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University Daily Kansan, February 13, 1981
Happy Vale
BRAD HARRISON
The art of love studied in class
By MARK LER
Staff Reporter
A loving relationship isn't as easy as candy, flowers and Valentine's Dav.
Robert Shelton, professor of religion and
school and drama, says communication is the key to
making people feel at home.
Shelton has been teaching KU students the values of love and caring since 1978 when he developed a course called "The Loving Relationship."
"I don't feel that I teach people about love." Shelton said. "I help people think about loving relationships. The course depends on people being willing to look at their experience and relating other kinds of information to their experience."
The topics covered in the course include self-confidence, friendship, family, community, friendship. (PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS TEXT.)
"Too many people who take the class assume that we are only going to talk about one-to-one relationships," Shelton said. "We look at a variety of loving relationships. We consider what it means to think of our relationships with other people in their environment as loving relationships."
THE COURSE requirements include 12 written assignments and 10 group discussions. The basic textbooks for the course are "The Art of Loving," by Eric Fryman; "The Secret of Staying in Love," by John Powell; and "Love and Will." by Brollo Mav.
"People have written about love for centuries, but not in an attempt to develop a rational theory or to explore what it means to give and receive love. We must know that love does that and still keep in touch with feelings."
"People who want to take the course seriously can dig into the subject on a lot of different levels. We try to bring together a very personal approach. People have a personal commitment in the class."
Shelton confides some of his life experiences at the beginning of every course to help set a personal tone with the class. Before he developed an interest in parenting, he gave up a divorce, remarried and had three children.
Shelton said he enjoyed sharing his experiences with his students.
THE IDEA for the class was sparked by an undergraduate student in the fall of 1975.
"Some people have been started with the way that I reveal myself in the course," Shelton said. "But I want to be open and I want to share." That is why I'm always ready, because that I am being something like I am talking about.
"It if had come a year or two earlier, I don't think I would have had the emotional energy to deal with this kind of course," Shetlen said. "I think it was more as much as people had to be ready to learn it."
Shelton said he was surprised when the first class filled to capacity.
"I had no idea who would show up for the first class but we filled the room with 150 people," he八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八八
Enrollment fell in 1979 when Shelton tightened his grading system.
"It quickly got labeled as an easy course," Shelton said. "After we updated the course, there was a dramatic drop in enrollment. We must have been taken off the list."
THIS SEMESTER, 65 students enrolled.
"Students are taking less of these kind of courses." Shelton said. "It has no promise of a job at the end of the course. It's totally an elective course."
The Loving Relationship is offered through the religious department and the speech and drama departments.
"People wanting a course on religion may not
be totally satisfied and some people from the communication side complain about G戈 talk". Shelton said, "try to keep it balanced by salary differences and value along with communication values."
Shelton said he had mixed feelings about the value of Valentine's Day.
But Shelton laughed when he recalled how he used to trade Valentines with his classmates in grade school.
"That's when we gave people Valentines whether we liked them or not." he said.
By BLAKE GUMPRECHT
Staff Writer
New wavers still underground
Staff Writer
In November of 1979, members of a Kansas City band named Tirex—Tirex took the owner of an east-side tavern that advertised disco music and little letting the band play a few dates at the club.
The band has since gone onto bigger things; it's moved to New York City and its second album was released recently on England's Object Records to critical acclaim.
But the experiment in the tiny Trosot Avenue seed that gave birth to a musical scene has been widely viewed.
The club that sprang up in reaction to that series of shows has proven that there is indeed a live audience for the many styles of new music that have lumped together under the "new wave" tag.
In fact, the Downliner Room—the club that first opened 10 months ago in the same Troost tavern, amid pool tables and a surprised clientele—has become so popular on Friday and Saturday nights that the promoters are moving to a venue more than twice the size of the former.
THE GEAR, a three-piece Kansas City band,
will inaugurate the opening of the new club, at 9 p.m. tonight and Saturday at the Music Box tavern.
The promoters, furthermore, hope to bring in small name national and international bands such as Echo and the Bunyammen, U2 and The Fall Out Boy, among others. Week, week, occasionally offering "new wave" dancers.
As an added attraction, the club has a restaurant license (there is a delicatessen upstairs), which means that all ages can be admitted. The Downierer was a 21-club.
"It's really exciting," says Pamela Travitz, one of the club's promoters. "This was our ultimate goal; it's exactly what we were looking for."
The Music Box is at the corner of 47th Street and Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Mo., only a few doors down from the Ddowniner at 4719 Troost.
EVENTUALLY, the club will occupy the basement of the tavern, with room for about 400 people, but will operate upstairs for about three weeks until some alterations are made.
Pamela and Craig Traviz run the club for fun.
Pamela works by day in a vintage clothing store:
Craig is an orderly at St. Luke's Hospital. The Downiliner was born out of boredom and an jihad.
"We were sitting around saying, 'Gee, I whip there was something to do,' "Pamela recalls. "Then we came up with the idea for the club. I have a good friend in Tirez-Tirez and he said this one place was real willing to try it. So we said let's do it."
Lawrence band the Regular Guys was the first and coincidentally two weeks ahead, the last (barking at her)
But the Downliner didn't last long at its initial location, in *Yale's Club Sunbath*, at 4707 Troest.
"It just didn't work out," Pamelia says. "The owner said he wanted to it, but there was a weekend there we had a bunch of restrooms and rednecks. It was a complete shock to them."
TWO WEEKENDS after the April 4 opening, the Downliner moved a few doors down to the basement of the Plaza East, complete with rutty cement floors, unpainted walls and pipes in the building—reminiscent of the underground clubs from which punk was born in London in 1976.
The club steadily gained popularity, fast acquiring newcomers and a group of regulars. By last fall the club was packed nearly every weekend.
"We just wanted to give people more of a chance to hear this type of music. There was nothing in Kansas City before. We wanted to get rid of the myth that it's all spitting and fighting; it's fun, it's danceable, it's good music and it's intelligent—unlike disco."
PAMELA AND CRAIG had talked about moving to a larger club, and when the basement of the Plaza East was shut down in December for numerous fire code violations, forcing the Downliner upstairs, they began looking.
More than 325 people jammed the club one Friday night in November to see the Dets, from St. Paul's High School.
"We really never expected the initial response and exposure," Pamela says. "We thought it would be a mistake."
Meanwhile, the owner of the Plaza East, Owen Cauvey, intends to continue booking bands at the Downliner. Apparently bitter over the spit, he demanded to keep the name "The Downliner Room." No Exit, a local band, will play there tonight and Saturday.
TODAY
JUNIOR RECITAL BY NANCY IVES on the cell will be at £p.m. in Swainthorot Recital Hall
"THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA" by Federico Garcia Lorca will be presented at 8 p.m. in Inge Theater. Students with KUID.ls will admit free. For reservations call 843-3892.
THE BIOLOGY CLUB will meet at 4 p.m. in the Sunflower Room of the Kansas Union.
On Campus
TOMORROW
ADULT LIFE RESOURCE CENTER
CAREER PROBLEMS CLINIC (ALRIC) will
meet from 9 a.m. to noon at 13th and Oread streets.
THE RENAISSANCE DANCE CLASS will
meet m.p. in 207 Robinson, Beginners are
welcome.
SUNDAY
Constructivism ignores previous art
THE SUNDAY EVENING SUPPER will feature a presentation, "Understanding the Cubs," by Jim Miller at 8:30 p.m. Worship for everyone will follow at 7 p.m. Everyone is welcome.
By SHAWN MCKAY Entertainment Editor
" . . . art should attend us everywhere that life flows and acts . . . at the bench, at the table, at work, at rest, at play; on working days and holidays . . . at home and on the road . . . in order that the flame to live should not extinguish in mankind."
Like the utopian ideals expressed in the "Communist Manifesto," the Constructivist movement in art abandons the standard artistic conventions and seeks to "construct" a new and perfect art form without reference to painting and sculpture of the past or to observed reality in the world of natural appearances.
"The Constructivist Manifesto" by Naum Gabel, 1920.
The goal of the constructivist artist was to build a new reality, or more appropriate to its Russian founders, a new revolution in art. Confusing as the constructivist ideology may appear to the casual spectator, the constructivist work is a trapped fluid in the world window in the window in an object among their object existing in space. Casing to window the world, the work is part of the environment and the viewers' eyes. the window.
Heading one of the major experimental constructivist galleries, the Art Research Center in Kansas City, Mo., has moved Stella into its interior. Most of the geometric and related movements.
Echoing the utopian philosophy with all of its cubic and circular shapes, is the constructivist exhibit which opened Wednesday at the Student Union Association Gallery. Titled "Spatial Environment: Structures Golden Rectangle Related Modules," it exhibits design envisioned by Kansas City artist Michael Stephens.
DISPELLING MANY of the misconceptions about the art form, Stephens said, "Constructivism means 'construct or build an object' and constructive is constructive--it's affirmative life giving."
Summarizing the artists of likeists Stephens were Jean Arp and Lasloz Molhony-Nagy, two learners of the movement, who said, "These artists see the world through the prism of technology. They do not want to create illusions with paints or canvas but do their work directly in iron, wood and glass." The artists are the bridge between mathematics and art, between a work of art and technical inventions cannot be detected."
"The goal of the show is to show structural interrelationships of the elements and pieces and the complete piece of art. The exhibition is created by instructors in captorators conception, not by a frame," he said.
"The element of constructivist art is not geometric, it's simply constructive."
"The golden rectangle occurs throughout the show," Stephens said. "It's composed of the proportions of a major square and another golden rectangle which has a major square and another golden rectangle inside it. I'm impressed by its aspect, but rather the open-ended ansect."
WHILE MANY of Stephens' works employ the mediums of his famous numerers, the theme used widely in the exhibit is the golden rectangle.
Stephens said the show would appear very geometric to most people, but cautioned the viewer against accepting the art simply from a geometric perspective.
The golden rectangle is not new, according to Stephens. It has been discovered on the side of the Farthenion and formed a favorite concept for several of Da Vinci's paintings.
Centering on what he calls "six essential drawings of the golden rectangle." Stephens
has filled the gallery with countless concep-
tions, an angle in almost every conceivable medium.
"There are 240 possible variations of the six drawings," he said. "I could fill the gallery with variations of the drawing and no two would be alike."
"Such an attitude turns art into graphic design and little more," Hoffman wrote in his review. "It descends into dressmaking, window-dressing decoration for corporate headquarters, magazine advertising and the work of the women such as the typical modish paper. In was alas, that's what was intended by the founders of 20th-century geometric art."
STEPHEN'S FAULTS the critics and art
and its lack of appreciation
thems' slow growth
"Local critics and people who should be knowledgeable in the arts misapprehend every concept related to historical and contemporary constructivism. They are seeing it through a veil of their own prejudice of expressionist art," he said.
One of the local critics sensing a lack of artistic value in the constructivist art form was Donald Hoffmann, art and architecture critic for the Kansas City Star. Hoffmann gave a lecture at the Museum of Art the "Constructivism and the Geometric Tradition" exhibit at the Nelson Art Gallery.
In an effort to turn the entire gallery into an artistic environment, the gallery has been laid out in the rectangular pattern. Above the colored tape on the floor, outlining the same dominating pattern, are colored screen paintings called "spatial paintings."
"The show is a simple, eloquent statement of what one of the principles of constructivist art is." Stephens said, "and that they are experimental and ever changing."
Regardless of the controversy, Stephens had to make a unified statement in his exhibition.
Kansas City artist Michael Stevens demonstrates one concept of constructivism.