the black fraternities and sororities.

I just finished reading Isabel Wilkerson’s “,” an epic nonfiction rendering of the Great Migration which tells so many stories of black Americans fleeing the oppressive Jim Crow laws of the South, toward what they hoped was a better life with the promise of more stable working conditions, greater equity and the ability for their children to become educated. Of course what they found in their new communities was far from what what they had so desperately hoped and struggled for. I feel very moved being able to present this work at such an influential public university as the UW, which has provided a better life for many generations of struggling individuals and families.

I cannot think of a better way to honor the intention of Lawrence’s work as we celebrate his life and legacy.

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For more information about the Meany Center for the Performing Arts or Step Afrika!’s performance, visit .

is a senior lecturer with the 91探花 and a writer in residence with the . She worked with well-known photographer to create a book featuring portraits of Northwest artists, writers and arts advocates. “” was published in September by . McCue answered a few questions about the work.

Q: How did this book come about?

A: Mary and I worked together on “,” my book about the poet Richard Hugo and the Northwest Towns that he wrote about. That collaboration came from a glint in the eye of Pat Soden, then the director of 91探花Press.

Pat said: “I want you to work with Mary Randlett. You two would get a kick out of each other.” Pat is a great artistic matchmaker. I loved working with Mary. The more I got to know her, the more I saw that the scope of her work was phenomenal. Then, Rachael Levay, the wonderful publicist at 91探花Press, suggested that I do this portraits book.

Mary likes working so it was easy to convince her. Sometimes, I’ve said that the whole project was an excuse to hang out with Mary. And, hang out we did — for two years in and in her garage, rifling through prints. We had a lot of half-finished sandwiches laying around.

Q: Several featured in this book are or were members of the 91探花community, including , , , , , , , and others. How did you decide who to include?

A: We had these criteria: 1) we wanted to focus on artists, writers and advocates of the arts; 2) we wanted the photographs to be compelling, exposing some essence of their subjects and 3) we wanted to include people whom Mary had loved and worked with or who provided a window into the range of work being done in this region.

Q: You wrote an essay to accompany each of the subjects of the book. Would you tell a bit about your research process??

A: I spent a lot of time reading whatever articles, books, blogs and essays I could find about the people whom we chose. Then, I dug into the rich world of Special Collections — a place where Gary Lundell, reference specialist, and Nicolette Bromberg, visual materials curator, really helped me find some fantastic prints of Mary’s and letters to and from some of the people in the book.

Special Collections is a treasure trove; it’s a great hangout and the people who work there are immersed in the history of our region. Gary, for example, was a friend of ‘s and of ‘s — two artists whom I wrote about.

Then, there were the drives with Mary herself. To get her talking, you really have to be driving. She loosens up and tells great stories when she is on the road. So, I hung a tape recorder from the heating vent in the dashboard, and off we went. I love the material from those interviews and Mary’s quotes appear throughout the book.

Checking the facts, confirming memories — all of that happened with as many of the folks as I could reach and with a great assistant on the project, Shannon Foss. Shannon is an undergraduate in the Honors Program and a genius at collecting citations.

The last part, and one of the most important, involved my own speculations about the compositions of the photographs themselves. I looked and wrote and devised reactions and theories about the portraits as art.

And, I got some terrific help by asking Barbara Johns, the fabulous art historian, and Sheila Farr, one of our region’s great art critics, to peruse my work. As Richard Hugo once said, “A good teacher can save you 10 years.” Barbara and Sheila certainly saved me from years of flailing and I’ll be forever grateful to them.

• “Mary Randlett Portraits” also features an afterword by Nicolette Bromberg.