| Radically visual
Two years ago, Ricardo Viera embraced the idea of an exhibition of snapshots with the typical gusto of a Cuban Falstaff. The director/curator of Lehigh University's galleries and museum operation relished the notion of a show of everything from family pictures to experimental collages. He knew it would neon-light his belief that photography is a level field, that a photograph is a flat world.
Viera made just one major proposal to the exhibit's proponents, Donald Lokuta and Robert Yoskowitz, arts professors and owners of large collections of snapshots. Why not, he suggested, pair pictures by amateurs with pictures of similar subjects by renowned photographers represented in Lehigh's collection? Why not invite visitors to debate who takes, and what makes, a better photo?
Organized by Viera, Lokuta and Yoskowitz, ''Vernacular to the Masters'' is a visual, intellectual hornet's nest.
Kerry Hart: The danger of interdisciplinary arts education
Wouldn't it be great if we could read a couple of books on brain surgery and be ready to perform an operation? In arts education, that is the type of miraculous feat we often expect from our teachers. Every academic discipline requires a unique intellectual function — from quantitative reasoning to philosophical inquiry. The arts are no different. Dance requires a physical-kinesthetic brain function; music requires an auditory function; visual art requires a visual-spacial brain function; and drama incorporates a combination of several, including the verbal-linguistic function that is important to the literary arts. The college and university curriculum in each arts discipline is rigorous and, indeed, it takes a lifetime to acquire mastery in one subject area. Yet when it comes to teaching students who do not have a background in any of the arts, we create interdisciplinary arts courses that provide a superficial overview — usually from a historical perspective.
Green fashions finding a following among designers
At the "aWear: An Eco Fashion Event," an all-day teach-in and celebration of sustainable style held recently at Green City Gallery in Berkeley, designer Kirsten Beneke showed off her dresses made from recycled fabric scraps. To conserve electricity, Beneke didn't use a sewing machine, instead making an elegant pink evening gown by simply cutting the fabric and securing it with a purple sash. Other attendees showed their support for ecological fashion by participating in a clothing swap that featured fuzzy scarves and lots of fluorescent caftans (it was in Berkeley, after all). "I made sure everything I was wearing tonight was sustainable" - as in purchased at thrift stores, said Abraham Kneisley, the gallery's spokesman. Even though "aWear," an event put together by Beneke, was sparsely attended, it points to a growing area of fashion interest among those who aren't just obsessed with having the latest looks from the hottest designers on the pages of glossy magazines.
Kerry Hart: The danger of interdisciplinary arts education
Wouldn't it be great if we could read a couple of books on brain surgery and be ready to perform an operation? In arts education, that is the type of miraculous feat we often expect from our teachers. Every academic discipline requires a unique intellectual function — from quantitative reasoning to philosophical inquiry. The arts are no different. Dance requires a physical-kinesthetic brain function; music requires an auditory function; visual art requires a visual-spacial brain function; and drama incorporates a combination of several, including the verbal-linguistic function that is important to the literary arts. The college and university curriculum in each arts discipline is rigorous and, indeed, it takes a lifetime to acquire mastery in one subject area. Yet when it comes to teaching students who do not have a background in any of the arts, we create interdisciplinary arts courses that provide a superficial overview — usually from a historical perspective.
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