Fall Arts Celebration events set

Fall Arts Celebration is Grand Valley’s highly popular and much anticipated annual showcase for the arts and humanities drawn from across the globe. Six enriching events are planned for 2012. All are open to the public with free admission. Seats fill quickly; arrive early.

The opening night event Monday, September 10, 8 p.m. in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus, is a performance by Grand Valley Music Department faculty members, students and guest artists. “Music for the ‘Era of Good Feelings’: Beethoven in Federalist America,” celebrates the bicentennial of the end of the War of 1812 and the new age of peace known as the “Era of Good Feelings” in America. Share the excitement and the music of the era in this performance of iconic works by Beethoven. 

Distinguished Academic Lecturer Daniel Mendelsohn, an award-winning writer, critic and translator, will present “Medea on the Jersey Shore: Tragedy and the Crisis of Reality in Contemporary Culture,” Thursday, September 20, 7 p.m., Eberhard Center, 301 West Fulton, on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. A common element found in his broad range of interests and writings is fresh insight about contemporary culture as influenced by his scholarly training as a classicist. His lecture will be followed by a book signing.

“Forged in Metal: Deshi/Shihyou Mentee/Mentor,” opens with a reception Thursday, October 4, from 5-7 p.m., GVSU Art Gallery, 1121 Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus. The exhibition is a showcase of exceptional work selected from a group of contemporary Japanese jewelry and metalsmithing students, and their mentors, from Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry in Tokyo. The exhibition also captures the artists’ expressions of cultural identity and their appreciation for the physicality of materials and craft. The exhibition will be on display until Friday, November 2, 2012.

“Poetry Night - An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Nikky Finney and B.H. Fairchild,” Friday, October 19, 7 p.m., Eberhard Center, 301 West Fulton, on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus, brings two award-winning poets noted as witnesses in their work to regional history and cultural issues. Finney’s Head Off & Split, was winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry. Fairchild received the Arthur Rense Poetry Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001 for consistent excellence over a long career. A book signing will follow the presentation.

“The Baroque Splendor of Venice: Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ in Dance,” is set for Monday, October 22, 8 p.m., Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus. In this iconic work, Vivaldi portrays each season of the year as unique – as does this performance by celebrated violin soloist Rachel Barton Pine, coupled with the athleticism of modern dance by Thodos Dance Chicago. This new, multi-media interpretation is set by Shawn T Bible, Grand Valley faculty-artist choreographer. 

Fall Arts Celebration 2012 concludes with a special holiday gift to the community, performed by Grand Valley faculty members, students and guest artists. “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” will be performed Monday, December 3, 8 p.m., Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain St., Grand Rapids. Written for the American stage, this masterpiece by Gian Carlo Menotti was also the first opera composed specifically for U.S. network television. Originally broadcast December 24, 1951 on NBC, the beloved Christmas special quickly became an annual holiday tradition.

For more Fall Arts Celebration information, visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts, or call (616) 331-2180.(((((