Research Librarian, Rebecca Graff’s tip to undergraduates, “Contact your librarian. Seriously. It starts to sound cliché after a while, but we can help in many ways. We can help you think about the question you’re asking and help you think about it in ways you might not have thought on your own.” Graff understands the…Continue Reading Meet the Librarians: Rebecca Graff
This curatorial discussion on the Hawn Gallery exhibition, Clear, Deep, Dark, focuses on its artist, Julie Morel. Every two weeks during the exhibition’s run, Curatorial Fellow, Emily Rueggeberg, will post a new article highlighting one or more of Morel’s pieces from the exhibition to provide insight into the artist’s creative and theoretical processes….Continue Reading Curatorial discussion #1: Clear, Deep, Dark
The news seemed so odd – what relevance does Bob Dylan have now? Is his work literature? Which work, or works, merit this prize? If the prize is in recognition of a body of work, where is the corpus? The collection? What does Dylan mean to those interested in what was, at least in the past,…Continue Reading Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
The Bywaters Special Collections staff are happy to announce that SMU’s Central University Libraries is now a part of the Google Cultural Institute. BSC staff, Ellen Buie Niewyk, curated the first GCI exhibition with archivist, Emily George Grubbs. Octavio Medellin: Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings, 1938 is an exhibition curated from the holdings of photographs and documents of the artist from Bywaters…Continue Reading GCI online exhibition – Octavio Medellin: Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings
In the spring of 2009, I received a telephone call from Atlee Phillips, Texas art specialist at Dallas’s Heritage Auction Galleries. Although I’d never met Atlee, she told me that I’d soon think of her as “my new best friend.” A few days later, she arrived in my office with numerous photographs of a painting…Continue Reading Strange inheritance
Congratulations are in order for Dr. Sam Ratcliffe, Head of Bywaters Special Collections, who was recently appointed to the board of trustees of the Dallas Historical Society. A long-standing non-profit organization, since 1922, the Society has, according to its mission, sought to collect, preserve, and exhibit collections relevant to the heritage of the city. Dr….Continue Reading Hamon staff appointment to Dallas Historical Society Board
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
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
Composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, one of the most influential musical figures of the second half of the twentieth century, passed away on Tuesday, January 5. Since then, multiple news organizations have published lengthy assessments of Boulez and the manner in which he shaped and challenged notions of established concert repertoire as a stalwart advocate…Continue Reading Pierre Boulez (1925-2016): A personal remembrance
One of the most significant of the Tyler Race Films is The Blood of Jesus, written by and starring Spencer Williams. As with many of Williams’ films, this is a study of the continuing conflict between good and evil, holiness and godlessness, church and juke joint. Williams filmed it with a largely amateur cast and…Continue Reading The travels of The Blood of Jesus