Art N' About

Author: JOYCE MAN

This week, our managing editor commented on this column, saying "It's pretty high-brow." It made me think. At the beginning, this was intended as a regular spot for discussing big arts beyond small Middlebury. So, I wonder if we have neglected to take our high brows to the low-down on campus and, in the process, left the impression that Scandinavian design and New York's MOMA are somehow more serious than our home-grown orchestra and jazz bands.

If anyone complains about the lack of alternative entertainment beyond drunken partying, they should take a look at our events calendars. After all, our college plays host to a delightfully wide range of quality events and fosters wonderful talent.

For some reason, this month we're carrying an even denser candy package of enticements than usual. Maybe it's the inspiration of Spring and t-shirt-clad ladies and gents (though beware the forecast of snow) or maybe April is when projects traditionally come to fruition, but between plays, video art and, of course, the upcoming Johnson black tie event, we at the Arts Section have frankly had a hard time deciding what to cover and how to fit everything in our the mere four-page spread. Everything, regardless whether it will fly or flop, looks note-worthy.

That said, not everything has been all champagne and smiles. One of the first reviews I ever wrote in this paper was on an exhibition of sculptures made of pipe cleaners and styrophoam in various awkward poses. "Spectacular inspiration!", I raved then in naivete. Garbage modern art, I think now in retrospect. We can also think back to Mae Shi's concert in Coltrane Lounge this year, where the perfectly capable band somehow dissolved into chaos and nudity.

Sorry exhibitions aside, let's look at the following eye-opening encounters. The Vitality of Artistic Community Association (VACA) has revived dreary campus spots with art pieces that, though incomprehensible at first, attract consideration for art. Outgoing VACA co-president Kevin Buckland's wall art certainly gave drab brick rooms on campus a much-needed coat of fresh paint.

In fine art this week, we have Peter Horvath's video installation in the library and the current exhibition, "Screened and Selected," at the Museum to jump-start discussion about thoroughly modern, refreshingly engaging photo and digital image media. As for music - I hope everyone noticed the band of hat-bedecked performers of Kyrgyz nomadic music migrating through McCullough last week with stringed instruments.

There is also a much less noticeable underlayer of talent running alive beneath the quiet veneer of our campus grounds - our professors. Sure, academic writing about art can fall flat into bland theses about obscure topics, but ask, and we'll find some stuff. In the works in the arts department is a book on images of Krishna, a history of the Pantheon in Rome and research into national-socialist portraiture.

When Robert Venturi came to our campus to survey it - which, by the way, is like having God come to your house to assess how well you built it - he said, "You have here what everyone thinks an American campus should look like - only they almost never do." Sometimes, it's great to take a second look.