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arts & culture
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KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, AUG. 25, 2016
Aries
(A March 21-April 19) Handle practical matters. Communications glitches could delay a shipment or connection. You may feel shy, worried or concerned, keeping your mood quiet.
Taurus April 20-May 20)
(April 20-May 20)
Don't get talked out of your savings. Your experience helps you avoid a mistake.
Start computing expenses.
Tempers could flare; avoid financial discussions. Get
Gemini
expert backup.
(May 21-June 20)
Things don't go as expected today. Energy surges are predicted. A conflict of interests could get awkward.
Don't get tempted to bend rules; consider consequences before acting. Postpone
Cancer
(June 21-July 22)
Slow down and consider options. Watch for hidden danger or expense. Avoid an elaborate scam. Don't let things move too fast.
Travel another day. Finish
work in private.
Leo
(July 23-Aug. 22)
Avoid unnecessary quarrels or hassle. Tempers flare unexpectedly. Don't provoke jealousies. Your friends come through for you. False
hopes get shattered.
Virgo
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Choose private over public engagements. Responsibilities weigh heavily and require your attention. Communication breakdowns test your patience. Stay home instead of going out.
Libra
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Postpone travel, but do make plans. You could use a vacation! Save financial discussions for later, though. As poet Thomas Tusser said, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
Scorpio
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Resist a sense of urgency.
Study options. Learn from another point of view. There may be fierce competition or conflicting interests. Wait for a better time to launch.
Sagittarius
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Wait to see what develops.
Anticipate resistance, complications and delays. Compromise allows workability.
Collaboration stills
Collaboration stalls.
Capricorn
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
You're stirring up the status quo. Chaos swirls at work.
Respect your partner's opinions or fuss a fuss.
Hurrying leads to mistakes.
Aquarius n. 20-Feb.18)
Wait for a more appropriate time to pursue romance. You may need to moderate a disagreement. Don't talk back to someone hot-headed. Have fun with peaceful
diversions.
Pisces
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Decrease social obligations. Confusion and distractions swirl. Emotions and tempers can run hot.
Take a quiet walk to meditate. Choose in favor of home and family.
home and family.
Senior visual art student wins film award
► COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
livia Hernández had already graduated college and held several jobs by the time she realized that she wasn't on the right path. Originally from Miami, Hernandez graduated from Baker University in 2011 with a degree in political science and international studies. Five years later, she's a University senior working toward a second undergraduate degree, this time in visual art.
Hernández's film "material girl hallelujah" won in the Short Film Work-in-Progress category from the CreActive International Open Film Festival in Bangladesh. "material girl hallelujah" is an exploration of "concepts that are opposing" as well as Hernández's creative process and the different emotions that she
experiences while in her artistic element.
For the duration of the film's three minutes and 46 seconds, Hernandez is the only figure onscreen. She faces the camera and contorts her body into various positions, accompanied by distorted audio of her family singing a hymn.
"I spend the first half of the film really engaging with my flesh, engaging with the outer contours of my form, whereas I feel like the second half of the film is much more a glimpse into what's going on internally, imperfectly — what my brain synapses look like when they're firing on all cylinders," Hernández said.
When festival representatives sent Hernández an email informing her of her acceptance into the competition, she almost didn't open it. She'd already received numerous
rejection letters from similar organizations. A day later, she received a second email, this one congratulating her on her win.
Both the film and its submission to the festival were requirements for Benjamin Rosenthal's Video and Time-Based Media Class. Rosenthal encourages his students to take risks by offering their work up for critique from peers and professionals alike.
"The course is an intense and rigorous examination in the studio of the capabilities of these tools, the intersection of these tools with the interests of the individual artist and the relationship between the history/theory of the field and the student artist's place as part of that trajectory." Rosenthal said.
The film's music is also one of Hernández's creations, recorded when
she attended a family reunion last year in a rural campground located in Alleghany County, Va. called Big Ridge. There's a church in the area that was built by her great-grandfather, who worked as a preacher in the Appalachian region. When she and her family visited the church, they started to sing—not unusual for them, according to Hernández.
"I thought it was a really rich recording," she said. "When I listened to it again, it brought up all these memories and this ambience, and I thought it was really special."
Hernandez might not have made the film at all had she not experienced a "watershed moment" after receiving her first degree. She was 25 years old and working as an art model in France, spending 30 hours a week sitting in front of artists, which gave her a chance to "absorb and reflect" on her life.
"It just became pretty apparent to me that my future resided in the arts, so it was just up to me to apply myself and to see in what capacity that would be the best," she said.
From there, Hernandez applied and was accepted into the University's School of the Arts. She is set to graduate this spring and is currently looking into doctoral programs for studio art.
"I really admire female artists especially that are unbounded by material, that they seem to just obsessively jump from material to material to material and exhaust it completely." Hernández said. "I really hope that that's the type of creative I am in ten years, and I really hope that I wake up and look back and just have this moment of work in my wake that's interesting and engaging with other young women especially."
Olivia Hernández spent part of her summer studying abroad in China. The trip inspired her to create a new stop-motion film.
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN
Spencer Museum of Art to host workshops
@OhMySanchez
► OMAR SANCHEZ
@OhMySanchez
Next summer, K-12 teachers from across the country will have the opportunity to participate in workshops held by the Spencer Museum of Art.
These workshops will run week-long for two groups of teachers: those local to Lawrence and those traveling from other states. They will touch on subjects focused on the education of Native and African-Americans in Kansas history. The workshops are due in part to a federal grant given by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the museum, as a part of the NEH's Landmarks of American History and Culture program.
Highlights from the workshops will include visits to the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka - a groundbreaking court decision that helped shift the tide towards racially-inclusive public schools in the mid-50s - and an accompanying exhibit by the Spencer Museum of Art by residential students and
university faculty that will explore the various layers of this subject.
"The museum has long been doing teacher workshops and often in collaboration with city study centers," said Celka Straughn, director of academic programs and co-director of the workshops. "But we are really excited though for this one. You hope that this has an expanding ripple effect that will be building."
Titled "Native American and African American Educational Experiences in Kansas, 1830-1960," the workshops fulfill a mission of the NEH, which is to increase knowledge of American history and to give teachers the expertise to utilize what they learn from their studies in their own classrooms.
"The goal is to provide K-12 teachers new perspectives and fresh insights into important topics," said Cassandra Mesick, Spencer Museum's curator of global indigenous art and workshop co-director. "So that they can inspire younger generations of learners to consider history in critical,
innovative and exciting ways."
The workshops will have several different sources to gain this knowledge, including conversations with scholars, primary-source material study and visiting historical sites.
Kim Warren, associate professor of history and keynote speaker for the workshops, will be one of the many speaking to the teachers during the workshops.
"Teachers usually want to include this type of information in their classes, but their textbooks do not always include the social histories of ordinary people or of people of color." Warren said.
A published author, Warren said these workshops offer something that cannot be found in the everyday classroom.
Warren's lecture will be focused on the exclusion of Native Americans and African-Americans in educational opportunities during the 19th century. But Warren said that inclusion meant different things to different people.
"They defined for themselves what inclusion meant. For African-Americans, that meant that they wanted to be fully integrated into the rest of society," Warren said. "Native Americans often resisted the pressure from educators to completely assimilate, and managed to form American identities that also included some of their own cultural traditions."
While historic site visits and conversations with experts make up two exciting aspects of the workshops, Straughn said she believes the primary source material to be just as necessary to the educational experience.
"Not only is it of historic sites, but also looking at a variety of primary resources and how those teachers we are working with can integrate that into classrooms," Straughn said.
An example of the primary resources that will be utilized during the experience is the accompanying art exhibit at the museum, with pieces already being considered for display.
"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, for example, is a New York Times best-selling book
"Given the present-day climate of race relations in the U.S., we think it's vital for teachers, both local and national, to learn how to discuss difficult topics in respectful ways that incorporate diverse voices and perspectives," Mesick said. "We hope the project will provide them the means to do so."
that centers around the themes of violence and race in today's America. It is this year's university common book and Straughn said there will be art in display related to the subject matter.
Teachers from diverse backgrounds and from different subject areas are encouraged to apply starting in the spring, with the criteria that they are open to multicultural perspectives and are willing to put that knowledge to good use.
"We expect that teachers will learn both new content and new methodologies for teaching," Mesick said. "As an art museum, we're especially excited to demonstrate how art and material culture can be used in teaching."
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