The West Virginia Division of Culture and History has cancelled its March 17 Collegiate Series lecture, “Innovative Museum Design,” with West Virginia University Professor Kristina Olson due to a conflict with Olson’s schedule. The program will not be replaced.
However, the March 18 Collegiate Series with Marshall University’s Patrick Billups and Yuri McCoy in a concert performance will take place as scheduled at 7 p.m. in the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex, Charleston.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History will continue its new Collegiate Series featuring a lecture on innovative museum design by West Virginia University Professor Kristina Olson on March 17, and a concert performance by Patrick Billups and Yuri McCoy, senior music majors at Marshall University, on March 18. Both programs begin at 7 p.m. The Collegiate Series is held in the Norman L. Fagan West Virginia State Theater at the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. The series consists of performances and lectures by students and faculty from WVU and Marshall University. First Lady Gayle Manchin is the host of the program. The Collegiate Series is free and open to the public.
The Monday, March 17 program features Professor Olson, whose lecture is entitled “Beyond the Box: Innovation in Contemporary Museum Architecture.” The talk will focus on new trends and ideas in architecture being first expressed in museum design. Olson will use an array of images to illustrate the exciting and sometimes controversial buildings of architects working today and their re-engagement with the design innovations of the 20th century.
Issues of viewer interaction, symbolism, materials, and form will be considered in a range of high-profile projects such as Daniel Libeskind’s Denver Art Museum, Yoshio Taniguchi’s addition to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Zaha Hadid’s Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati and Santiago Calatrava’s Milwaukee Art Museum. She also will discuss the stylistic relationship to the ground-breaking work of 20th century innovators as the Russian Constructivists, the architects of the International Style, Frank Lloyd Wright and the designers of the Italian Memphis group.
Olson joined the faculty at WVU in 1989. She received her bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Oregon and her masters degree in contemporary art criticism and history from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1992 - 2003, she was curator of the Mesaros Galleries at WVU. Some of the shows she curated focused on the work of such internationally-acclaimed contemporary artists as Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro and Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds and issues such as the use of modern architecture in the work of contemporary artists such as Rita McBride and Diana Cooper. Olson is co-editor of Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of an American Modernist, author of exhibition catalogs, and has written book and exhibition reviews for Art Papers, South Eastern College Art Conference Review, Sculpture, and New Art Examiner.
The Tuesday, March 18 program features a concert performance by Billups, a senior trombone performance major and McCoy, a senior piano performance major. There also will be a display of award winners from the annual Marshall University Juried Student Art Show in the Great Hall.
Billups studies at MU with Dr. Michael Stroeher and Dr. Sean Parsons. He has consistently held principal and lead positions in university ensembles including the MU Wind Symphony, Orchestra, and 12:00 Jazz Ensemble. He has been a member of several university chamber ensembles as well as a founding member of the Maple Leaf Brass Quintet which was selected to compete in the MTNA Eastern Division Chamber Music Competition in Ithaca, N.Y.
The recipient of several merit and scholastic scholarships, Billups has won awards and recognition for performance including the Fine Arts Gala Scholarship, the Paul A. Balshaw Solo Competition award, and the Jomie Jazz Scholarship. He was selected as a semifinalist in the Division Two Eastern Trombone Workshop Solo Competition and winner of the 2005 MU Wind Symphony Concerto Competition.
McCoy is a graduate of Huntington High School who intends to graduate from MU this spring. He has played violin with the Huntington Symphony and the Marshall University Symphony Orchestra.
In July of 2007, McCoy was invited by Stephan Moller to participate in a master class in Vienna, Austria. Moller chose him to perform in the final concert of the master class. McCoy was the winner of the Belle and Lynum Jackson Competition in 2006. He was awarded a solo recital and cash prize later that year. He also was selected by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars to attend the music delegation in Central and Eastern Europe that year. In addition, in 2006 McCoy was the winner of the West Virginia State Track Collegiate Piano Competition and the Concert of Soloists Competition.
For more information about the lecture on innovation in architecture or the concert performance, call Jacqueline Proctor, deputy commissioner for the Division, at (304) 558-0220.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Cultural Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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