Meadows School of the Arts
Le Huffington Post: Le sommeil rendrait les musiciens plus efficaces — étude
Journalist Matthieu Carlier with Le Huffington Post in Quebec covered the research of SMU’s Sarah E. Allen, an assistant professor of music education in the Meadows School of the Arts.
Allen’s study examined how the brain learns and retains motor skills, and the findings provide insight into musical skill. The study found that performance of a musical task improved among pianists whose practice of a new melody was followed by a night of sleep. Continue reading
Musicians who learn a new melody demonstrate enhanced skill after a night’s sleep
A new study that examined how the brain learns and retains motor skills provides insight into musical skill. Performance of a musical task improved among pianists whose practice of a new melody was followed by a night of sleep, says researcher Sarah E. Allen, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
The study is among the first to look at whether sleep enhances the learning process for musicians practicing a new piano melody. Continue reading
USA Today: Blind archaeologist uncovers ancient childbirth inscription
Journalist Dan Vergano has covered a new rare find at the archaeological excavation at Poggio Colla, the site of a 2,700-year-old Etruscan settlement in Italy’s Mugello Valley. Excavators turned up two images of a woman giving birth to a child. The article, “Blind archaeologist uncovers ancient childbirth inscription,” published Oct. 24.
The excavation is a project of Southern Methodist University, Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn., and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, in collaboration with The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. Continue reading
Major NEH grant allows teachers from community colleges, universities to examine Etruscan culture
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded the Community College Humanities Association a grant of $201,415, which will allow the association to sponsor the 2012 NEH Summer Institute “The Legacy of Ancient Italy: The Etruscan and Early Roman City.”
P. Gregory Warden, University Distinguished Professor of Art History and associate dean for academic affairs in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, is the major professor and co-director of the Institute, which will be held June 5-25, 2012, in Italy. The NEH grant makes it possible for 24 college and university teachers to participate in the three-week project in Italy exploring the legacy of Etruscan and early Roman culture. Continue reading
Ancient Etruscan childbirth image unearthed at SMU’s Poggio Colla is likely a first for western art
An archaeological excavation at Poggio Colla, the site of a 2,700-year-old Etruscan settlement in Italy’s Mugello Valley, has turned up a surprising and unique find: two images of a woman giving birth to a child.
Researchers from the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project near Florence discovered the images on a small fragment from an ancient ceramic vessel. Continue reading
Etruscan dig’s common objects are unprecedented finds
SMU’s Meadows Museum honors the 15th anniversary of University Distinguished Professor of Art History P. Gregory Warden‘s groundbreaking archaeological excavation in Poggio Colla, Italy with an exhibition dedicated to the Etruscans.
“From the Temple and the Tomb: Etruscan Treasures From Tuscany” is the most comprehensive exhibition of Etruscan art ever undertaken in the United States, with more than 400 objects spanning the 9th through 2nd centuries B.C.
Continue reading
Digging the Etruscans: Students unearth treasures in Italy
Senior art history major Jayme Clemente was working in trench No. 35 in July at an archaeological dig 20 miles northeast of Florence, Italy, when something caught her eye.
“I saw something green in the dirt,” she recalls. Green is the color of oxidized bronze.
“When you’ve been staring at this light brown mixture of dirt and you see something that is not in the same color palette — it was just an exhilarating feeling to know that there was something (potentially important) in the ground.”