News Bureau

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Martial arts demonstrations are among the highlights of the annual fall open house at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Japan House on Oct. 25.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Figure One - the exhibition space of the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois - is presenting a series of one-day shows designed to give the public a taste of what's cooking in the creative arts at Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Pianist Konstantinos Papadakis will perform music by contemporary Greek composers and works inspired by Greek themes at a free recital March 13 (Tuesday) at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Japanese arts and culture will be alive and thriving on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this spring.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks will be observed Sunday (Sept. 11) with a brief concert at Smith Hall on the University of Illinois campus. The U. of I.'s Black Chorus will perform, under the direction of voice professor Ollie Watts Davis.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Japan House, an educational and cultural center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will host its annual fall open house on Oct. 23.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Architects will have the floor in January at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Photographs reflecting an architecture professor's field work in China, and a site-specific video installation and sculpture will be on view next month at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. "Thinking Outside the Box" is the title of the keynote talk at a two-day planning and zoning institute at the University of Illinois, but the featured speaker wont be the only one promoting innovative approaches to planning, according to organizers.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Demonstrations of Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, will be among the activities celebrating Japanese culture that will be held during the annual Spring Open House at Japan House, 2000 S. Lincoln Avenue, Urbana.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The School of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States with a short commemorative program on Monday (Sept. 11).

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Those wanting to take in all of the 16th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, or "Ebertfest," can purchase festival passes starting Nov. 1.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new display of a very old assignment will open Friday

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Two new exhibitions will be on view March 3 through April 8 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Centuries of encounter and cultural interchange in the Mediterranean may reveal lessons that remain relevant for today's observers of that region, according to organizers of a symposium planned for April 4-5 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The current state of the European Union will be examined in-depth at a series of events planned April 10-13 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - When Ralph Fisher organized the first Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973, communist rule in the region made it difficult for Western scholars to travel there to conduct research and exchange ideas with colleagues.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A world-class Slavic and East European Library, a film series and symposium on gender and cinema, and the opportunity to compare notes with colleagues are just a few of the draws that will bring scholars to the annual Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe June 12-Aug. 4 at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Six graduate-student artists will exhibit their work July 12 through Aug. 10 at the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Film fans who want the whole experience of the 17th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, or "Ebertfest," can purchase festival passes starting Nov. 1.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Those wanting to take in all of the next Roger Ebert's Film Festival, or "Ebertfest," can purchase festival passes starting Nov. 1.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Just as contemporary American-made music enjoys great popularity in Europe today, music by European composers and performers was all the rage in America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. According to musicologist Nicholas Temperley, musicians with significant mastery of the British or European musical idiom were highly sought after in America.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Holiday shoppers hoping to please the youngsters on their gift lists can turn to the "Guide Book to Gift Books" published by the Center for Children's Books at the University of Illinois. The annual guide, compiled by Deborah Stevenson, the editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books - a leading book review journal for school and public librarians - provides one-sentence descriptions of more than 350 of the best recently published volumes of youth literature, along with both traditional and e-book prices.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Francesca Zambello has directed stage productions everywhere from New York's Metropolitan Opera and Broadway to the Paris Opera, the Bolshoi, Covent Garden and Disneyland. On Jan. 19 (Thursday), she will speak at the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois on "What is American Opera Today?"

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Two new exhibitions will be on view Feb. 22 through March 30 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.-- Extension specialists from Iowa State University will be coming to the 2006 Planning Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign March 2-3 with a couple of rather large props in tow.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Landscapes - with a twist - are the focus of two new, but very different, exhibitions on view March 5 through 27 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Some of the best new films from Latin America will be screened locally during the second annual Latin American Film Festival April 4-10.

CHAMPAIGN,Ill. - John L. Esposito, the author of more than 30 books on the politics of Islam, will speak on "The Future of Islam and Muslim-West Relations" at the annual Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture in Religion at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Noel Fahey, the ambassador of Ireland to the United States, will be the guest speaker at this year's European Union Day at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on April 20.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Tanglewood, Spoleto, Aspen ... Allerton.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - This year's University of Illinois musical commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States will have a change of venue.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Two new exhibitions will be on view Sept. 10 through Oct. 9 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The title - "Pulp" - makes clear that the exhibition opening Tuesday (Sept. 13) at Figure One isn't going to be a standard art show featuring bucolic oil paintings. Instead, "Pulp" will tackle the not-so-pretty topic of the environmental impact of mass production of paper, as well as society's emotional connection to this omnipresent, practical product.

CHAMPAIGN,Ill. - The Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois will explore the impact of indigenous poetry on the expressive cultures of the Western Hemisphere with a poetry reading featuring Inés Hernández-Avila and Heid Erdrich on Tuesday (Sept. 13).

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A presentation on Edo culture by a visiting speaker will be among the highlights at the annual fall open house at the Japan House at the University of Illinois from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 20.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Bass clarinetist Gene Coleman and Ensemble N_JP will perform Coleman's composition "Kyoto_Naigai" with a film directed by Coleman Thursday (Dec. 8) at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The performance, which is free and open to the public, can be viewed live in Krannert's dance rehearsal space at 8 p.m., or online by emailing ijpanproject@illinois.edu with "Gene Coleman" in the subject line and your name and contact information in the body of the message.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - From the recent Broadway revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" to next summer's Kennedy Center festival featuring "Cat," "Streetcar Named Desire," "The Glass Menagerie" and other works, 20th century American playwright Tennessee Williams has once again become a hot property.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - "Community Design for Healthy Lifestyles" is the theme of the 2005 Planning Institute set for March 3-4 at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Twenty-three student artists working in media ranging from traditional oil paint and photography to raw sugar and crochet will share their progress toward Master of Fine Arts degrees with an exhibition at Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan St., in Chicago, March 25 through April 3.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - University of Illinois dance student Darrin Wright is among a select group of choreographers whose dances will be performed at the National College Dance Festival Gala May 19-21 at the University of Maryland at College Park.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. For the second year in a row, the Pulitzer Prize for drama has been awarded to a new American play first staged by University of Illinois theater professor Daniel Sullivan.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Five students from the University of Illinois are among the artists who have been selected to exhibit their work at Art Chicago 2010, an annual international fair of contemporary and modern art.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - As they have each summer since 1973, scholars soon will converge on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from all compass points to participate in the annual Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The second annual Summer Piano Institute will take place at the University of Illinois June 17-21.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Works by the latest group of students receiving master of fine arts degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be on display July 10 through Aug. 8 in "Fieldwork," an exhibition at I space, the university's Chicago art gallery.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The fall film series sponsored by the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities will comprise a variety of films that have only one thing in common: They didn't attract large audiences during their initial showings early in the series' 10-year history and deserve second screenings, according to Christine Catanzarite, senior associate director at IPRH and organizer of the series.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Smart Energy Design Assistance Center, administered through the University of Illinois School of Architecture, will present seven workshops around the state to teach facilities managers, construction contractors and consultants how to achieve energy efficiency in new construction or existing buildings.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Festival passes will go on sale Nov. 1 for the 13th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, or "Ebertfest," to be held April 27 to May 1 at the Virginia Theater in Champaign, Ill., and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The most brilliant display of fall color to be found this season may be indoors - at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Krannert Art Museum.