Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Arts

Arts Photo of a Black man with a graying goatee dancing with outstretched arms, while several female dancers with raised arms dance in the background.

Four women choreographers to present at Studiodance 2023

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four women choreographers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dance department will present work at Studiodance 2023 examining toxic environments, biases and assumptions, new motherhood and the resilience of women. Studiodance 2023 is Jan. 26-28 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. A livestreamed performance of an invited dress rehearsal is available […]

Arts Photo of a life-sized cast of a man's body, standing against the sheared-off side of a large vase and decorated with various patterns and colors.

Reinvented decorative arts gallery at Krannert Art Museum tells diverse stories

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Krannert Art Museum has completed a transformation of its Moore Gallery of Decorative Arts that highlights several new acquisitions and the diverse stories of art-making they tell, while examining histories of decorative arts collecting by museum donors and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The centerpiece of “Well-designed Beauty: Trade, Technology, and Decorative […]

Arts Headshot of Paul Hardin Kapp

Architecture professor’s book examines cultural tourism that began in Depression-era Mississippi

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Seeking to support their city’s economy during the Great Depression, the women of Natchez, Mississippi, developed one of the first cultural tourism sites in the U.S., centered around the city’s antebellum architecture. In doing so, they created an image of the Old South as grand mansions and gracious living. Paul Hardin Kapp, […]

Arts Photo of Zakir Hussain and Niladri Kumar, both dressed in white robes, sitting onstage. Hussain is playing the tabla and Kumar is holding a sitar.

Tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, renowned sitar player Niladri Kumar performing at Krannert Center

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Zakir Hussain, known as the preeminent tabla musician currently playing the Indian hand drums, will perform with revolutionary sitar player Niladri Kumar at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. While the two esteemed musicians have played together many times, this is the first time they’ve toured as a duo. Hussain and Kumar […]

Arts Photo of Rochelle Sennet

Pianist Rochelle Sennet, Sinfonia da Camera to perform work by Pulitzer Prize-winning Black composer

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Pianist Rochelle Sennet and Sinfonia da Camera will perform a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker that has not been played live in concert since the 1970s. Sennet and Sinfonia conductor Ian Hobson chose Walker’s “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Walker’s birth. The Walker piece […]

Arts Photo of dancers on a stage, two seen from the front and two from the back, wearing khaki pants and t-shirts or tank tops. They have both feet off the ground and their arms outstretched along their sides.

October Dance features premieres of dances from diverse perspectives

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — October Dance will feature the premieres of dances choreographed by three new faculty members, a graduate student and the head of the dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The performances will be Oct. 13-15 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, with a livestreamed performance available online Oct. 12. The […]

Arts Black-and-white photo of a shirtless man wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette, leaning against a low wall on a rooftop with concrete buildings in the background.

Illinois alum’s film about his brother’s life and death in Vietnam to be screened on campus

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When Peter McDowell was growing up in Champaign, the life of his older brother Jimmy, a Vietnam War veteran, and his untimely death in 1972 at age 24 were a mystery. The brothers were nearly 19 years apart in age. McDowell said he doesn’t remember his brother, only a sadness in his […]

Arts Photo of David Rosenboom at a piano keyboard with a computer screen next to him.

Experimental composer headlines events examining art-science connections

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A two-week series of performances, workshops and lectures will explore connections between art and science in celebration of the history of experimental music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The event series will feature composer, performer and George A. Miller visiting professor David Rosenboom, who studied at the U. of I. School […]

Arts Photo of a collage of family photographs

Art about Black experiences headlines faculty exhibition at Krannert Art Museum

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four Black art and design faculty members at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are collaborating at Krannert Art Museum in a new approach to the annual School of Art and Design faculty art exhibition. “Black on Black on Black on Black” features visual artist and chair of studio art Patrick Earl Hammie, […]

Arts Photo of four actors on stage in front of music stands, three men and one woman. The two on the ends seated and the two in the middle standing.There are two video boards with abstract images behind them.

New playwright residency program allows theatre students to work on new plays

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Theatre students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign worked during the past two weeks with a playwright developing a new play as part of the inaugural workshop of the theatre department’s Daniel J. Sullivan Playwright-in-Residence Program. The play, “A Darkling at Nightfall,” will have its first public readings during three workshop performances […]

Arts Photo of a circle arms of different people extended with their hands in the middle.

Krannert Center performance combines art, science to examine what makes us human

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An interdisciplinary performance combining science, music and movement will explore humanity’s place in the universe, ranging from the microscopic level to the expanse of the cosmos. The world premiere of “The Joy of Regathering” is Sept. 17 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The recurring theme of the piece is coming […]

Arts Image of a 17th-century engraving showing two soldiers on a horse waving flags, another man on a giant insect in the foreground, and ships and cannons in the background.

Krannert Art Museum exhibition depicts Dutch prints as the original social media

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Internet memes and editorial cartoons use humor and satire to put a particular spin on events, fuel political divides and persuade people to believe a certain version of history. Those images have their origins in the work of 17th-century Dutch printmakers. A new exhibition at Krannert Art Museum, “Fake News & Lying […]

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