February 2013

What: Two presentations

1. "Sailing West to Reach China: A Big Idea with Unforeseen Results,'" presented by the James Ford Bell Library.

2. "50 Years of the Guthrie Theater," presented by the Performing Arts Archives.

When: Friday, May 3, Noon to 1 p.m.

Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 21st Ave. S.

Feel free to bring your lunch. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.

Parking information

"What's the Big Idea, First Fridays," is a series of intellectually stimulating talks at Elmer L. Andersen Library. Each month's presentation is based on materials in the University of Minnesota Libraries' Archives and Special Collections.

Posted by Laura Krueger at 1:55 PM | Permalink

What: Exhibit Opening - Art and Science in Latin America During the Enlightenment

Where: T.R. Anderson Gallery, Wilson Library 4th floor

When: April 18, 2013, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Free and open to the public.

Join us for the exhibit opening for Art and Science in Latin America During the Enlightenment. A panel of University of Minnesota faculty will talk about the historical and artistic background of the works on exhibit.

Refreshments will be served.

During the 18th century, and the Age of the Enlightenment, the kings of Spain funded dozens of scientific expeditions in their American domains to identify and classify native plants and animals. The documentation of the royal expeditions and the local descriptions were illustrated with drawings, watercolors, and etchings. This exhibit highlights the University of Minnesota Libraries' collection of prints and illustrated books produced during that period of scientific activity in Latin America.

Sponsored by the University of Minnesota Libraries and the Center for Early Modern History.

Posted by Laura Krueger at 2:00 PM | Permalink

What: The Fourth Annual Pankake Poetry Reading, featuring Ed Bok Lee

When: Wednesday, April 17, 2013, reading at 4:00 p.m.; reception to follow

Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library, Room 120

Parking: z.umn.edu/elapark

Free and open to the public.

Reservations by Wednesday, April 10 at z.umn.edu/pankake or 612-624-9339.

Poetry reading begins at 4:00 p.m. Reception and author signing will follow with books available for sale courtesy of the University of Minnesota Bookstores.

Ed Bok Lee is an award-winning author. He won the 2006 PEN/Open Book Award, and the 2006 Asian American Literary Award (Members' Choice) for "Real Karaoke People." In 2012, he won a Minnesota Book Award in Poetry and an American Book Award for "Whorled."

The Pankake Poetry Series was founded in honor of librarian Marcia Pankake, whose love of poetry was demonstrated in the countless readings and poetry events she hosted at the University Libraries until her retirement in 2007.

Photo by Dani Werner.

Posted by Laura Krueger at 9:05 AM | Permalink

What: Beauty in a Briefcase: Images from Horticultural Sample Books

When: April 12 - October 13, 2013

Where: Andersen Horticultural Library

Hours, fees, and location

Nineteenth century nursery firms hired salesmen to travel extensively, taking orders for trees and shrubs to be delivered the following spring. Their marketing tool of choice was the innovative nurseryman's "sample book" or plate-book. Sumptuously illustrated, they are as beautiful today as when first used

Posted by Laura Krueger at 12:30 PM | Permalink

What: Two presentations

1. "Big Ideas about Big Brains: The Supercomputer in Popular Imagination,'" presented by the Charles Babbage Institute.

2. "The New Deal and the Great Society: Federal Social Programs in the 20th Century," presented by the Social Welfare History Archives.

When: Friday, April 5, Noon to 1 p.m.

Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 21st Ave. S.

Feel free to bring your lunch. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.

Parking information

"What's the Big Idea, First Fridays," is a series of intellectually stimulating talks at Elmer L. Andersen Library. Each month's presentation is based on materials in the University of Minnesota Libraries' Archives and Special Collections.

Posted by Laura Krueger at 10:37 AM | Permalink

The "Critical Conversations About Diversity and Justice" series starts in September 2012 and runs through April 2013. Every conversation in the series will take place on a Friday, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Givens Conference Room (120 Elmer Andersen Library, on the U of M's West Bank Campus).

These conversations are open to all students, staff, faculty, and community members. Registration is not required. To request a disability-related accommodation, please contact Ralph Blanco at rblanco@umn.edu or 612-625-8680. Please allow two weeks advance notice.

The Critical Conversations series is sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Office for Equity and Diversity and co-sponsored by the University Libraries.

View the series schedule

Posted by Mark Engebretson at 4:51 PM | Permalink

What: Art and Science in Latin America During the Enlightenment

When: March 12 - June 28, 2013

Where: T.R. Anderson Gallery, Wilson Library Fourth Floor

Free and open to the public

Hours and location

During the 18th century, and the Age of the Enlightenment, the kings of Spain funded dozens of scientific expeditions in their American domains to identify and classify native plants and animals. The documentation of the royal expeditions and the local descriptions were illustrated with drawings, watercolors, and etchings. This exhibit highlights the University of Minnesota Libraries' collection of prints and illustrated books produced during that period of scientific activity in Latin America.

Posted by Laura Krueger at 11:42 AM | Permalink

What: Tale Spins: Water, Animals, and Ruins

When: March 1 through May 31, 2013

Where: Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library

Free and open to the public

Hours and location

Artist and professor, James Boyd Brent's new work --intaglios, incisions in rock, and drawings-- is about ancillary narratives and half-stories. It illustrates moments that may or may not actually be stories, as such, but which allude to the way the mind concocts a world for itself, among worlds. This idea echoes the work of wood-engraver Thomas Bewick, best known for the small vignettes that he made to adorn the end of chapters, and which denote a sense of a story without the story ever actually being spelled out. Abound in his imagery are stories, but they do not necessarily correspond with the main text. In each, the viewer is drawn to look into a small, distinct and illuminated world.

Tale-pieces: water, animals, and ruins points at the multilayered nature of existence, and is an invitation to ponder how consciousness lies between one thing and another--water and land, animals and people, growth and decay.

Posted by Laura Krueger at 4:30 PM | Permalink