ArtscoEntertainment
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Nebraskan
Wednesday, April 20, 1994
New fine arts college boasts stronger identity
Damon Lee/DN
Larry Lusk, dean of the University of Nebraska*Lincoln College of Fine and
Performing Arts, said he had been at the university for 36 years. The
college, which was formed in July of 1993, will be officially dedicated this
weekend.
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
A new identity is the key slogan for the
newly created University of Nebraska-Lincoln
College of Fine and Performing Arts.
The college will have a dedication ceremo
ny this weekend.
After years of inclusion in the College of
Arts and Sciences, the new college, established
July 1, 1993, combines the Department of Art
and Art History, the Department of Theatre
Arts and Dance, and the School of Music.
The Lied Center, the Mary Riepma Ross
Film Theater, the Great Plains Arts Collection,
the Lentz Center for Asian Culture and the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture
Garden arc loosely affiliated with the new
college.
Along with a new college comes a new dean.
Larry Lusk, former associate dean for the
College of Arts and Sciences, relinquished his
role to become dean of the new college.
“It’s a privilege. Working with very creative
people, such as those you have in the arts, is a
lot of fun,” Lusk said.
Lusk said the decision to create a new col
lege was a plan more than eight years in the
making and one that was not caused by any spite
toward the arts and sciences college.
“It was not an acrimonious decision. It wasn’t
a painful one or out of distrust,” he said. “For
many years the university had been planning on
this.
“We took it through all the channels. It
received unanimous approval every step of the
way,” Lusk said.
He said the purpose of the new college was
to give the arts new focus. The expansion of the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Mary
Riepma Ross Film Theater and the addition of
the Lied Center and the Lentz Center for Asian
Studies provided motivation for this new focus.
Lusk said.
In the first year, Lusk said, much has been
accomplished. Members of the college’s facul
ty have received awards, while the college
itself has generated more than 5350,000 in
outside income, and a long-range plan has been
drawn out. he said. Planning the dedication
ceremony took up a lot of that time, also.
“It’s a big weekend,” Lusk said. “We have
a bushel basket of things going on. It’s more
entertainment than speeches, and it will be a lot
of fun.”
- «--—
There was a sense by
developing a new college
for the arts there could be
a clearer, stronger identity
for the arts.
— Bowlin
Kimball Hall director
-ff -
The dedication ceremony will feature key
note speaker Beverly Sills, general director of
the New York City Opera; noted contemporary
visual artist Wayne Thicbaud; internationally
known scenic designer John Conkl in; and Rich
ard Colwell, head of the Music Education
Department at the New England Conservatory
of Music.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln music pro
fessor Randall Snyder will present “Music of
Korea,” and art professor Karen Kune will
present “Sense of Place” and the effect 1 i ving in
Nebraska has had on her work.
Other UNL faculty members and students in
theater, art, dance and music will be performing
and presenting exhibits throughout the week
end as well.
Ron Bowl in,direclorof Kimball Hall, played
a major role in organizing the new college and
the upcoming ceremony.
“There was a sense by developing a new
college for the arts there could be a clearer,
stronger identity for the arts," Bowlin said.
Lauri Morris, a senior art major and member
of the student advisory board for the dedication
ceremonies, said belonging to an individual
college would make arts majors feel more
important.
“It’s really positive we have our own iden
tity instead of being tacked on.” she said.
“When we were in the College of Arts and
Sciences, wc were part of it. but we weren’t
very important.”
Tice Miller, director of the Department of
Theatre Arts and Dance, said she hoped the new
college would bring attention and funding to
the arts.
“Wc all expect to thrive and prosper,” Miller
said.
See DEDICATION on 13
Lied to welcome jazz trio
Concert
-Ao
By Paula Lavigne
Senbr Reporter_ _
preview
The awards and achievements Dr. Billy
Taylor has reaped over the years number far
too many to list.
The Billy Taylor Trio will be performing
along with the Parsons Dance Company at
the Lied Center this weekend in an improvi
sational collaboration of jazz and modern
dance.
Along with his numerous awards. Taylor
has done extensive work with the govern
ment by serving on the president’s National
Council on the Arts and acting as an “ambas
sador of jazz" to foreign nations.
“Jazz expressed, more eloquently than
other art forms, some of the aspects of
freedom,” Taylor said. “There arc wonder
ful people whose music reaches out and
touches them.”
Some foreign people learn how to speak
English through jazz, Taylor said, and can
develop an image oflifc in America.
“Most people think of freedom as being
unstructured,” he said, “but jazz is struc
tured in many ways. There arc forms we use
when we improvise, and the vocabulary is
pretty well set.”
He said the structure of jazz depended on
the style — Afro-Cuban, blues, bc-bop —
used, but jazz should not be stuck into
individual categories.
“Jazz operates, as other music operates,
in a business,” he said. “The unfortunate
thing is that business people like to put
things in boxes to categorize things such as
hip-nop, rap or gospel.
“They figure they can target an audience
better. In jazz, this doesn’t always work
good, because it’s a music that defies cate
gorization.”
Taylor is a good musician to prove this.
His work has involved incorporating several
different musical and cultural flavors into
his original style. He’s performed with sym
phonies that found a better way to reach out
to Americans through the addition of jazz.
By setting the jazzy rhythms of his trio to
the choreography of David Parsons’ eight
dancers, Taylor branches out with a new set
of limbs — 32 to be exact.
“I’ve worked with other choreographers
before, but David Parsons is very special,
wonderfully creative,” Taylor said.
A specific story line crept into Taylor’s
mind as he was creating the music, but when
he presented it to Parsons, it opened up for a
whole new interpretation.
“My original story line contained things
I would sec if I walked down 125 th Street in
Harlem,” he said of his work “Step Into My
Dream.”
“Not being from Harlem, (Parsons) treat
ed it as music.”
In “Step Into My Dream,” the improvisa
tion of jazz is carried out through the danc
ers. Taylor said any number ofdanccrs could
select one or all of the musicians to impro
vise a melody to which they would impro
vise movement.
”1 was very excited. David’s dancers arc
young and energetic," he said. “We have
really reached a place where I’m very de
lighted with the results.
“This has added something unique to
what we do. It’s the same spirit in which we
play jazz. It’s great to be able to communi
cate this to another discipline.”
The Billy Taylor Jazz Trio and the Par
sons Dance Company will be on stage Sat
urday night at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.
Regular tickets are $24. $20 and $16. Stu
dent tickets are half price.
‘Fang 2’ doggone poor
“White Fang 2”
The sequel to Jack London’s “White Fang”
really bites.
“White Fang 2” begins with a new miner,
Henry Casey (Scott Bairslow), working the
Alaskan claim for gold. He and White Fang try
to take their gold downstream to town when
their boat is wrecked. They arc separated, and
Casey is saved by a young Haida American
Indian princess named Lily (Charmainc Craig).
Lily is convinced that Casey is a transforma
tion of a wolf who will lead her people to the
caribou. Casey is too inhibited by his American
materialism to help the tribe at first, but in
traditional Disney fashion, he comes around
and discovers his benevolent inner spirit.
Casey, through blind luck and unrealistic
achievements, defeats the bad guy, the Rev.
Lcland Drury (Alfred Molina), who has blocked
off the caribou in an effort to force the Haida off
their gold-lined land.
This film’s characters arc exemplary of most
Disney shows, in which moiality is cut and
dried, and the good guys arc destined to achieve
an easy and humiliating victory.
The nature scenes are exceptional, with
some astounding footage of the interaction of
wild wolves, but these aren’t enough to save the
mediocre plot.
The acting is solid throughout the picture,
but the characters arc locked into their roles.
The only development that takes place is by
Casey, who undergoes the obvious transition
from money-grubbing miner to selfless savior.
Little attention is paid to probably the most
interesting character, the Haida boy Peter.
Walt’s boys have taken theboy-and-his-dog
story a bit too far this time. Unless you’re a die
hard Disney fan, give this one a miss.
— Joel Strauch
Sheldon trying for Warhol piece
From Staff Roportt
Asapart of its latest fund-raiser, the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery is inviting artists to share
their talent by submitting a piece of art to the
Mickey Mouse Famous Artist Competition.
The competition is part of an effort by the
Sheldon to purchase the Andy Warhol painting
“Myths: Mickey Mouse.” said Kathy Piper,
executive director of the Nebraska Arts Asso
ciation. The painting is on display at the Sheldon.
“They’re trying to raise $35,000 for the
painting,” Piper said. An additional $15,000
has already been raised through individual
donations, she said.
“We’re getting it at a very good price. We’re
also in competition with other galleries to be
allowed to purchase this. We were the gallery
that was chosen because there arc very few
Andy Warhols in the Midwest.”
All the entries must refer to Mickey Mouse.
Submissions by amateurs must also mimic the
style of a famous artist. Piper said. A $750 cash
award will go to the winning entry by a working
professional artist. All other entries will com
pete for a 3-foot Mickey Mouse sculpture by
Steve Jensen.
All donated art then will be sold in an auction
at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. The
auction will be held during a fund-raising party
that will pay homage to Mickey Mouse and
lifestyles of the ’50s and ’60s.