1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Transylvania University students endorse a safe community for all during Gender Week

LEXINGTON, Ky.—As part of their commitment to fostering dialog about gender issues, Transylvania students have planned a variety of activities—from participating in the annual Take Back the Night rally, sponsored by the University of Kentucky, to a campus panel discussion on feminism—during the week of March 24. Events are sponsored by various campus groups, including SAGE, the Sexual Awareness and Gender Education committee, and VOICE, which encourages discourse on gender equality and justice. “Gender Week promotes a safer campus and lets students show commitment to ending violence in our community,” said Ashley Gutshall, assistant director of residence life and coordinator for interpersonal violence prevention programming. Students will be active participants in a number of events, including the Clothesline Project, which encourages them to paint messages relating to interpersonal violence on colorful T-shirts that are then displayed in the university’s dining hall. Students will also present a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness about sexual violence and sexual assault. A favorite event is the Holi Festival, a Hindu celebration of spring during which there is traditionally a loosening of social norms of gender and caste. As part of the celebration, students toss brightly colored powder into the air. Free events of interest to the public include: A Creative Intelligence lecture presented by Karen Tice about her book “Queens of Academe: Beauty Pageantry, Student Bodies, and College Life,” which examines the themes of class, race, beauty, body discipline and self-regulation

Morlan Gallery exhibition showcases generations of women sculptors

Image courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal. LEXINGTON, Ky.—Women still earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. They make up a small percentage of our political representatives. And women artists are ridiculously underrepresented in standard texts published about art. The newest exhibition at Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery is designed to help bridge that gap in awareness of the contributions of female artists. “ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors” opens at the Morlan Gallery on Friday, Feb. 28, with a reception for the artists from 5–8 p.m. The show runs through Friday, March 28. The exhibition is free and open to the public weekdays from noon to 5 p.m. The gallery will be open 2–7 p.m. on Friday, March 21. (During the university’s spring break week, which begins March 10, the exhibition is open by appointment only. Contact gallery director Andrea Fisher at 859-233-8142 to make arrangements to view the exhibition between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.) Fourteen artists will be featured in the exhibition: Gayle Cerlan, Caren Cunningham, Jeanne Dueber, Ewing Fahey, Sarah Frederick, Mary Dennis Kannapell, Frances Kratzok, Shawn Marshall, Suzanne Mitchell, Joyce Ogden, Jacque Parsley, Cynthia Reynolds, Gloria Wachtel and Melinda Walters. The Kentucky-based collective of female artisans started in 1998 when a small group of female sculptors in Louisville came together to provide support for one another. They unanimously elected to take on the name ENID for their collective as a way to honor Enid Yandell, Louisville’s

Transylvania University gallery exhibition displays trashy art

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Over a thousand yards of tattered garden hose, two years of dusty lint, hundreds of water bottles and dozens of old laundry detergent bottles will litter Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery come January. And no one is picking up. American artists David Edgar, Suzanne Proulx, Michelle Stitzlein and David Wilson will show together for the first time in “Trashformed,” an exhibition that demonstrates what can happen when artists intercept the waste stream of American life and transform it into artwork rich with meaning. Works range from David Wilson’s elegant wall “drawings” created from repurposed garden hose to a warren of bunnies by Suzanne Proulx, who collected years of household “dust bunnies” for this installation of playful life-sized rabbits. David Edgar’s colorful hanging lamps are constructed from finely cut and reassembled laundry detergent bottles. The end product is crisp and clean, hardly what one would imagine from “trash.” Ohio artist Michelle Stitzlein, who like the other artists is a self-proclaimed trash hound, often retrieves art materials from neighborhood garbage cans. Stitzlein’s “Dumpster dives” result in finely detailed and ordered sculptures, such as her Moth Series, where each moth is imbued with thousands of objects and can measure up to 12 feet wide. And her newest work, from the Fynbos Series, will premiere in Morlan’s “Trashformed” exhibition. “Trashformed” opens Wednesday, Jan. 15, and closes after the Lexington Gallery Hop on Friday, Feb. 21, 5-8 p.m. Regular gallery hours are weekdays noon to

Music lovers take note

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Music lovers, take out your calendars and start planning: Transylvania University’s music program has four compelling—and contrasting—performances scheduled for the next four weeks. They’re all free and open to the public, so why spend an evening without music? Friday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., Haggin Auditorium, Mitchell Fine Arts CenterConcert Band and Jazz and Percussion Ensembles Playing for the first time together, the Concert Band and the Jazz and Percussion Ensembles might take the roof off Haggin Auditorium. The Concert Band, under the direction of professor of music and director of instrumental ensembles Ben Hawkins, will perform music by Sousa, Alfred Reed, Robert W. Smith and Norman Dello Joio. The program includes Sousa’s rousing and aptly named “On the Campus,” a brisk circus march. The Jazz Ensemble, conducted by low brass music instructor Valerie Evans, will play “Grooved Pavement” by Victor Lopez, “Now What” by Mike Kamuf and a combined piece with the Percussion Ensemble titled “Cubano Chant” by Ray Bryant. And the Percussion Ensemble, conducted by percussion music instructor Greg Strouse, will present “Kalahari” by Steve Grimo and “Impulsion” by David Long. Wednesday, Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m., Haggin Auditorium, Mitchell Fine Arts CenterGabriel Fauré’s “Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48” Transylvania Chamber Orchestra and various choirs French composer Gabriel Fauré’s well-known “Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48” will be presented by the Transylvania University music program. The performance of the gripping mass for the dead, in seven movements, will

Transylvania’s newest art exhibition connects Lexington’s vibrant gay history and current LGBTQ* community

LEXINGTON, Ky.—“I’ll Be Your Mirror,” Morlan Gallery’s exhibition opening Oct. 25, reveals Lexington’s historically rich, vibrant and fairly secretive gay culture. Referencing the well-known Velvet Underground song, “I’ll Be Your Mirror” depicts the story of the town’s drag queens, sexual outlaws and gender-bending guerilla artists from the turn of the twentieth century right up to present day through the work of contemporary visual artists. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” was curated by Lexington-based artist Robert Morgan, who as a child of the 1960s met people who had identified as gay in the early part of the twentieth century. “I was mesmerized by the tales from their lives and was given loving advice and guidance as I began my life’s adventure as a gay kid from Kentucky on his way into a new century,” explained Morgan. The exhibition explores the flamboyant local lore of days gone by, including ghost stories from the Thomas January House on Lexington’s West Second Street; cross-dressing civil war hero Sue Mundy who, at John Hunt Morgan’s death, took over Morgan’s Raiders and became a legend; and images of the colorful and much loved Sweet Evening Breeze, Lexington’s 1950s version of RuPaul. In “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” Morgan creates a nexus between the historical gay Old South of the twentieth century and the political activism of the twenty-first century. The show celebrates the rebirth of the gay community with young visual artists who have a new way of