Arts and Humanities

Rand McNally’s Places Rated Almanac ranks Lawrence first in the arts among cities of 100,000 or fewer, and KU’s arts scene is one of the reasons. Nationally known artists come to campus every year through Visiting Artists Lectures and Workshops. The Hallmark Design Symposium Series brings nationally and internationally prominent designers, artists, art critics, and visual art educators to campus. Faculty and students in the School of the Arts exhibit work in the Art and Design Gallery along with nationally and internationally known artists. The Wilcox Classical Museum displays full-scale plaster replicas of Greek and Roman sculpture and Graeco-Roman antiquities.

Annual recitals feature KU artists in residence, faculty members, and visiting performers. The School of Music, www.music.ku.edu, has information about upcoming performances. The University Dance Company presents two major programs on campus each year, performing a varied repertoire of ballet, modern, and jazz dance. The University Theatre, www.kutheatre.com, stages a dozen works annually at Crafton-Preyer Theatre and in an experimental space named after KU alumnus William Inge.

The Lied Center of Kansas, www.lied.ku.edu, houses a 2,000seat performing arts hall with excellent acoustic quality and technical production capabilities. It offers a venue for KU productions, Student Union Activities shows, university and community events, and the Lied Center Series.

Spencer Museum of Art

Director: Saralyn Reece Hardy, spencerart@ku.edu Spencer Museum, 1301 Mississippi St. Lawrence, KS 66045-7500 www.spencerart.ku.edu, (785) 864-4710, fax: (785) 864-3112

The Spencer’s permanent collection is deep and diverse, currently numbering nearly 36,000 artworks and artifacts in all media. The collection spans the history of European and American art from ancient to contemporary, and includes broad and significant holdings of East Asian art. The museum currently is integrating into its holdings a large ethnographic collection that includes Native American, African, Latin American and Australian objects. Through its collection, exhibitions, and public programming, the Spencer presents distinctive opportunities for dialogue, scholarship, and reflection.

Public programs offer many possibilities for students, faculty, and the community to engage with artists and thinkers from around the world. Varied programs for school children, KU students, and the public include guided tours, gallery conversations, children’s classes and gallery activities, lectures, workshops, films, and music and dance performances. The Student Advisory Board, a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, offers one of many opportunities for volunteer involvement. The Spencer organizes exhibitions of local, regional, national, and international interest.

Hall Center for the Humanities

Director: Victor Bailey, vbailey@ku.edu Hall Center for the Humanities, 900 Sunnyside Ave. Lawrence, KS 66045-7622 www.hallcenter.ku.edu, (785) 864-4798, fax: (785) 864-3884

The Hall Center for the Humanities’ primary mission is to stimulate and support research in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, especially of an interdisciplinary kind. The center offers support for graduate student research through the Richard and Jeannette Sias Graduate Fellowship, the Andrew Debicki International Travel Scholarship, and other research awards and internship opportunities.