artshistoryupdates

Arts History Update for late June 2013 by David Cummins

Abernathy Jamboree on Main Street is a monthly street fair in Abernathy Texas 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. second Saturday of each month in Summertime. Check it out on July 13 and August 10. www.abernathychamber.weebly.com One of the unique aspects is a display of classic automobiles. There is music, vendors, activities and more.

From Hale County Facts and Folklore comes this description of the founding and progress of Abernathy. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hga01

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The exhibition Chagall: Modern Master is on view at Tate Liverpool museum June 8 through October 6, 2013. Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985) began painting folklorist narratives and became a combiner of fauve, cubist, expressionist and suprematist styles, while reflecting his native Jewish Russian culture. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/chagall-modern-master Here is some of his work http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marc-chagall-881

While in that city be sure to take one of the many tours focused on the Beatles http://www.beatles-tours.com/ this is only one at your disposal.

Preston E. Smith Correctional Institution is a state prison three miles east of Lamesa Texas on Farm to Market Road 827 east of US Highway 87 in Dawson County. It contains male inmates with a maximum capacity of 2,234 persons. Trusted inmates can work at a mattress factory, in farming and grazing operations, and in gardening. Education programs are contracted with Windham Education operating as Windham School District of Texas http://www.windhamschooldistrict.org/ and Western Texas College (Snyder) www.wtc.edu . The warden is Stephen Swift.

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory/sm.html

It employs 419 people and is a significant industry for Lamesa.

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Laverne Roach (1925 – February 23, 1950 age 25) was a welterweight and middleweight boxer from Plainview Texas and Ring Magazine Rookie of the Year in 1947. He suffered a tenth round knockout at St Nicholas Arena 69 West 66th Street in New York City, was taken to a hospital and died from a subdural  hemorrhage. His record was 27 wins [11 by KO] and 5 losses [2 by KO]. http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Laverne_Roach There is now a book in manuscript form by Frank Sikes titled The Laverne Roach Story: Boxing’s Unsung Hero, including a forward by Angelo Dundee famed trainer and boxing manager.

Homer Marquez, New Book Looks at Famed Local Boxer, Plainview Daily Herald, April 24, 2013

http://www.myplainview.com/news/article_ccf5b42c-ad5c-11e2-9382-001a4bcf887a.html His widow Evelyn Trice is in her 90s and lives in Canyon Texas. She assisted the author in his researching the life and activities of Laverne.

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The photograph by Malcolm Browne on June 11, 1963 of a Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc who drenched himself with gasoline and was immolated, is still on our minds. This suicide was a protest on behalf of all Buddhists against the repressive actions of Roman Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam’s ruler. http://www.ap.org/explore/the-burning-monk/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Malcolm%20Browne%20Exhibit%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=6325602&spUserID=MTI4MjgzMDEzODES1&spJobID=75651512&spReportId=NzU2NTE1MTIS1 another view http://links.associatedpress.mkt4294.com/servlet/MailView?ms=NjMyNTYwMgS2&r=MTI4MjgzMDEzODES1&j=NzU2NTE1MTIS1&mt=1&rt=0 Nearly a decade later a photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl whose clothing had been burned off her, running in terror toward the camera, equally invaded our consciousness.

Rebellion and war may be about nations but it is experienced by individual people, in so many and various ways that often seem unconnected to the national narrative. It never happens in any other way.

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June 27 – August 2, 2013 is an exhibition Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Fragments at the Gagosian Gallery on West 21st Street in New York City. http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/06/rpbw-fragments.html Gagosian Gallery release

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/renzo-piano–june-27-2013 It looks fascinating as it allows us into the process of a master architect.

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Architect Michael Graves, the siren of post-modernism, is featured in a 26 minute video at http://video.pbs.org/video/2282858956 and his contributions to whimsical functional architecture are widely known. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Graves His website is http://www.michaelgraves.com/ He was strongly influenced by the liberating thoughts expressed by Robert Venturi in Complexity and Contradictions in Architecture (Museum of Modern Art 1966) Texas Tech Library OVERSZ NA2760.V46 That book is so influential for so many that it continues to be reprinted into the current century.

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Arts History Update for mid June 2013 by David Cummins

Saturday September 7, 2013 is the annual Adobe Walls Trek from Borger to The Battle of Adobe Walls (November 25, 1864) site http://www.ask.com/wiki/First_Battle_of_Adobe_Walls?o=2800&qsrc=999 and The Battle of Adobe Walls (June 27, 1874) site http://www.ask.com/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Adobe_Walls?qsrc=3044 . It’s preceded by talks at 9:00 a.m. at the Phillips Building 300 West 6th Street by Alvin Lynn and James Coverdale. Attendees will drive their own vehicles caravan style to the battlefield sites where Coverdale will appear in full Indian regalia. Organization of the annual Trek is by Lynn Hopkins administrator of Hutchinson County Historical Museum phone 806-273-0130 e-mail lynnhopkins@hutchinsoncnty.com Museum website is http://hutchinsoncountymuseum.org/ Adobe Walls http://hutchinsoncountymuseum.org/adobewalls.html Borger is 41 miles northeast of Amarillo and Adobe Walls is 37 miles northeast of Borger on the north side of the Canadian River as it flows east across the Texas Panhandle.

There is no cost for the Trek but reservations are required so that adequate portable toilets etc. can be positioned and objects on loan from the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum can be displayed appropriately.

Here is a photo of Adobe Walls Battlefield, formerly a trading post begun in 1845 but a ruin in 1864 when Kit Carson led U.S. Army troops arrived, and a fledgling settlement in 1874 when buffalo hunters were acting out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Adobewalls_battlefield.jpg

Here are photos of the site and of the Centennial Marker in place on private property recalling the First Battle in 1864. http://www.texasescapes.com/ClayCoppedge/Kit-Carson-at-Adobe-Walls.htm

Kit Carson 1809 – 1868 was a colonel in the U.S. Army and in command of a troop sent east from Santa Fe into Comancheria to contend with the Kiowa  Comanche and other tribes who were disrupting transportation from Missouri on the Santa Fe Trail. He brought two howitzers with him and when he approached the ruin of the old trading post his scouts told him a Kiowa village was located nearby the Canadian River. He engaged the Indians who came out from the village to fight and was doing well, until the unexpected happened. His scouts had not told him there were other Kiowa and Comanche villages nearby and when warriors from those villages came to the battle Carson found his troop outnumbered ten to one. A mass of more than three thousand warriors was arrayed against him. He used the howitzers intelligently and repositioned them throughout the battle to respond to changing Indian tactics. By nightfall there had been heavy fighting but few casualties. Carson gave the order to withdraw from the location and headed west to New Mexico Territory using the howitzers as rear guard defense against pursuing Indians. Under cover of darkness that night Carson broke away from the battlefield. Only a few harassing Indians pursued so the Battle of Adobe Walls was over in one day. It was an Indian victory and Carson knew it, crediting the howitzers with the difference between a loss and a disaster. That was November 25, 1864. Context is significant. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 the U.S. Army abandoned the Texas line of forts and the Army’s southwestern extremity became Santa Fe in New Mexico Territory. Confederate forces were insufficient to both fight in the War and also engage with the Indians in Comancheria. Supposedly the latter would be in the hands of Texas Rangers, occasional and temporary recruited Texas militia, and county law enforcement. That three-legged stool was never adequate and the War allowed Indians in the southern plains to become dominant again. Carson’s task was to engage with the Indians and re-establish order and security along the Santa Fe Trail corridor.

Four days later, on November 29, 1864 Colonel John M. Chivington ordered two regiments of U.S. Army to attack a sizable Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. More than 150 Indians were killed, mostly women children and elderly. No prisoners were taken and the lodges and possessions of the camp were destroyed and the bodies mutilated. The massacre at Sand Creek [the Big Sandy before it flows into the Arkansas River] was well publicized because the Army did not hide its misdeeds. Troopers decorated their hats with the genitalia of Indian victims and wore those hats for a long period of time. Colonel Chivington appeared at the Denver Opera House with his collection of Indian skulls, proving that the Army engaged in scalping. Captain Soule, within the regimental command, had enough of the alleged battle, called off his troopers, and refused to participate in the decimation, later accusing the commander of misdeeds. The story is told from various perspectives in A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek by Ari Kelman (Harvard University Press 2013). In 2007 the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was opened http://www.nps.gov/sand/index.htm It is north of Lamar Colorado twenty miles west of the Kansas border.

To put Kit Carson’s actions in context, he was illiterate but could sign his name. He was a mountain man and trapper 1829 – 1840, married two Indians and a Mexican woman Josefa, was a guide and scout for John C. Fremont’s expeditions [1842 - 1846] yielding him a national reputation, served as a scout for the U.S. Army in the Mexican American War, was a scout for the Army in Arizona and New Mexico Territories, and was an Indian Agent for the United States for northern New Mexico Territory. When the Civil War broke out he resigned as Indian Agent and organized New Mexico Volunteers for the U.S. Army and was given the rank of Colonel. When Navajo renegades harassed New Mexicans General Carleton ordered Carson to subdue and force the Navajo to relocate eastward to the Bosque Redondo [rounded wooded land astride bends in the river] near Fort Sumner on the Pecos River. He did so in the Spring of 1864 after previously having put 400 Mescalero Apache there. That genocidal event became known in history as The Long Walk. By 1868 the Navajo signed a treaty and were allowed to return to their homelands in Arizona Territory and northwestern New Mexico Territory. Also in 1868, while Carson was a rancher near Las Animas Colorado [east of Pueblo off US Highway 50 and just east of Old Fort Bent, astride the Arkansas River], his wife Josefa died while giving birth to their eighth child. A month later Carson died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Carson

Why were there Navajo renegades? Fort Defiance Arizona Territory was opened in 1851 to create a military presence in the homeland of the Navajo. Unfortunately the Army chose prime Navajo grazing land as the site for the fort and some who wanted to use the land attacked in 1856 and again in 1860. The next year, after the Civil War broke out, the fort was abandoned. Navajo raids and use of New Mexicans’ land continued and it was that “renegade” behavior that caused General Carleton to impose the extreme displacement experiment. The site of Fort Defiance was four miles north of Window Rock Arizona and was later used as Indian Agency, Indian Hospital, and other Indian affairs buildings and locations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Defiance,_Arizona

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America’s Cup 2013 is in the United States, specifically San Francisco Bay, the choice of billionaire Larry Ellison whose 2010 victory at Valencia Spain allowed him the choice of venue. Here is a slide show of the catamarans that compete at this level. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/06/04/us/20140604_cup.html Of the expected fifteen teams, only four will actually compete. Headquarters for Ellison is pier 27 on the Emarcadero facing Treasure Island. http://www.americascup.com/ The expected challenger this year is

Artemis Racing Sweden. Ellison’s team is Oracle Team USA.

The Louis Vuitton Cup series of races on San Francisco Bay July 4 – September 1, 2013 will determine the actual challenger. The America’s Cup finals between the two teams will be races September 8 -13, 2013 on San Francisco Bay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Cup

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The Beauty of a Broken Silo is a seven minute video about a tornado-damaged silo in rural Alabama that caught the eye of an architectural photographer Timothy Hursley who cut a deal with the farm owner and purchased it for $2,000 and will ultimately remove it to another location. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qj5yME3zh2c Through time lapse surveillance cameras Hursley has images of the former silo in all sorts of natural conditions and from many perspectives. Whatever it is at this point, it is an object of its own significance and no longer represents the function of a grain silo. We recall a former credo form follows function, and we know what form a silo must take if it is to work as a functioning grain silo. Now that it is broken and especially when it is dis-joined from the farm to which its silo character related, its form is non-functional and is simply a characteristic of its significance as an object.

Since it was not intentionally constructed in its present form, it carries the weight of accident or peradventure. Did it morph into its present form? Is it now a biological creature? Would it be different and how would it be different if the top part leaned at a different angle? Why does it have such a strong appeal to our senses?

http://timothyhursley.com/

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The ongoing 55th Venice Italy Biennale with the theme The Encyclopedic Palace is reviewed highly by critics. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/arts/design/venice-biennale-in-its-55th-edition.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130606&_r=0

The United States pavilion is a permanent Palladian-like structure http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/pavilion/index.php and was built in 1930 http://www.labiennale.org/en/venues/pavilions.html?back=true

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Arts History Update for early June 2013 by David Cummins

On Thursday May 29, 2013 a small-scale model sculpture of Benito Juarez at the Pass of the North was installed at Camino Real Hotel in El Paso at 101 South El Paso Street. http://www.caminorealelpaso.com/ The full-scale sculpture by John Sherrill Houser will be installed and dedicated later, closer to the international border. The sculpture depicts Juarez as a young boy and then again as president of a nation.

Begun in 1992 in El Paso, the Twelve Travelers Memorial of the Southwest sculpture project seeks to tell the story of the pass of the north in magnificent art pieces. http://www.12travelers.com/sculptures/

The sculptor’s website is www.johnsherrillhouser.com

Two sculptures have already been dedicated and installed. The first is Fray Garcia de San Francisco – Founder of the Pass of the North – the Building of the Missions, that was dedicated and installed in El Paso’s downtown Pioneer Plaza in 1996 http://visitelpaso.com/visitors/to_do/1-attractions/sections/4-historical-and-cultural-sites/places/51-fray-garcia-monument honoring the Franciscan priest who founded the area’s first mission.

The second is The Equestrian – Spanish Settlement of the Southwest [Don Juan de Onate holding a document La Toma declaring possession of the region for the King of Spain, in 1598, while sitting in full armor on a rearing horse]. It was dedicated and installed in 2007 at El Paso International Airport. http://skyline.cwihosting.com/~traveler/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/the-equestrian.jpg Houser was interviewed on PBS Television when this statuary drew criticism and a small controversy. http://www.pbs.org/pov/lastconquistador/john_houser.php#.UaaZbGco56o

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Tours of cemeteries can be founts of historical information and lead to awareness of our own histories, personal and communal. On October 19, 2013 there will be a public tour of Llano Cemetery in Amarillo www.llanocemetery.org said to be the panhandle’s oldest cemetery. It is located east of Interstate Highway 27 between S.E. 27th Street and S.E. 34th Street. Enter from 34th Street across the street from Tradewinds Airport.

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Last Frontier Heritage Celebration & Texas Buffalo Soldier Living History Encampment will occur in Morton Texas at Cochran County Park on June 29- 30, 2013. It features a re-enactment of the 1877 Buffalo Soldier Expedition during which a troop of 10th Cavalry were desperately seeking potable water. http://carmapreservation.com/BSE1877/bibliography.html More information is available from Sammie Simpson e-mail samisimp@fivearea.com phone 806-927-5191

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The Dub Parks Memorial Arena, long used as a practice facility by the Texas Tech University Rodeo Association, at 4th Street and Quaker Avenue, is being razed or revamped. The cattle pens and horse stalls have been removed. The website http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/tturodeoassociation/facilities.html does not indicate what is going on.

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A new non-profit theatre company in town is Sidecar Theatre Company www.sidecartheatre.com sponsored by National Travel. It will produce Hairspray the Musical August 15-18 and 22-25 nine performances at LHUCA [Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts] Firehouse Theatre all seats $28. Founders are Rich Morra and Tom Chace. General Manager is Ronnie D. Miller e-mail ronnie@sidecartheatre.com and artistic director is Joshua A. Aguirre e-mail joshua@sidecartheatre.com . Theatre offices are located at 4314 South Loop 289 Suite 300.

http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/hairspray.htm

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West Texas Through the Lens is a 7 minute film produced by Texas Tech University photography class students who focused on Quanah Parker Trail arrow installations and went to several communities and shot photos. Their film is viewable at http://vimeo.com/66767863 and is quite enjoyable.

The subtext is a glimpse by us into what is taught and learned in the College of Media and Communication film and photography classes at Texas Tech.

The Quanah Parker Trail website is http://www.quanahparkertrail.com/Quanah_Parker_Trail/index.html.html

Charles A. Smith, retired cotton farmer and gin operator living near New Home Texas south of Lubbock, is a masterful metal sculptor. He produced a prototype and was selected to make and install the giant size arrows emblazoned in Comanche colors. http://brightlightsmuleshoe.blogspot.com/2013/01/quanah-parker-shot-arrow-into-air.html The arrow in Lubbock was installed last July in Mackenzie Park in front of the Agriculture Museum. http://lubbockonline.com/life/2012-07-12/arrows-still-falling-comanche-battle-buffalo-hunters#.UagQA2co56o Head out to east Broadway Street and turn north.

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High Plains Winegrowers first annual Wine & Music Festival is June 14 – 15 at Mallet Event Center & Arena in Levelland Texas. http://highplainswinegrowers.org/ Admission to the two day trade show ending at 6:00 p.m. each day is $5. Admission to the music events each night range from $30 to $60 per person depending on location relative to the stage. Winegrowers on the staked plains of West Texas produce 70% of the wine grapes grown in Texas.

Mallet Event Center & Arena http://malleteventcenter.com/

On Saturday July 27 there will be a bus tour of several Terry County Vineyards $15 per person sponsored by Brownfield Chamber of Commerce http://www.brownfieldchamber.com/ followed by Lubbock Wines & Vines Festival on August 2 at McPherson Cellars Winery in downtown Lubbock. http://www.mcphersoncellars.com/

To get ready for this activity you may wish to start off by attending the Llano Estacado Winery Wine & Clay Festival on Saturday June 8 or Sunday June 9 in Lubbock. https://llanowine.com/ Admission is free. There will be many pieces of art for sale, not limited to ceramics as the title might indicate, music by Kenny Maines and others. Wine by the glass is on offer to adults. The location is 3426 East Farm to Market Road 1585. Go south of Lubbock on US Highway 87 and drive east on 1585. Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5:00 p.m.

Jim and Catherine Bodenstedt of San Antonio sold Cap*Rock Winery to Gary Sowder and Matt Hess. The new winemaker is Monty Paulsen. http://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataid=112002 The website says nothing of this. http://www.caprockwinery.com/ Bodenstedt purchased the winery in 2010 for $2.5 million.

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The Messengers (2013) by David B. Hickman www.davidbhickman.com is a kinetic metal sculpture installed this past week in a courtyard south of the Media & Communication Building at 15th Street and Flint Avenue on the Texas Tech University campus. Five metal messenger pigeons representing the five senses move in the ever-present West Texas wind. There is a circular pad base representing the earth and words on ten limestone benches spell out the injunction “think about how you communicate”.

The installed original art piece is a commissioned work under a program allocating one percent for art portion of building and renovation capital costs. http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-05-30/first-6-art-pieces-2013-installed-tech#.UalXBWco56p

Arts History Update for late May 2013 by David Cummins

Sounds of Texas is a free outdoor concert series held at the Hockley County Courthouse in Levelland on the lawn 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. in June 2013; viz. June 6, 13, 20 and 27.

High Noon Concert Series has been a free outdoor concert on Wednesdays all Summer June through August on the Lubbock County Courthouse lawn with the entertainers sited on the gazebo. It is sponsored by the Lubbock County Commissioners Court but has not yet been announced for 2013.

Buddy Holly Center Summer Showcase Concert Series is free, each Thursday evening 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the Center’s outdoor Meadows Courtyard beginning May 30 and ending August 29, 2013. http://www.mylubbock.us/departmental-websites/departments/buddy-holly-center/special-events/summer-showcase-concert-series This series is sponsored by the City of Lubbock which also has a series of concerts in various public parks around the city. The Buddy Holly Center is located at 19th Street and Crickets Avenue [former Avenue G] on the northeast corner.

Westwinds Brass Band http://westwindsbrassband.org/ will play outdoors each Sunday evening 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Wagner Park 26th Street and Flint Avenue. It’s free, bring a blanket or lawn chair, June 2 through July 14 [seven concerts].

For a band extravaganza remember 4th On Broadway on Thursday July 4, 2013 www.broadwayfestivals.com featuring a parade, street fair, picnic, dance and fireworks.

Lubbock Moonlight Musicals http://lubbockmoonlightmusicals.org/ presents musical theater at Wells Fargo Amphitheater in Mackenzie Park at 7:30 p.m. three weekends in June Peter Pan and in July Annie Get Your Gun and in August Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Tickets are available at Select a Seat. http://www.ticketsage.com/_lubbock/

In collaboration with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Moonlight Musicals presents Les Miserables at Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theatre Thursday through Saturday November 21 – 23, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday November 24 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets go on sale May 20 at $68.75, $53.50 and $43.50. This is a locally produced Les Miserables and the legal rights to produce it state that the Broadway version cannot be copied. David Gaschen will play Jean Valjean, Gerald Dolter will play Inspector Javert and Rebecca Saathoff-Davis will play Cosette. John Hollins will conduct members of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra in the pit. Bill Gelber directs.

If you are a country western music fan and want an authentic venue and local entertainers you can’t do better than Meadow Musical at the Music Hall 401 Mitchell Street in Meadow Texas second Saturday evening 6:30 – 11:30 p.m. May 11, June 8, July 13, August 10, and September 14. Entrance is free, pay for food and libation and put money in the jar for a favorite musician or group. This has been going on more than 35 years. It sometimes happens that when some musicians are playing inside the building, impatient musicians, probably bluegrassers, go outside and pick, so there is spill-over music in this small town. Marybeth Ashburn grew up in Meadow and sometimes she will get up on stage in the grand ole opry style and belt out a tune. Her father George Ashburn built this Music Hall. The Martin Band is a regular player at Meadow Musicals. http://www.zvents.com/meadow_tx/events/show/89249309-meadow-country-western-jamboree

Meadow is on US Highway 62 / 82 two-thirds of the way from Lubbock to Brownfield maybe five miles past Ropesville.

Jack and Dianne’s at 2309 North Frankford Avenue (at Ursuline Street, south of Clovis Highway north of Erskine Street) right here in Lubbock, has country western music every Thursday evening 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. May 9, 16, 23, 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27 etc. phone ahead to find out who’s playing 806-747-8150.

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The Seasons of Royo “Las Estaciones de Royo” is on exhibit May 1 – 31, 2013 at Russell Collection Fine Art Gallery in Austin Texas. http://www.russell-collection.com/exhibitions.htm Jose Royo apeared in person May 10 – 11. He lives near Valencia Spain. http://royoart.com/ His lush impressionistic canvases have delighted thousands.

At the Cutter & Cutter Gallery he’s featured at http://cutterandcutter.com/Artist/Royo/

Books include Jose Royo: Luminica (Leaders Gallery 2005) at ABE Books new $55.45 incl s&h and Jose Royo: Glances / Miradas (Miranda Galleries 2003) $61.20 at Alibris.com

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On Saturday May 11 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, 3333 Camp Bowie Boulevard, architect Gary Cunningham and curator of art Nancy Edwards, discussed the architecture of the building designed by Louis I. Kahn and opened in 1972.https://www.kimbellart.org/architecture/kahn-building Here is Kahn holding his glasses. https://www.kimbellart.org/about/history Admission was free and the event took place in the galleries.

What a nice event. At art museums the building and grounds are part of the museum experience, and influential in how that experience is enjoyed. The adjacent Renzo Piano Pavilion under construction is scheduled to open later this year https://www.kimbellart.org/architecture/piano-pavilion

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The Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis MN will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year. Its website is appealing http://tmora.org/ Here is a Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper article about a current exhibit Concering the Spiritual in Russian Art from 1965 to 2011. http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/stageandarts/189251811.html?refer=y

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Joel Sartore, Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species (Focal Point 2010) National Geographic $24 hardcover http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=6200575&code=NGDAM00001&source=NG2R7710017 $15.83 at Amazon.com or new at ABE Books $18.12 incl s&h. Sartore has been a contributing photographer to National Geographic for twenty years. He profiles sixty-nine species in this book and the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. His exhibit is on display at Texas Tech Museum May 12 – July 21, 2013 in gallery two. He speaks at the Museum Saturday May 18 at 6:00 p.m. in Jones Auditorium. Enter at the west door Sculpture Court off Indiana Avenue because the front north 4th Street door of the Museum will be closed since the Museum proper is closed on Saturdays at 5:00 p.m.

His website is a thrilling display of wildlife imagery http://www.joelsartore.com/ You can hear him on a Great Courses podcast http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/Podcast.aspx?id=40762237&ai=83410&sa=VA&cm_mmc=email-_-PodcastActCT20130506-_-body-_-website&cmp=email

Audobon Magazine, Field & Stream, National Geographic, Outdoor Life, and Outdoor Photographer are among many magazines you can download onto your computer and read, free, from Lubbock Public Library as a Zinio Digital Magazine http://www.mylubbock.us/departmental-websites/departments/library/zinio-digital-magazines/list-of-zinio-magazines There is a magazine rack at each branch of the Lubbock Public Library for hands on a slick paper page reading.

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Viva Big Bend Music Festival is July 25 – 28, 2013 with events in the towns of Alpine, Fort Davis, Marfa and Marathon, Texas. The lineup includes Joe Ely Band and Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines, whom we have enjoyed several times in Lubbock. http://vivabigbend.com/lineup.html

Viva Big Bend Food Festival already happened April 4 – 6, 2013 with events in the same four towns. http://vivabigbend.com/venues.html From a recent trip to Marfa I can vouch for gastronomical delights at Jett’s Grill inside the El Paisano Hotel http://www.hotelpaisano.com/shops-more/jetts-grill/ , Cochineal http://www.cochinealmarfa.com/ , Food Shark [bus van eating or benches outside] http://www.foodsharkmarfa.com/ , Future Shark [re-purposed gasoline service station], Maiya’s http://maiyasrestaurant.com/ , Alice’s Cafe, and Squeeze Marfa http://www.squeezemarfa.com/ . Did not eat at Boyz2Men or Fat Lyle’s. For the grocery experience there’s nothing of interest on offer at the supermarket but try The Get Go independent grocery store http://www.thegetgomarfa.com/ It’s an introduction to the Marfa lifestyle.

If you go to Alpine, eat and drink at The Saddle Club http://saddleclubalpine.com/ or Reata Restaurant http://www.reata.net/alpine-texas-restaurant.html where there is a Stylle Read mural http://stylleread.com/p_interiors.html as well as one at Big Bend Saddlery, or eat and drink at Century Bar & Grill in the historic Holland Hotel http://thecenturybarandgrill.com/ and http://thehollandhoteltexas.com/ The historic Granada Theatre adjoins The Saddle Club so music and performance spills over into food and libation. http://www.alpinegranada.com/

Big Bend Brewing Company, a craft brewer, opened last year in Alpine at 3401 West Highway 90 phone 432-837-3700 and sells Tejas Lager [a pilsner], La Frontera IPA [hoppy bitter ale with high alcohol content], No. 22 Porter [malt flavor dry roasted with hints of caramel and chocolate], Big Bend Hefweizen [wheat malt with esters and phenols], and Terlingua Golden Ale [light thirst quencher].

In Fort Davis try Blue Mountain Bistro in Hotel Limpia http://www.hotellimpia.com/blue-mountain-bistro/ or for brunch try Mountain Trails Lodge http://www.dmectexas.org/lodge.html

In Marathon you may try the food and drink at Cafe Cenizo within the historic Gage Hotel http://www.gagehotel.com/ and stay overnight in patio cottages http://www.mywesttexas.com/life/top_stories/image_41c2e083-edcd-566e-a521-4b671fe424d6.html or inside the main building. One restaurant away from the hotel is The Famous Burro http://famousburro.com/ and for breakfast or lunch there is Shirley’s Burnt Biscuit Cafe. You might stroll through the Gage Gardens that are not adjacent to the hotel. Photos of those gardens are here http://cowgirlculture.blogspot.com/2011/04/gage-gardens-in-marathon-texas-part-1.html

Henry Charles Trost 1860 – 1933 of El Paso was the architect for the Gage Hotel (1927), Holland Hotel (1928) and El Paisano Hotel (1930) as well as Kerr Mercantile (1927) in Sanderson Texas and Hotel El Capitan (1930) in Van Horn Texas. http://www.hotelpaisano.com/about-the-paisano/history/

For an overview of the Big Bend area see Fodor’s guide to the best of West Texas http://www.fodors.com/news/guide-to-the-best-of-west-texas-6646.html

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Arts History Update for mid May 2013 by David Cummins

Associated Press Images is a a website with much improved graphics launched for public access on May 2, 2013. www.associatedpress.mkt4294.com/ Address 450 W. 33rd Street, New York NY 10001 phone 212-621-1930

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Texas Tech students in the School of Art and College of Architecture, led by professor Chris Taylor, explored a number of significant sites in 2012 during the Land Arts of the American West field study. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Arts_of_the_American_West Here are photographs of the exhibition at LHUCA Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts Warehouses relating to that trip http://landarts.org/2013/04/08/land-arts-2012-exhibition-opening/#.UYE26KJvMuo Here is a summary and photographs of the trip including the roster of student participants http://landarts.org/2013/04/08/land-arts-2012-exhibition-opening/#.UYE26KJvMuo Here is the itinerary.

White Sands National Monument www.nps.gov/whsa 16 miles southwest of Alamogordo New Mexico.

Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine and Reclamation Project at Laguna Pueblo Indian Reservation in Cibola County New Mexico near Cubero [three open pits, 32 waste dumps, 33 proto-ore stockpiles after removal of 25 million tons of uranium ore from 1953 to 1982] Reclamation activity by the mine operator Anaconda / ARCO [Atlantic Richfield Co] ended in 1995 but U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the reclamation is incomplete. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar1865.htm

Laguna Pueblo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Pueblo

Chaco Canyon http://www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/chaco_culture/national_historical_park.html in northwest New Mexico

Muley Point overlook from atop Cedar Mesa in southeast Utah looking south down into a valley with Monument Valley about twenty miles distant to the southwest http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/mexican_hat/muley_point.html It features 1,200 feet elevation of sandstone cliffs and layered canyons of the San Juan River basin. The village of Mexican Hat Utah in the valley on US Highway 163 is home to fewer than 100 people and is one of the most remote places in America.

Moon House Anasazi Ruin on Cedar Mesa at McLoyd’s Canyon in southeast Utah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_House

Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine (Kennecott Copper Mine) is southwest of Salt Lake City Utah, in production since 1906 and is now a National Historic Landmark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingham_Canyon_Mine

Spiral Jetty (1970) by Robert Smithson in Great Salt Lake Utah is a creation made from nature in the lake http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/spiraljetty

Sun Tunnels (Art in the Utah Desert) (1973 – 1976) by Nancy Holt http://www.pbase.com/listorama/pl_ut_suntunnels in northwestern Utah.http://nancyholt.org/

Center for Land Use Interpretation at Wendover Utah http://www.clui.org/page/wendover

North Rim of Grand Canyon Arizona on the Kaibab Plateau at 8, 500 feet elevation http://www.thecerbatgem.com/index.php/component/content/article/8-ds/3337-grand-canyon-north-rim-opens-may-15th that will open again this year on May 15.

Galisteo New Mexico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galisteo,_New_Mexico has only 150 residents but is an historic residence of Northern New Spain folks centuries ago in Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico province of New Spain. It is 22 miles south of the city of Santa Fe. It was mentioned as early as 1581 by an exploring priest, and the site of a Fransiscan mission in 1617 – 1629 but evacuated during the Pueblo Revolt August 10 – 21, 1680.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt Galisteo is derivative of the word for a person from Galicia in northwest Spain.

Marfa Texas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa,_Texas is the county seat of Presidio County sixty miles from the Rio Grande and Mexico in the high Chihuahuan Desert

Cabinetlandia http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/information/cabinetlandia.php and http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/information/cabinetlandia_visitors.php is about ten miles east of Deming New Mexico where a metal cabinet containing issues of Cabinet Magazine has been placed within a rock structure in the desert.

Gila Hot Springs near Silver City New Mexico on the banks of the West Fork of the Gila River http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=XFA024-008 emits scalding hot water in a campground. The runoff pools nearby are comfortable for bathing.

Mimbres River within the Aldo Leopold Wilderness about 50 miles northeast of Silver City New Mexico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimbres_River

Chiricahua Mountains in southeast Arizona accessed from Douglas or Wilcox Arizona or Rodeo New Mexico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiricahua_Mountains the mountains are famed as the home ground or stronghold of Cochise and other Apache. It is the site of Coronado National Memorial http://www.nps.gov/coro/planyourvisit/upload/COROExpeditionmap2.pdf commemorating the explorer’s 1540-1542 expedition leaving Compostela New Spain and traveling north to Hermosillo on the Gulf of California and then proceeding inland and north entering what would eventually be the USA near this Memorial, then proceeding north to the Zuni, Acoma, Tiguex and Cicuye Pueblos before striking out east onto the plains that we know as the Llano Estacado.

Coolidge Dam (1928 dedicated 1930) impounding San Carlos Lake within the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolidge_Dam near Globe Arizona http://www.sancarlosapache.com/home.htm

Plains of San Agustin west of Socorro New Mexico off US Highway 60 on which are emplaced Very Large Array, a radio astronomy telescopic observatory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_of_San_Agustin

National Radio Astronomy Observatory http://www.vla.nrao.edu/

The Lightning Field (1977) by Walter De Maria is a series of stainless steel poles in remote Catron County New Mexico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Field

See also http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/lightningfield it is closed May 1 – June 30 for maintenance and will be open for visitors July 1 – October 31, 2013 by reservation and appointment only. Only six visitors per day are allowed and they must stay overnight in a single cabin on the property. Persons who wish to visit meet Dia Art Foundation staff at the small town of Quemado New Mexico on US Highway 60 and are transported by a foundation van to the site and picked up the next day to return to Quemado, about a 45 minute drive in the distance. The site is west of Pie Town and east of Quemado a few yards from the Continental Divide. It is not possible for the public to drive to the site or drive to a point from which the site can be viewed. To the west from Quemado 34 miles is Eagar Arizona population 4,954.

The Gila River in New Mexico runs west into Arizona near the towns of Clifton and Safford. These were the nearest towns to the Lazy B Ranch founded by H. C. Day in 1880 in Arizona Territory. His grand-daughter Sandra Day was born in 1930 and grew up on that large ranch. She would later become a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Sandra Day O’Connor. With her brother H. Alan Day they wrote Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (Random House 2002) Texas Tech Library KF8745.O25 A35 paperback Random House 2003 is $12.17 Kindle $11.99 at Amazon.com. Hardcover in very good condition at ABE Books $3.91 incl s&h. The Day family sold the ranch in 1986. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor

The Gila River crosses Arizona [a dry rut or ditch at the moment, on the surface] and runs into the Colorado River near Yuma Arizona.

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Want to talk, sip and get involved with wine?

1. April 27, 2013 High Plains Vineyard Tour. Brownfield
2. June 8 – 9, 2013 Wine & Clay Festival at Llano Estacado Winery. Lubbock
3. June 14 – 15, 2013 High Plains Winegrowers Wine & Music Festival. Levelland
4. July 26 – 27, 2013 Terry County Vineyard Festival. Brownfield
5. August 2 – 3, 2013 Wines & Vines Festival at McPherson Cellars. Lubbock

On Saturday April 27 last, the High Plains Vineyard Tour sponsored by Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension Service, took place. www.txwines.org The contact was Scott Russell e-mail sarussel@ag.tamu.edu It included time at the new Texas Custom Wine Works facility south of Brownfield. http://texascustomwineworks.com/ There was a bus tour to several vineyards, then lunch, then more bus touring to vineyards and then a dinner at Diamante Doble Vineyard [Jet Wilmeth founder] south of Tokio in Terry County.

The annual Wine & Clay Festival at Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock www.llanowine.com is June 8 – 9 and is free to attend. There are some grapes growing in the adjacent vineyard. Art, not limited to ceramics, is available for viewing and purchase, music by Kenny Maines and others, and wine for purchase by the glass. This winery has a rich history and produces a large quantity of wine of very high quality. Its awards are numerous and reputation is widespread. Each of the Lubbock wineries is a jewel but this is the Crown Jewel.

The High Plains Winegrowers Wine & Texas Music Festival is June 14 – 15, 2013 at the new Mallet Event Center & Arena in Levelland. http://malleteventcenter.com/ The entity is www.highplainswinegrowers.org Tickets go on sale soon.

The Terry County Vineyard Festival is scheduled for Friday and Saturday July 26 – 27, 2013. http://www.brownfieldchamber.com/ It features tours of vineyards and wineries, vendors of wine and wine related items, displays of art, and live music. A dinner and wine tasting is Friday, and the tours are Saturday with buses leaving Terry County Barn at 8:00 a.m. Contact person is Lorena Valencia phone 806-637-2564 or e-mail helpdesk@brownfieldchamber.com . Brownfield and Terry County is smack in the middle of the Texas High Plains AVA American Viticultural Area that has a 3,300 feet elevation, hot arid days and cool nights, red sandy loam soil over porous caliche atop limestone, ideal conditions for grape growers who now have about 800 acres under cultivation in the county.

Yes, Terry County is a cotton growing area, and crop diversification includes soybeans, pecans, peanuts and melons, inter alia. But it is vineyard country as well including Bogar-Cox Vineyard [Dr. Mark Bogar and Bobby Cox], Reddy Vineyards http://www.reddyvineyards.com/index.html [Dr. Vijay Reddy], Lost Draw Vineyard https://www.facebook.com/LostDrawVineyards [Andy Timmons], Bingham Family Vineyards and Farm http://www.binghamfamilyvineyards.com/ [Cliff and Betty Bingham, son Clint Bingham and grandson Kyle Bingham], Diamante Doble Vineyard [Jet Wilmeth and family],Caswell-Hesse Vineyard or Castano Prado Vineyard [Tere Caswell and Tom and Linda Hesse], La Pradera Vineyard [Michael and Barbara Paddack], Rusty Smotherman Vineyard, Young Family Vineyard [Larry Young], Hunter Vineyard, Graham Vineyards, The Family Vineyards [Arthur Flache and Elaine Shiver], JoBreguen Vineyards [David and Karla Dill], Lepard Vineyards [Russell and Sharon Lepard], Bayer Family Vineyards [Alan Bayer and Lynsee Rowland], Oswald Vineyards [John and Dina-Marie Oswald], Buena Suerte Vineyards [Bill Day], and Twin T Vineyard [Dusty Timmons].

Yoakum County includes Newsom Vineyards near Plains [Neal and Janice Newsom, and Nolan Newsom], Crimson Ridge Vineyard [Nolan Newsom], Williams Ranch Vineyards [Shawn and Kirk Williams], and Canada Vineyards also near Plains [Brenda Canada]

Hockley County includes Amanecar Vineyard near Sundown [Steve and Cindy Newsom], Bolen Vineyards near Smyer [Rowdy and Tameisha Bolen], Uva Morado Vineyards near Smyer [Joe Riddle], Krick Hill Vineyard near Levelland [Chace Hill], Martin’s Vineyard near Smyer [Andy and Anndel Martin], and Maye-Berry Vineyards near Smyer [Anthony and Belinda Maye, and Curtis Berry]. Clearfork Vineyards near Smyer www.clearforkvineyards.com

Dawson County includes ReaGae Vineyards near Lamesa [Mark and Robyn Shofner] and Delaney Vineyards near Lamesa [Jerry Delaney] www.delaneyvineyards.com

Lubbock County includes Babbitt Family Vineyard near Idalou [Cliff and Diane Babbitt], Cerro Santo Vineyard near Estacado [Jim and Barbara Irwin], and Pheasant Ridge Winery [Bill Gipson] www.pheasantridgewinery.com north of Preston Smith Lubbock International Airport

Bailey County includes 3 Bar H Vineyard near Muleshoe [Jim and James Huffman] and Coyote Lake Vineyard near Muleshoe [Allan and Becky Hoksbergen]

Hale County includes Bell Brothers Vineyard near Plainview [Freddy Bell and family]

White grapes grown include Vermentino, Viognier, Muscat Canelli and Roussanne, while red grapes include Tempranillo, Aglianico, Mourvedre and Sangiovese.

The tour will definitely lead to a new custom crush facility Texas Custom Wine Works http://texascustomwineworks.com/about.html where a vineyard operator can take some of his/her grapes, get them crushed into wine mash, and bring them to a fabrication facility to make into wine. Every grape grower would like to see and taste a final product.

After you’ve toured the Terry County vineyards you may want to attend the second annual Wines & Vines Festival at McPherson Cellars Winery in Lubbock August 2 – 3, 2013. www.mcphersoncellars.com Kim McPherson is owner of this winery and the long-time winemaker at Teysha Cellars renamed Cap*Rock Winery in Lubbock. He is the son of Clinton “Doc” McPherson and wife Clara. Chemistry professor Doc and horticulturalist professor Robert Reed grew the first wine grapes in the South Plains at Robert’s home and turned them into wine in Doc’s chemistry laboratory at Texas Tech. They founded Llano Estacado Winery. Robert R. Reed II, age 88, died January 13, 2013 in Lubbock.

Look for Cap*Rock Winery’s annual festival celebrating completion of grape harvesting sometime in late Summer. Catherine Bodenstadt from San Antonio is the new owner after a chapter 11 corporate reorganization bankruptcy www.caprockwinery.com

If you reside in the Southern High Plains in West Texas you reside in wine country. These are some of the players. Shake hands with the pioneers of our wine industry. We are very proud of them.

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London Literature Festival is May 20 through June 5, 2013 at Southbank Centre. It looks wonderful with an amazing cast of presenters and workshop leaders http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/london-literature-festival/productions Sponsored by the Arts Council of England.

The Man Booker International Prize will be announced on May 22. Here are the ten finalists, two from the United States http://archive.themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-international-prize-2013-finalists-announced The Man Booker Prize for British authors longlist will be announced July 23, the finalists on September 10, and the winners on October 15.http://archive.themanbookerprize.com/ Here in the USA the National Book Awards longlist announcement is September 12, finalists on October 16, and winners on November 20. http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2013.html#.UYcyZ6JvNUo

Notable writers give a series of talks at the London Zoo May 14, June 11, June 20, July 16, August 27 and September 17 www.zsl.org/writerstalks ZSL is Zoological Society of London. Each talk, and a glass of wine or soft drink, for 12 pounds admission.

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Graduating students at the Texas Tech School of Art often put their latest work on sale before they pack up their belongings into a bulging automobile and head out into …………. wherever. That sale will occur on Saturday May 11 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the School of Art 3D Annex building on Main Street north of the Student Recreation Center and Pool, between Indiana Avenue to the west and Flint Avenue to the east. Since it is a Saturday parking is available out front and close by, free.

One year I purchased a large ceramic piece that occupies a prominent locus in my home, from a graduating student. The deal was struck at a School of Art Open House in late March. He said he had to show it twice more in the Spring and then would deliver it to me on his way out of town. He rolled up in mid-May in an over-packed car with trailer and lugged the ceramic piece in, accepted my check, waived goodbye to his senior project, and headed for San Antonio. It was a fun experience for both of us.

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In central Michigan near Grand Rapids Tomato Day is June 4. That’s the first day in the year one can reliably expect not to have any early morning freezing. Folks start their tomato plants in the greenhouse in early May and then plant them outside on and after June 4, driving five feet long poles into the ground and tieing the vine to the pole. Straw from the barn is used for mulch to retain ground soil moisture and temperature.

Tomato blossoms need to be pollinated within a 50 hour period after the flower appears, the pollen germinating and flowing down the style to fertilize the ovary in temperatures close to 55 degrees overnight. These night-time temperatures are reached in late June. From blossom fertilization to ripe fruit is about two months. This applies to full-size tomatoes. Cherry, grape, patio, and plum tomatoes take less time to grow and mature.

If you’ve eaten a tomato fresh off the vine, you know that store-bought in packages bears a resemblance but no more. In Lubbock, starting in July, look for vine ripened freshly picked tomatoes at Downtown Art Market Saturday morning on Buddy Holly Avenue at 19th Street in or out front of the former Greer Iron Works building on the northwest corner.

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Arts History Update for early May 2013 by David Cummins

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The Centre for Virtual Engineering was opened in 2012 at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart Germany. The architect was UNStudio of Amsterdam Holland principals Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos. http://www.unstudio.com/projects/zve-fraunhofer-institute Click on each of the sixteen hatch marks for a different view of the exterior and interior spaces. Here are more images http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcmng/sets/72157633263435904/ This is world class architecture.

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Will there be a new performing arts center in Lubbock? Tim Collins is chair of Lubbock Entertainment & Performing Arts Association www.lepaa.org that hopes to raise another $65 million to augment the initial pledges by CH Foundation and Helen DeVitt Jones Foundation of $20 million. http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-04-09/plans-performing-arts-center-unveiled-organizers-eye-old-dps-location-85#.UXS7-6JvMuo Jack Hagler of Schuler Shook Theatre Planning Lighting Designers www.schulershook.com spoke as did Steve Moffett of Garfield Traub Development Group. The audience was treated to visuals of new theater spaces http://www.schulershook.com/projects/theatre-planning/concert-halls-opera-houses/ that served as ribbon-wrapped candy for children who want a bag of that. Street credibility was already present for Steve Moffett because Garfield Traub was the developer for the Overton Hotel & Conference Center that opened in Lubbock in 2010.

Much of the felt need for a new facility stems from the community’s disappointment with City Bank Auditorium which is now acknowledged as inadequate and unable to be renovated one more time at a price that is returnable at the box office. If the City of Lubbock were to formally toss in the towel and cancel its ground lease, the property would revert back to Texas Tech University. If cooperation and collaboration were possible the City, Texas Tech, CH Foundation and Helen DeVitt Jones Foundation could all sit down at a table and finance their respective shares of the project. Reality tells us that money for building is one thing but money must be regularly available for day to day operations so either a foundation must be financed just for that, or an entity like City of Lubbock or Texas Tech University or both must be partnered in the project.

The new $81 million dollar Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center at University of Texas of the Permian Basin between Midland and Odessa, has the university as its operator. http://www.wagnernoel.com/

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Sunday April 28 2013 has several articles on this topic http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-04-27/lubbock-leaders-welcome-performing-arts-center-asset-city#.UX6rSaJvMuo another http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-04-27/amarillo-midland-seeing-benefits-performing-arts-centers#.UX6sSKJvMuo another http://lubbockonline.com/entertainment/2013-04-27/promoters-agree-benefit-elegance-proposed-new-performing-arts-center#.UX6sbqJvMuo another http://lubbockonline.com/entertainment/2013-04-27/celebrity-attractions-use-new-performing-arts-center#.UX6smKJvMuo and an article on roll-out of the idea http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-04-09/plans-performing-arts-center-unveiled-organizers-eye-old-dps-location-85#.UX6s0aJvMuo

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Silverton Texas is up on the Caprock west of Caprock Canyons State Park, but travel north on Texas Highway 207 to Claude and you will descend and cross Tule Canyon and return to the level plains and then later descend and cross Palo Duro Canyon. If you take the drive in the morning hours you will be rewarded with a special light the morning sun casts on the exposed geological strata.

From Lubbock take US Highway 82 / Texas Highway 114 to Ralls and turn north on US Highway 62 to Floydada and then north on Texas Highway 207 to Silverton.

Texas, an Outdoor Musical Drama in Palo Duro Canyon’s Pioneer Amphitheater is in its 48th season. www.texas-show.com

Shows are nightly Tuesday through Sunday at dusk from June 1 to August 17. Tickets are available for the show only or also for a barbeque dinner preceding the show. Call 806-655-2181 to the office in Canyon. The drama concerns settlement in the panhandle region.

A similar show will occur at Fort Griffin Fandangle north of Albany Texas the last two weekends of June on 20-22 and 27-29. www.fortgriffinfandangle.org phone 325-762-3838 for information and tickets. The cast includes Indians, buffalo hunters, cattle trail drovers, U.S. Army troops and others who called this area home at least temporarily. The cast also includes several head of longhorn cattle from the Official State of Texas Longhorn Cattle Herd. Fort Griffin State Historic Site http://www.visitfortgriffin.com/index.aspx?page=7 is shown here. Those cattle reside here and are transported to Fandangle a few miles away for your viewing pleasure.

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An exhibit September 30 – December 10, 2010 titled Unintended Consequences and the Digital Age featured larger than life-size sculptures by Daniel A. Henderson at Schneider Museum of Art on the campus of Southern Oregon University in Ashland Oregon. http://artofinvention.org/

The book published as a result of that exhibit is The Art of Invention: Sculpture by Daniel A. Henderson (Schneider Museum of Art 2010) Amazon.com price $117.70 but at ABE Books it’s available for $4.08 incl s&h.

The Schneider Museum of Art website is http://www.sou.edu/sma/

Henderson is currently living in Fort Worth Texas. He made a trip to Lubbock recently where two maquettes were displayed. His website is http://danielahenderson.com/about.html

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Artesia New Mexico is bursting with bronze statuary. Recalling cattle drive days from 1866 when Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight established the Goodnight Loving Trail heading north through New Mexico Territory and the Pecos River Valley, there are three statuary bronzes The Trail Boss (2007) by Vic Payne, The Vaquero (2008) by Mike Hamby, and The Rustler (2009) by Robert Summers.

Earlier, First Lady of Artesia (2003) by Robert Summers was installed, commemorating Sallie Chisum http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/billythekid/sallie.html . Martin and Mary Yates (2004), also by Summers, commemorates the first oil strike in 1924 as does Derrick Floor (2004) by Vic Payne. Another by Payne is The Partners (Mack Chase and Johnny Gray) (2004) commemorating these one-time oil field partners talking over a deal across an automobile hood.

Vic Payne Studio www.vicpaynestudio.com and Robert Summers www.summersstudio.com and Mike Hamby http://thehambycollection.com/collect.aspx#_self

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Texas Tech University Greenhouse and Gardens is located north of United Spirit Arena on the north side of Main Street. It’s an activity of the Plant and Soil Sciences Department, the building to the west across Indiana Avenue. At this time of year it’s a joy to walk through the gardens. Here is the current newsletter of the department that tells more about the gardens including the Earth-Kind Rose Demonstration Garden http://www.pssc.ttu.edu/News-Events/Newsletter/AprilMayJune2013.pdf . More information on Earth-Kind Roses http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkindroses/cultivars/

Make the Greenhouse and Gardens a recurring destination through September.

Tech Students who are members of the Horticultural Society meet at the Greenhouse and Gardens regularly.

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Daniel S. Kerr and Alexander J. Hunt are authors of the essay The Quitaque Killings (2013) that refers to the mid-1870s when cowboys assembling a cattle ranch [rounding up unbranded longhorn cattle] near modern day Quitaque came on to pastores [Hispanic sheepherders from New Mexico Territory] and attacked them. The essay will appear in an issue of ABC-CLIO Journal of the West published in Kettering Ohio.

Kerr and Hunt are scheduled to read from their essay at Amarillo Public Library on Thursday April 25. http://amarillo.com/lifestyle/features/2013-04-19/quitaque-essay-be-read-thursday Kerr is an instructor and Hunt is an associate professor in the Department of English Philosophy and Modern Languages at West Texas A&M University in Canyon Texas. Kerr also instructs in the History Department. E-mail Kerr at dkerr@wtamu.edu or Hunt at ahunt@wtamu.edu or phone 806-651-2457 for more information.

 “The Quitaque Killings: Ethnic Cleansing and Regional Historiography, or A Southern Plains Hispanic Murder Mystery,” lecture by Dan Kerr and Alex Hunt, Department of English, West Texas A&M, sponsored by the Shepard Symposium, Chicano Studies and American Indian Studies Dept. Place: 310 Classroom Bldg on November 10, 2011 at University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Here is Paul Carlson’s essay on the pastores http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/P/PA029.html focusing on their activity in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Anna J. Taylor, A Survey of New Mexican “Pastores” in the Texas Panhandle Plains, 1875 – 1886 (Texas Historical Foundation 1980) Texas Tech Library SF371.52.T3 T23

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The dynamic new chair of Texas Tech University Department of Theatre & Dance, Dr. Mark Charney, is launching a June 2013 Wild Wind Performance Lab to which ten guest artists from around the country are offering their various talents. The artists are J Ranelli, Kari Margolis, Joseph Kline, Matt Opatrny, Jessica Burr, Deborah Anderson, Crosby Hunt, Rich Brown, David Kranes and Jodi Jinks. The timing is significant, early in the Summer, when theater students include adults who come back in the Summer for further education, and when theatrical arts organizations in the city and area are having their own workshops and other scheduled events. Carney wants to invigorate academic and community interaction and all of the invited guest artists are being made available free for sessions with community people and organizations off campus.

Schedule for guest artists:

J Ranelli June 3 – July 1

Kari Margolis June 4 – 6

Joseph Kline June 7 – 11

Matt Opatrny June 7 – 14

Jessica Burr June 7 – 14

Deborah Anderson June 10 – 17

Crosby Hunt June 10 – 17

Rich Brown June 11 – 16

David Kranes June 17 – 21

Jodi Jinks June 23 -28

J Ranelli is a founding member Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford Connecticut www.theoneill.org creator of The National Theatre Institute, an experimental undergraduate program. He is an advisory board member of Word BRIDGE a Summer workshop program for beginning playwrights.

Kari Margolis is artistic director of Margolis Brown Adaptors Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margolis_Brown_Adaptors_Company website http://www.margolisbrownadaptors.org/ and creator of Margolis Method Center International, a new method of actor training and theater creation.

Joseph Kline is dean of the College of Fine Arts and professor of Theatre at Eastern New Mexico University http://fine-arts.enmu.edu/programs/theatre/faculty/joseph_kline.shtml

Matt Opatrny and Jessica Burr operate Blessed Unrest a Manhattan-based theatre company http://www.blessedunrest.org/ Their most recent production Eurydice’s Dream was staged at Interart Theatre on West 52nd Street in the city.

Crosby Hunt and Deborah Anderson are faculty members at Middle Tennessee State University at Murfreesboro department of Theatre and Dance http://www.mtsu.edu/theatre/index.php

Rich Brown teaches Jerzy Grotowski inspired psycho-physical acting at Western Washington University in Bellingham

http://www.wwu.edu/theatredance/ Rich Brown http://www.wwu.edu/theatredance/faculty.shtml#RBrown Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre http://dellarte.com/default.aspx and here is a description of the physical acting process http://owendaly.com/jeff/WanghActingWorkshop.pdf

David Kranes is a writer, playwright and former Artistic Director of the Sundance Playwrights Lab http://www.ebay.com/itm/David-Kranes-Selected-Plays-by-David-Kranes-NEW-/130880962635

Jodi Jinks is a faculty member at Oklahoma State University and an active member of Rude Mechs a theatrical collective based in Austin Texas that produces original plays. http://www.rudemechs.com/about/index.htm She works with its Grrl Action Summer program as well as acting and directing.

Hopefully the theater departments at Wayland Baptist University, Lubbock Christian University, South Plains College, Lubbock ISD and other ISDs in Region 17, and all private theater and dance organizations in the area will telephone Texas Tech University Theatre and Dance Department and schedule their times for interaction with these stellar artists who are coming to town. It’s a huge opportunity to jump start inspiration that can have lasting benefits for many years. Exposure to the new and cutting edge, that is working elsewhere, is so exciting. http://www.depts.ttu.edu/theatreanddance/ phone 806-742-3601 extension 221 e-mail mark.charney@ttu.edu and participate.

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George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum opens to the public on May 1, 2013

http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu/ on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas. The physical address is 2943 SMU Boulevard phone 214-346-1557 inquiries and information by e-mail at museum.gwbush@nara.gov or at gwbush.library@nara.gov [nara stands for National Archives and Records Administration]

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