The Little Theatre of Dallas was founded in Dallas in 1920 to provide the city with quality theatre performed by non-professional actors from the community and reflects the many facets and stages of the organization from its inception to its final demise in the late 1950s….Continue Reading Collection Spotlight: Little Theatre of Dallas collection
Several years ago when I was brainstorming for a doctoral performance project, I knew that I wanted to deal with something that had to deal with African-American composers. This was because through all my studies I found that black composers were seldom represented in the classroom and on the performance stage. After some initial research…Continue Reading Ed Bland: American urban classical composer
The Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection is one of the signature collections of the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection. This collection of race films from the 1930s and 1940s were discovered in an East Texas warehouse in 1983 on miraculously well-preserved nitrate stock and transferred to safety film in 1985. With the advent of…Continue Reading Gems from the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection
In a memorable scene set in a hotel room in the film, Apocalypse Now, Captain Benjamin Willard, experiencing a fit of delirium, smashes a mirror with his fist and then smears the blood from his wounded hand on his face. The interrelated themes of transformation and recognition introduced in this scene, through the symbol of…Continue Reading Rereading Argos as an Index of Imperiled Selfhood Among Returning Combat Veterans
This posting on the exhibition, Travels in Ithaca: New Paintings by Scott Gleeson, which opened in the Hawn Gallery of the Hamon Arts Library on January 25th, is the first of several postings by the artist. This posting presents a summary of the exhibition. This and future postings are intended as a series of dialogs between the artist…Continue Reading Travels in Ithaca: New Paintings by Scott Gleeson – an Introduction
Learning of the death of Ellsworth Kelly reminded me of the first time I viewed one of his works. The occasion was the Metropolitan Museum’s centennial exhibition, ‘New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970’, curated by Henry Geldzahler when he was but 33 years old. The exhibition displayed 408 works by 43 artists whom Geldzahler identified…Continue Reading Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015): American abstract artist
On November 3, Mezzo sopranos Joyce DiDonato and Frederica von Stade and composer Jake Heggie took time between performances of Heggie’s opera Great Scott to give a master class for singers in the Division of Music in the Meadows School of the Arts. Five students performed art songs and opera arias for the artists…Continue Reading Pictorial: Meadows singers learn from masters Jake Heggie, Joyce DiDonato, and Frederica von Stade
Octavio Medellin was an artist and teacher who was active in Texas from the 1920s until his death in 1999. He is primarily known as a sculptor but also did work in ceramics, glass, and mosaics. Born in Mexico, Medellin was heavily motivated by pre-Columbian art, mainly of Mayan origin, and he is associated with…Continue Reading Collection Spotlight: Octavio Medellin Art Work and Papers
Hamon’s newest update to its lobby is a pair of customized computer kiosks that were designed and built by Meadows staff member, Ryan Goolsby. We interviewed Ryan about his position at SMU, his work as an artist, and the process for creating these kiosks….Continue Reading Some assembly required: Interview with artist Ryan Goolsby