Category Archives: The Arts at Penn

January 17, 2012 · 3:21 pm

The Image as Archive; Towards a Third Cinema

Author: Lisa Marie Patzer

As I walked up the ramp to the second floor gallery at the ICA, I immediately recognized the whirring sound of the slide tray advancing and the click of the next slide falling into place.  Growing up in the 1970’s, I am nostalgic for all things celluloid, including 35mm slides.  Imagine my delight when I saw not one, but four slide projectors, sitting side by side in the gallery, dutifully rotating, loading and projecting images at regular intervals.  This is what I would call a little slice of cinephile heaven.

Still from "Sample Frames", 2011, by Alexandra Navratil

The four slide projectors are part of an installation titled Sample Frames, 2011 by Alexandra Navratil (born 1978) and is featured as part of the current exhibit Living Document / Naked Reality:  Towards and Archival Cinema on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art Project Space.

The show is curated by Jennifer Burris, the Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow.  She states about the show, “Living Document / Naked Reality: Towards an Archival Cinema presents works by contemporary artists who explore cinema’s complex political, formal, and ideological history from the 1910s to the 1960s.  Each project engages with the often contradictory responses to the question ‘What is cinema?’  Together, these works—which include video, found object, and slide installation as well as a series of ‘black box’ screenings and events—provoke both critique and nostalgia for the outmoded film technologies and abandoned utopias of a previous era.”

Alexandra Navratil addresses the question “What is cinema?” through synchronized projections of 81 images that were produced by Eastman Kodak Company from 1916 to 1927 as a series of “color guidebooks”.  Kodak produced these slides in an attempt to demonstrate the correct way of tinting black and white slides.  What is fascinating is the way in which the film material has decomposed over the years, negating their original purpose as “pure sample frames”.  Instead, with the viewer sees are four variations of the same exact image, without reference to what the “true” or “correct” image would look like.

Accompanying the Sample Frames installation is an artist book designed by Navratil, Permanence Vocabulary.  On each page, a single term from the “Imagining Materials-Permanence-Vocabulary” manual is printed and defined. For instance, the first word “Abrasion” is printed in dark gray and following the word is the definition.

Permanence Vocabulary, Artist's Book, by Alexandra Navratil

The ICA has several events planned in partnership with the International House, Temple University and Penn, to run concurrent with this show.  See here for more information.

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Filed under Events, Film, Fine Art, Lisa Marie Patzer, The Arts, The Arts at Penn, Uncategorized

November 29, 2011 · 7:43 pm

The Art of the Office Wall

Author: Lisa Marie Patzer

A recent blog post in MIRANDA, titled “A Space to Inspire Them: Art at Work”, made me think about the art that I am surrounded by here at Penn.  From the Arthur Ross Gallery, to the Kelly Writers House, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, arts and culture play an important role in life at Penn.  During Homecoming Weekend I took the Gallery Hop tour and visited The Arthur Ross Gallery for the first time.  Their current exhibit, Double Take: Series, Multiples, and Prints features prints, photographs, pastels and sculptures from the University of Pennsylvania’s diverse art collection.  One of my favorite photographs in the exhibit is Queen, by Audrey Flack:

Audrey Flack (b. 1931) Queen, 1975 Dye transfer photograph Gift of Seymour Passman

The gallery hop also included a tour of the Institute of Contemporary Art.  Here I was introduced to the work of Charline von Heyl.  I am now a devoted fan.

Charline von Heyl

Painting by Charline von Heyl at the Institute of Contemporary Art

The point of Rachel Pastan’s story, however, is that art belongs not only in galleries and museums, but also in factories, offices, cubicles and other work spaces where we spend most of our time. Pastan emphasizes the importance of being surrounded by art on a daily basis, not only for a sense of décor, but also because art improves employee morale, productivity and helps stimulate the imagination.

I still plan to frequent the museums, performance spaces and galleries at Penn, but Pastan’s article brought my attention to the wall I face while at work.  I have a few artistic images hanging amidst my work related materials, but there is a lot of opportunity to improve the artistic aesthetic of this space.

Office Wall number 1

Bits of art hanging on my office wall

Office wall photo 2

More bits of art hanging on my office wall

How about you?  What does your workspace look like?  Do you see art on a daily basis?

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Filed under Fine Art, Lisa Marie Patzer, The Arts, The Arts at Penn

November 10, 2011 · 4:46 pm

I Remember…Music Class

Author: Elizabeth Kimmelman-Schwartz, C’04

Today, I got an email from the Philadelphia Orchestra (nerd alert – I’m on their mailing list!) advertising a visiting orchestra coming to town and the fact that they’d be playing an all-Beethoven program, including my two favorite symphonies – Eroica and the 5th.  I had a major, all-out nerd attack.  In the span of two minutes, I called my husband, made sure that he was on board with the ticket purchase, ordered us two seats (after memorizing the seating layout in the Kimmel Center, including doing some Google image searches, to make sure the seats were acceptable), and exuberantly ran into another employee’s office telling her about my AMAZING purchase.   Let’s just say that her reaction did not come close to matching my level of enthusiasm.  I’m a classical music nut and I’m proud of it!  I owe almost all of this love to the University of Pennsylvania’ s Department of Music.

As a freshman at Penn, I signed up for a first year seminar called “History of the Symphony.”  I was intrigued by the title and thought it might be a good chance to learn something new.  I sang in select choirs all through high school and was in the shows, plus I enjoyed musical things like Broadway.  My dad is a classical music fan, and I’d always have to listen to classical music in his car when he’d drive me places.  He give me the choice of riding with no music and actually…gasp…talking, or listening to classical music and, to me, the choice was clear.  I’d pretend to hate it, but deep down, I thought it was beautiful.  I liked how listening to classical music stirred my imagination, painted a mood for me, and let me be peaceful and reflective.  I didn’t get to take any classes about classical music in high school, so when I got to Penn, it made sense to me to learn more about it.  I loved my symphony class and before I graduated I took two more music classes, including a music history course and a course entirely on Beethoven.

I’ve talked in this blog before about how Penn is very pre-professional and how I was constantly worried that I didn’t know what I was going to do for the rest of my life.  That’s true – except for the time I spent in music class.  In music class, my fears about what would happen to me, my worries that what I was learning wasn’t applicable to the real world at all, faded away.  I would watch my professor map out a symphony, feeling like I was learning a secret, beautiful code.  I learned what motivated Beethoven to write such deeply meaningful pieces.  I spent hours in the music library, learning how to identify parts of the symphony like the introduction, recapitulation, bridge and coda.  Soon, I was mapping symphonies on my own.  By the end of my classes, I could hear a few seconds of any Beethoven symphony, at any point, and correctly name it.  It was amazing.  I didn’t care how or when I used this knowledge, but for one of the only times in my life I was learning for the joy of learning.  And I was happy.

I didn’t become a music major or even a minor.  I never worked for a symphony or played for one.  But what I gained from my three music classes was so valuable.  I gained a love and knowledge of a true art form, which I will carry with me throughout my entire life.  I learned the power of music to inspire true creativity and emotion.  In learning this, I really think I became a better, more well-rounded person.  When it comes down to it, I think that’s what a good college education should be about.

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Filed under Academics, Alumni Perspective, Elizabeth K., Fine Art, Memories of Penn, The Arts, The Arts at Penn

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November 8, 2011 · 9:00 am

SPEC Connaissance: James Franco Edition

Author: Stephanie Y., C08

Thanks to SPEC Connaissance and my PennCard, I spent yesterday afternoon sitting in the 4th row of Irvine Auditorium listening to James Franco talk about his acting and academic careers. Each year, SPEC Connaissance brings an array of public figures to address the Penn community. Past speakers include Anderson Cooper, Madeline Albright, Henry Kissinger, Whoopi Goldberg, Peyton Manning (I attended), Billy Joel, Ben & Jerry, and Ellen DeGeneres (wait – when did ELLEN come? How did I miss that?) Tickets to the James Franco event were only available to PennCard holders. Hooray for working at Penn!

James Franco in Irvine Auditorium (photo credit: The Daily Pennsylvanian)

In addition to being a huge Hollywood star, Franco holds multiple advanced degrees (from UCLA, Columbia University, and New York University), and he is currently enrolled in a PhD program at Yale University. I have always been impressed with his CV, but I still wondered whether he was admitted into these programs based on merit or his name. During the interview, Franco admitted he receives special treatment for being famous, but the talk confirmed that he is brilliant, and he can certainly hold his own in an academic setting. The man is a true scholar in addition to being a super dreamy Hollywood star.

Here are a few fun facts from the talk:

  • Franco watches the Twilight movies because he is interested in why teenage murder is ok if the teenagers are vampires (good point…)
  • He spent 3-4 months cooped up in his apartment, reading about James Dean, isolated from his friends and family, and smoked two packs of cigarettes per day to transform into his character.
  • There are three movies he regrets making because he was disappointed with the final product (hmm three movies? Spiderman series, anyone?)

Thanks, SPEC Connaissance! I can’t wait to see who you bring to Penn next time.

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Filed under Alumni Programming, Alumnni Education, Campus Life, Stephanie Y., The Arts, The Arts at Penn

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October 26, 2011 · 2:15 pm

WXPN and World Cafe Celebrate 20 Years of Musical Discovery

Author: Kim Junod, C’00, MSW C’04

The Penn community has something to be excited about this October. A great piece of our University’s history and culture is turning 20! WXPN’s flagship program the World Cafe with David Dye is celebrating two decades programming all month long. I think all Penn students, faculty, staff and alumni will be surprised to know just how special this program truly is to our community.

The World Cafe has brought something really special to our campus. We house public radio’s leading popular music program. That’s pretty awesome considering that the program first aired out of WXPN’s original location which was a converted row home on 39th and Spruce and was distributed to only five radio stations throughout the country. Today, the program is produced in XPN’s beautiful facility at 30th and Walnut Streets and is nationally syndicated to more than 230 radio stations.

The show has been responsible for bringing so many musical legends to our neck of the woods. Elvis Costello paid a visit to our old station and had to borrow a keyboard from the guys across the street at Pi Lam fraternity. David Dye has interviewed legends like Herbie Hancock, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Steve Miller, Tim Robbins, (Penn alum) John Legend, Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, and Michael Stipe all right on our campus! Now how many Universities can say that!?

We’ve also had many major artists visit the XPN studios for a World Cafe session at the start of their careers. Some of our first timers include Sheryl Crow, Ray LaMontagne, Feist and Adele. Thanks to the World Cafe, the Penn community has some great bragging rights and can say that we heard them first. To check out some more of our first timers, you can visit our 20th anniversary webpage.

WXPN and the World Cafe have served as great learning experiences for many Penn students through their internship program. I started working at XPN as an intern and a few of my colleagues are also Penn grads who started as interns, including our World Cafe line producer Beth Warshaw-Duncan. It’s been an exciting journey working on the World Cafe and I encourage Penn students to continue getting involved with our internship program- if you are interested you can find more info on the internship program here.

Now for the fun stuff… We’re having a month-long party over at XPN and we want you to celebrate the milestone with us!

You can tune into our show Monday through Friday from 2-4 PM to hear some fascinating programming that features the best interviews and artists that have appeared on the show.  You can also visit our home on the NPR Music site to check out these themed programs that we have been broadcasting throughout October or to hear a mix of songs recorded for the World Cafe over the last twenty years. If you love these one-of-a-kind performances, we have created a 20 song sampler for the taking here.

WXPN's Host, David Dye

As much as we are looking back, we are also looking forward. We would love to share another sampler with you- 20 bands we have chosen as up-and-coming talent as a part of our daily World Cafe: Next feature.  You can grab that music here.

We’re going to culminate our month-long celebration during the World Cafe Weekend Celebration from Friday, October 28 through Sunday, October 30 at World Cafe Live. We have some amazing artists coming to visit and pay tribute to the show and David. Throughout the weekend, you can catch performances by the Indigo Girls, John Hiatt, The Little Willies, Feist, Dawes, Amos Lee, Rhett Miller and Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks. It’s going to be a blast and we hope you that you can join us. Click here to learn more about the event and buy tickets!

We hope to keep the World Cafe going for another 20 years! We thank all of our fans and the Penn community for supporting us and helping us grow. As a listener supported station, we literally couldn’t have done it without you.

 For more information on what’s happening during the anniversary month, click here. We sincerely hope that you’ll be able to join us as we celebrate this milestone and thank you for your continued support!

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October 17, 2011 · 5:21 pm

Art Contest Winner

Last week, we asked you to correctly identify both the name and location of the following sculpture on Penn’s campus:

We had a large number of correct responses, but the first to get it right is Lisa Bardfeld Shapiro, C’93. Within minutes of the post, she properly identified the location as Hamilton Walk between HUP and the Med Education Building and the name of the piece as Quadrature# 1 (1977) by artist and Penn Professor, Robert Engman. Professor Engman is also known for Triune, a trifold Moebius strip located near Philadelphia’s City Hall.

In addition, he collaborated with his students to create Peace Symbol (1967),  also a favorite sculpture found on Penn’s campus near the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.

Congratulations to Lisa, who will be receiving  a free Penn T-shirt for her participation. Thank you, too, to our enthusiastic and responsive readers, many of whom also correctly identified this somewhat obscure piece. You can view more of Penn’s art work on campus by going here.

In the meantime, keep checking back for more opportunities to show your Penn spirit and to win!

Here’s the full view of the piece for your viewing pleasure:

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Filed under Aimee L., Campus Life, Fine Art, The Arts, The Arts at Penn

October 12, 2011 · 6:04 pm

Where Am I?

The first person to correctly identify (1). the location and (2).  name of this sculpture will be sent a free Penn t-shirt in your requested size. Email alabrie@upenn.edu with your answers.

Here it is:

As soon as we have a winner, I’ll post the answer.

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September 30, 2011 · 9:04 am

A Must See Movie: “Thunder Soul”

Author: Nicole C. Maloy, W’95

It’s Mr. Holland’s Opus meets Stand and Deliver; it’s Drumline meets Dead Poets Society. It’s not a movie about a band, or their music. It’s about the man who inspired them to greatness by making them believe that they could be great. They proved him right. Then, 30 years later, they got together to show him that they remembered what he’d taught them. And I’m not just talking about the music.

The Director’s name was Conrad O. Johnson, Sr., otherwise known as “Prof.” He led the Kashmere Stage Band to undreamed-of heights for an all-Black group of Houston, Texas public high school students in the early ’70s. I’m talking the kind of heights typically found in fairy tales and made-for-TV family drama. But this is all true. Through interviews, rehearsal video, and amazing footage/photos from the band’s heyday, this documentary – Thunder Soul, named after one of the group’s songs – tells the story of the band’s formation, the success they achieved, and the 2008 reunion where alumni came together to play for their “Prof” one more time to say thank you.

The true story of Conrad Johnson & the Kashmere Stage Band. “He gave them everything. Now it’s time to give back.”

Shout out to Executive Producer Jamie Foxx for helping to make this movie possible. Read this article for his thoughts on the film, and why he was so compelled to be a part of it. It’s a good thing he was; it has already won two “Best Documentary Feature” awards, and nine Audience Awards. And counting?

I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of Thunder Soul in Philadelphia (alumni, you will get a chance at Homecoming 2011 if you can’t find it near you before November). It is not often I believe that everyone I know, as well as everyone I don’t know, should see a particular film. But you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll groove, and you’ll leave knowing you’ve just experienced something powerful. And, if you happen to have ever played in a school band, or if you happen to care about kids having arts programs in school, or if you happen to enjoy ‘70s funk, well, then. So much the better. You will like – dare I say, even love – this movie even more.

But you’ll also like it – dare I say, even love it:

  • If you’ve ever had, or not had, the chance to show someone how much they meant to you.
  • If you have ever been a part of a team, in any form.
  • If you’ve ever taught someone how to do something, then felt the rush of pride in seeing them run with it.
  • If you’ve ever learned how to do something, then felt the exhilaration of running with it.
  • If you’ve ever run back to say, “Thank you.”
  • If you’re now thinking about the people you should be thanking.
  • If you’ve ever been in the minority, and been made aware of it by others (as if you didn’t already know).
  • If anyone has ever had low expectations of you that you went on to prove wrong.
  • If anyone has ever had high expectations of you that you went on to prove right.

Don’t let the fact that movie popcorn costs $75 keep you from going to the theater. You can always eat something beforehand.

You know the kind of movie you wished for, and that you said you’d support if it were out there? That anyone, from any background, can see and enjoy? That you can take your family to see, and that everyone, of every age, will actually like? That portrays a diverse array of African-Americans as thinking, feeling human beings rather than as insulting caricatures? That shows positive things happening while still being real? That is uplifting and inspiring without being cheesy? This is that movie, so here’s your chance to support it: find where it’s playing, and see it. Then tell someone about it.

And go ahead, get to that first “Thank you.” You’re about to make someone’s day.

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September 20, 2011 · 6:15 pm

Resurrect Dead

Author: Lisa Marie Patzer

I recently attended the Philadelphia premiere of Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles at the International House.  I knew very little about the film but was curious to learn more about the odd tiles I had seen scattered throughout the streets of Philadelphia. Here is one located at 43rd and Chester:

Resurrect Dead, a documentary film directed by Jon Foy, follows Justin Duerr a Philadelphia-based artist, on his journey to find the source of the Toynbee Tiles.  Hundreds of these cryptic messages have been found embedded in the streets of major cities across the U.S. and South American and Justin has taken a photo of nearly every one.  The tiles contain some variation on the following inscription:

TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK’S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER

I would classify the film is a hybrid doc-fiction that attempts to de-code the meaning behind the tiles as well as uncover the identity of the creator.  I will resist including any “spoilers” here, but I will say I was impressed by the film and the audience support.  The attendance at the International House was so overwhelming they added a 5th screening to the program.  

Kendall Whitehouse with the Wharton School at UPenn has a great  photo album of a Q&A session with Jon Foy.

In order to promote the film, the producers of Resurrect Dead gave the audience stickers that look like the Toynbee Tiles.  I have seen several pasted in public places throughout the city.

This Philadelphia based film is receiving a lot of buzz, both locally and nationally.  It has moved on to Chicago, but I am sure it will be back.  For more information, see the official website.

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Filed under Campus Life, Film, Lisa Marie Patzer, Philadelphia, The Arts, The Arts at Penn, Uncategorized

August 31, 2011 · 8:02 am

Campus Art

Author: Lisa Vaccarelli, C’02

One of the great things about working on a vibrant university campus like Penn is the never-ending flow of exhibits, performances and cultural events.  Yes, despite being one of the world’s most renowned research institutions, Penn also holds its own when it comes to the arts.  I say all of this not as an art aficionado – or even an art history minor – but as someone who most frequently enters into cultural experiences by accident.  And THIS is why Penn is so great – for those of us who might not seek out these experiences on our own, there is always a new exhibit or performance to stumble upon here on campus.

For example, last week, I navigated to the Penn homepage only to find the following photo:

Needless to say, this visual image was enough to distract me from whatever work-related online destination I was heading toward.  I needed to learn more about this photo, which I quickly discovered is part of an upcoming exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art, entitled Blowing On A Hairy Shoulder: Grief Hunters.  Grief – as in, my boyfriend just dumped me so why not go sit on the beach with an umbrella and wait for a thunderstorm?  I told you – I’m no expert.  According to the ICA’s website, this exhibition presents work by twenty artists from Israel, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Britain, and America that examines the relationships between originality and origin. Through video, photography, drawing, and sculpture these works take the challenges of “originality”—invention, innovation, novelty—to extremes, while making the term “origin” (genesis, precedent, historical debt, pre-historic territory) a subject.

This is all way over my head – but it’s intriguing enough to make me want to spend a lunch hour exploring the exhibit this fall.  Plus, I’m dying to know what’s going on with this guy.

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Filed under Alumni Perspective, Homecoming Weekend featuring arts and culture, Lisa V., The Arts, The Arts at Penn