Celebrate Sandy Berman Appreciation Month!

[LIS NEWS] "Jenna Freedman declares the six weeks or so from now until his birthday on October 6, Sandy Berman appreciation month. She's asking for participatiion by sending him cards, flowers, subject heading suggestions, and low fat schnitzel.

Sanford Berman
Room 615 - Bed 2
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St. Louis Park, MN 55426

He'll probably be at the above address for at least a month. While his condition isn't life threatening, it is very serious. He has two broken vertebrae in his neck and secondary injuries from the surgery and will be in a series of body, back and neck braces for some time. But don't feel that you have to know him to write to him. Sandy has long been a friend and mentor to librarians, LIS students, and activists that he's never met.

Further reading:

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sandy Berman but Were Afraid to Ask
• Kiss My Filing Indicators
• Press Release: ALA Honorary Membership
• Sandy Berman's Last Stand
  

Sandy was one of many mentors who encouraged me to become a librarian back when I was an undergraduate. He helped me to see that one could make a difference as a librarian, and that it was such an exciting career.

I will put a card on my door from now until October 1st. If you've been touched by his vision or inspired by his life, I encourage you to sign the card and share your appreciation for all that he's done.

Exhibit: Daven Hee @ TCM

I just wanted to spread the word about an exhibit of works by one of Hawaii's best ceramic artists, Daven Hee, @ The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center (999 Bishop Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813) [Directions/ Map]

The exhibit "Thrown: Ceramics by Daven Hee" and will be on display until 16 September. I haven't seen the exhibit yet, but am looking forward to it. Daven's work always exudes his playful enjoyment of life. You can see how he enjoys working with clay as a medium. I would not normally be so excited about that approach, but he is a real artist. (My favorite pieces still are his wood-fired rice bowls, but it is fun to see the range of his entire work).

In terms of background, Daven is from Hawai'i, but early on was recognized by Toshiko Takaezu and others. They encouraged by to find his own direction, and helped him study outside Hawai'i. He has a Master's in Ceramic Arts from the Australian National University. He used to teach at UH Manoa, but has since been recruited by the Mid-Pacific Institute.

The photo above is from this year's Raku Ho‘olaule‘a [more photos at the Hawaii Ceramic Arts group on flickr].

Discovering Treasures in the Charlot Collection: Using Artist’s Papers for Research

Presentation by Bron Solyom, Curator of the Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa Library

Friday, April 18, 5:30 p.m.

Hamilton Library, Eugene Yap Room (A153)

Free and open to the general public.

Ariel Zúñiga, a researcher from Mexico and son of the famous artist Francisco Zúñiga, arrived at the Charlot Collection seeking information about another well-known Mexican artist, Emilio Amero. He was skeptical, not expecting to find much that he did not already know. Curator Bron Solyom will describe their surprising voyage of discovery and show the treasures they uncovered. As a collection of artist’s papers—the documentary and archival resources and artworks that contribute to our understanding of an artist’s life, work and associations—the Charlot Collection is exceptional for its size and depth, as well as the fact that it continues to evolve with a program of on-going acquisitions. It is an outstanding example of the value of preserving artists’ papers, a role that the Collection is undertaking with the initiation of the Archive of Hawai‘i Artists.

This presentation accompanies an exhibition, Image and Word: Jean Charlot and the Way of the Cross, to be held in the Hamilton Library Bridge Gallery through June 15. Throughout his life, Charlot revisited this subject many times in ink and paint, although like the rest of his liturgical art it is one of the lesser known aspects of his work

ArtMania 08

From an e-mail:

You are invited to ArtMania, a lively and fun-filled free arts event at the Art Building, University of Hawai'i at Manoa on Sunday, April 6 from noon to 5 p.m.

This first-time art event, conceived and organized by graduate art students from the Department of Art and Art History, showcases studio demonstrations, live music, performances, fashion shows, sales of student and faculty artwork and t-shirts, and food for purchase by Papa Luck's, a popular campus food vendor. The event aims to develop community awareness and interest in the department's work and to raise funds to support the annual BFA and graduate student exhibitions.

Demonstrations include: ceramics, wheel-throwing and raku, glass blowing, live drawing and painting, bronze casting, printmaking, mold-making, indigo dying, paper-making, digital loom weaving, kinetic sculpture, and Hoyt's Karaoke Hut.

Performances include experimental dance by ruinedmap dance company, performance art, a fashion show by Stylus Honolulu, and music by the Shuji, Shingo and Tommy Band and 3rd Floor. Video art and art history poster sessions are also scheduled.

In addition, for a nominal fee visitors can participate in interactive art activities such as creating their own sun prints, indigo dying, and screen printing their own t-shirts (bring a light-colored shirt or purchase one on site).

Exhibitions include "The Commodity of Exchange: Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection;" Rick Holland's MFA thesis exhibition; graphic design exhibition; and an exhibition and sales of works by students and faculty.

A map and schedule of activities and performances will be available at http://www.hawaii.edu/art/artmania/.

We look forward to seeing you and your friends and family at ArtMania!

This was a fun event last year.

Bashofu, Japan’s Mingei Movement, and the Creation of a New Okinawa

Bashofu, Japan’s Mingei Movement, and the Creation of a New Okinawa During the Occupation Years (1945-1972) By Dr. Amanda Mayer Stinchecum

Date: Monday, March 31, 2008
Time: 3:00-4:30 PM
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319)

From the time of his first visit to Okinawa in 1938, Yanagi Sōetsu, founder of Japan’s Folk Craft (Mingei) Movement, promoted an image of bashōfu (cloth made from the fiber-banana) as emblematic of an essentialized, idyllic and homogeneous Okinawan culture. Yanagi’s view of Okinawa as a “tropical country,” a southern island paradise, became the theme of the islands’ budding tourism industry after Japan’s surrender in 1945. Since the sixteenth century, bashōfu has clothed the people of the Ryukyu islands, from Ryukyu’s kings to its poorest villagers. The cloth is still worn for local celebrations in which Okinawans assert their own identity as “simple island people.” Bashōfu has become an emblem of that identity. Kijoka bashōfu, today purchased primarily by Mainland Japanese collectors, was designated by the Japanese government as an “Important Intangible Cultural Property” in 1974, through the intervention of Yanagi Sōetsu and his colleagues. The Mingei view of Okinawa has shaped an image of the islands that came to be held by both Okinawans and Mainland Japanese.

Dr. Stinchecum is an independent scholar specializing in the history of Ryukyu/Okinawa through the medium of textile production, use, and meaning. She is currently engaged in a study of a simple cotton sash made only in the Yaeyama islands of southern Okinawa. The history of minsaa reflects social, political, economic, and cultural changes in Yaeyama over the past one hundred forty years.

CJS seminars are free and open to the public. For more information about CJS seminars, visit our website. For disability access, please contact the Center at 956-2665 or cjs@hawaii.edu