One of the great hidden treasures of the St. Petersburg community is the group of working artists – faculty, staff, students and alumni – at Eckerd College. The creative inspiration fostered at Eckerd will be showcased through the third annual “Celebration of the Arts” on Saturday, November 9 in various venues on campus. Starting at 10 a.m., the daylong celebration will highlight disciplines within the College’s Creative Arts Collegium, offering an array of events from gallery shows, fiction and poetry readings, organ and operatic recitals, and a play. Admission is free. Programs and events are subject to change. For more information, visit Eckerd’s public events calendar or call 727-864-7979.
10-11:30 am, Elliott Gallery
Visual Arts Faculty & Staff Exhibition
Works by Residential and the Program for Experienced Learners (PEL) Faculty
Free. No tickets required.
This show honors artist-teachers and staff members of the Eckerd Visual Arts Department for this academic year. The exhibit will feature works by Emily Ayers ’05, Lynn Carol Henderson, Barbara Hubbard, Rose Marie Prins, Matt Schiemann, Rebecca Skelton, Catherine Thompson, Adam Yungbluth, Marita Contreras, Pamela Jones ’92, Lisa Kirksey, Betsy Lester ’93, Brian Ransom, Arthur Skinner ’72 and Kirk Ke Wang. The show runs Nov. 3 through Dec. 6.
12–1 pm, Wireman Chapel
Organ Recital
Thomas Hall ’80, Organist
Free. No tickets required.
This program includes music spanning four centuries with compositions by Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach, Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Olivier Messiaen and Leoš Janá?ek. Tom Hall is college organist and instructor of organ at Eckerd College, and organist and director of music at Trinity Lutheran Church in downtown St. Petersburg. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Florida State University School of Music, where he studied organ with Michael Corzine and harpsichord with Karyl Louwenaar.
1:30–2:30 pm, Cobb Gallery
James G. Crane: A Cartoon Retrospective
Free. No tickets required.
Jim Crane is professor emeritus of visual arts at Eckerd College. He also is a brilliant cartoonist who has published four books of his work: On Edge (John Knox Press), Inside-Out (Harper & Row), The Great Teaching Machine (John Knox Press), and What Other Time? (motive/Source). Many of his cartoons also appeared in motive magazine and Ave Maria in the 1960s and ’70s. The astonishing thing about Professor Crane’s cartoons is how relevant they still are, in some cases 50 to 60 years after they were first published. This retrospective exhibition will travel to Boston University in the spring. The show runs through Dec. 6.
3–4 pm, Roberts Music Center 104
Poetry and Fiction Reading
Melanie Neale ’02 and K.C. Wolfe
Free. No tickets required.
Melanie Neale graduated from Eckerd College in 2002 and received an MFA from Florida International University. Boat Girl: A Memoir of Youth, Love & Fiberglass (Beating Windward Press) is her first book.
K.C. Wolfe, assistant professor of creative writing with an MFA from The Ohio State University, is a founding editor of Sweet: A Literary Confection, a product of Sweet Publications. He is the newest addition to the Creative Writing faculty at Eckerd, teaching journalism and creative nonfiction and leading Eckerd’s award-winning student newspaper, The Current.
4:30–6 pm, Roberts Music Center 104
Vocal Recital
Anna Lorraine Tonna, Mezzo-Soprano and Olga Vinokur, Piano
Free. No tickets required.
The program features works by Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and Franz Liszt.
Fulbright Scholar to Spain, mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna blends a distinguished career as an operatic mezzo with her dedication to the music of Spanish and Latin American composers. Critics agree, “Ms. Tonna is a brilliant coloratura with a beautiful lower register that combines and brings together her virtuosity and charming stage presence.”
Olga Vinokur is a dynamic pianist who is gaining recognition for her impassioned performances and elegant musicianship. Her career has taken her around the world, where she has been featured as a soloist, a chamber musician and with orchestras.
8 pm, Bininger Theatre
Some Girl(s)
A play by Neil LaBute, directed by Gavin Hawk.
Free admission this night only. Donations accepted.
Your career as a writer is blossoming, your beautiful, young fiancée is waiting to get married and rush off to Cancun by your side—so what is your natural reaction? Well, if you’re a man, it’s probably to get nervous and start calling up old girlfriends. And so begins a single man’s odyssey through four hotel rooms as he flies across the country in search of the perfect woman (that he’s already broken up with). In grand LaBute fashion, by turns this outrageously funny and deadly serious portrait of the artist as a young seducer casts a truthful, hilarious light on a typical young American male as he wanders through the heart of darkness that is he. Directed by Gavin Hawk, Associate Professor of Theatre.
Other Performance Dates: Nov. 7–10 and 14–17
Showtimes: Thurs.–Sat., 8pm; Sun. 2pm
Special Offering
Creative Arts Therapies
12–4 pm, Patios of Wireman Chapel, Roberts Music Center and Bininger Theatre
Come experience the healing power of the creative arts. Eckerd College Assistant Professor of Human Development Paige Dickinson and creative arts therapy students will have set up several experiential stations, so you can explore various creative arts therapy modalities. Learn how music can regulate blood pressure, how art can help increase range of motion, and much more. No artistic talent required.
