Arts Fest and Frank Lloyd Wright

Image courtesy of the artist


For those of you who do not know me personally, I am the fine arts librarian at a community college in south Louisiana. This week the college kicks off Arts Fest 2012. This is an annual event where the campus hosts a variety of art related activities, exhibitions, and shows for the next two weeks. We in the library have been receiving calls every day asking the location of the gallery. This is where a display of student paintings, prints, and drawings will be exhibited (they were setting it up on Saturday afternoon), and based on the number of calls people are very excited about this. Arts fest is also going to feature a visit by Louisiana artist Kathryn Hunter. An example of her instaltion art is pictured above. The full schedule of events can be read here.

Arts Fest is a celebration of all art forms. There's to be theater performances, music recitals, dance demonstrations, movies screened, and of course visual art. I enjoy the collaborative efforts to combine all the arts. Too often, particularly in academic settings, I believe there is an effort to compartmentalize the arts by discipline. However, when these forms of human expression are brought together the results are usually amazing, more so than when presented individually.

For example, I have provided the following video link:(link removed from internet, hopefully it will be replaced later)



This was a collaborative effort between Los Angeles singer Simone White, and her friend Hideyuki Katsumata. It was created as a response to the terrible earthquake that hit Japan one year ago. I find the images and the singing to be a haunting reminder of the power of nature. And I think the execution of this piece, with both music and printed animation, adds a great deal to what is being communicated.

Finally, I wanted to include a story and link about a dog house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, even though it doesn't really fit with the theme of this post. The article can be found here. I enjoy this story. It's too bad Eddie never got to enjoy the house that was designed for him.