Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2016 - 31

Enriching the Arts and Humanities in West Michigan Annual celebration to feature international art, scholarly events by Matthew Makowski Since the first Fall Arts Celebration in 2003, audiences have been treated to an eclectic blend of events centered around the arts. Each year, these six free events are intended as gifts to the West Michigan community that has supported the growth of Grand Valley. "I think the arts and humanities give back to the community in a uniquely balancing way in today's culture - leading to perennial human values of meaning, reflection and joy," said Fred Antczak, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Those values are robustly represented in this year's Fall Arts Celebration through a great variety, with new ideas and approaches in the arts and humanities commingling with old favorites." This year, Fall Arts Celebration will welcome international art, two distinct poetic voices, some of Beethoven's earliest works in music and ballet, and an academic lecturer who wears many hats. A little bit of Seoul In 2008, a unique partnership began between Grand Valley and SeoulTech, located in South Korea. Since that time, the two institutions have exchanged students and faculty members through various degree and study abroad programs. In May 2013, one of these exchanges saw works of art by 17 Grand Valley art and design faculty traveling to SeoulTech to be a part of the first joint exhibition between the two universities. This year, it is Grand Valley's turn to host art from abroad. As the Fall Arts Celebration's featured art exhibition, faculty members from SeoulTech will send 23 works of art to join pieces created by Grand Valley faculty for the partnership's second joint exhibition. During the exhibit, visitors will see a mix of mediums, including ceramics, metalsmithing, digital design, printmaking, jewelry design, fiber arts, painting, visual studies and sculpting. "From a technical perspective alone, the faculty from SeoulTech are at a most extraordinary level and their work will amaze and delight visitors," said Henry Matthews, Galleries and Collections director. "The art will be beautiful, but the intricacies of the craft will be extraordinary. This is an interesting and exciting opportunity to bring artwork by these two groups together and showcase what they feel is some of their best work." POETRY Oliver de la Paz POETRY Kay Ryan An evening of poetry and conversation Patricia Clark, professor and chair of the Writing Department, said the two featured authors for this year's Poetry Night were purposefully selected because of their varying career levels and contrasting voices. With a poetic voice often compared to that of Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore, Kay Ryan has written many collections of poetry, including her most recent book, Erratic Facts. Her other publications include Flamingo Watching, Elephant Rocks, Say Uncle, The Niagara River and The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2011. In 2008, Ryan joined the ranks of famed authors Robert Frost, Robert Fitzgerald and Gwendolyn Brooks when she was appointed as the Library of Congress' 16th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, one of the highest honors a professional poet can receive. The Poet Laureate is responsible for facilitating annual lectures and readings of his or her poetry, and typically introduces poets in the Library's annual poetry series. "Kay Ryan is known for her concise and short poems containing much wit and wordplay, as well as buried meanings," Clark said. "As soon as they are finished, readers of Kay's works are quickly jolted into wanting to read them again and again." A native of the Philippines, Oliver de la Paz is the author of four collections of poetry, including Names Above 31 Grand Valley Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2016

Campus News
Research
Donor Impact
Q&A Erika King
Athletics
Inside-out
Sustainability
Not your average spring break
Life stories
Off the Path
Fall Arts Celebration
Alumni News

Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2016