Fall Arts Celebration schedule set

Grand Valley State University has a rich history of providing events and programs for the community centered on the arts. Fall Arts Celebration 2015 continues this tradition by featuring distinguished writers, poets, musicians, artists and scholars. All events are free and open to the public.

"Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unreal"
Exhibition reception Thursday, September 10, from 5-7 p.m.
Exhibition dates : August 28-October 31
Art Gallery, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus
This exhibition of contemporary art welcomes viewers to experience a beautiful world, unsettling in its vision of personal isolation, but collectively bound by the small comfort of knowing that everyone is alone. Through paintings, photography, sculptures and video, this exhibition shows viewers a strange contemporary familiarity into a collective darkness. Due to the exhibition's size, half of the artwork will be housed in the Grand Valley Art Gallery and the other half will be displayed in the De Pree Art Center and Gallery at Hope College. This exhibition turns a mirror to the world, examining individual isolation, political repression and collective ennui during the decline of the industrial age. “Dusk to Dusk” was organized by the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University, curated by Richard Rinehart, director of the Samek Art Gallery, with works generously loaned from THE EKARD COLLECTION. The exhibition is toured by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Pasadena, California. 

"Faculty Artistry Gems! Recognizing GVSU Music Faculty Performances in the Community"
Monday, September 21, at 7:30 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus
Performance preceded by carillon concert from 7-7:20 p.m. featuring Julianne Vanden Wyngaard,  university carillonneur
While Grand Valley students have historically been featured during the Fall Arts Celebration music event, this year faculty members will receive the spotlight. Bill Ryan, director of Grand Valley’s New Music Ensemble, will be honored through a masterful rendition of his composition, “Simple Lines,” performed by Pablo Manhave-Veglia, associate professor of cello. The celebration of faculty artistry continues with the Donald Sinta Quartet, featuring Dan Graser, assistant professor of saxophone. Finally, Christopher Kantner, affiliate professor of flute and principal flutist with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Richard Britsch, affiliate professor of horn and principal horn with the Grand Rapids Symphony, and Sookkyung Cho, assistant professor of piano, will join together to masterfully portray “Souvenir du Rigi, Op. 34” by Franz Doppler.

"An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Kwame Dawes"
Thursday, October 15, at 7 p.m.
2nd Floor, L.V. Eberhard Center, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Reading followed by book signing and reception
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of three books of poetry: Lucky Fish (2011), At the Drive-In Volcano (2007) and Miracle Fruit (2003). Lucky Fish won the gold medal in poetry for the 2011 Independent Publishers Book Awards, and was featured in The New York Times and on the PBS NewsHour Art Beat. Nezhukumatathil is an associate professor of English at the State University of New York in Fredonia.
As author of 16 collections of poetry, Kwame Dawes is heavily influenced by the rhythms and textures of songs cherished during his youth, including reggae music. His book, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, is currently the most authoritative study of the lyrics of the late musician. Dawes is the Glenna Luschei editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska, where he is a Chancellor’s Professor of English.

Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers present: “Meditation in Motion: Virtuosity and Imagination in Dance – Innovation and Modernity in Music”
Monday, November 2, at 7:30 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus
Performance preceded by carillon concert from 7-7:20 p.m. featuring Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, university carillonneur
Dance performance followed by reception
This year’s dance event will feature one of the foremost contemporary Asian-American dance companies in the U.S. Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers will present an evening of dance set to music composed by Grand Valley alumnus Dan Rhode, ’12, and performed by Grand Valley’s award-winning New Music Ensemble. Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers take some of the more movement-oriented Asian traditions, such as martial arts or Tai Chi, and create a language that follows musical and other choreographic ideals. The internationally known Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers celebrate the ability of dance to integrate body, spirit and mind, inviting audiences to engage their own journeys of self-discovery.

Distinguished Academic Lecturer Kip Thorne
“Discovery and Collaboration”
Monday, November 16, at 7 p.m.
2nd floor, L.V. Eberhard Center, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Lecture followed by book signing and reception
Kip Thorne is a theoretical physicist whose research has focused on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well as astrophysics with an emphasis on wormholes, time travel, relativistic stars, black holes and gravitational waves. Formerly a faculty member at Caltech, Thorne has since transitioned into a career of writing and filmmaking. The Einstein Medal winner served as an executive producer for the 2014 film “Interstellar” and co-authored The Science of Interstellar, which explores the physics behind the movie. Thorne’s lecture at Grand Valley will discuss the marriage of visual arts and scientific discovery. 

“Stille Nacht: A Celebration of Holiday Music from Europe”
Monday, December 7, at 7:30 p.m.
Fountain Street Church (24 Fountain St. NE, Grand Rapids)
Fall Arts Celebration concludes with the voices of the Grand Valley State University Arts Chorale singing Johann Sebastian Bach’s timeless holiday classic “Magnificat.” This holiday gift to the West Michigan community will also feature the iconic sounds of the GVSU Varsity Men’s Chorus singing melodies of Europe’s most beloved holiday music.

For more information about all of this year’s Fall Arts Celebration events, visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts or call (616) 331-2185.