What’s happening at Penn State? Here’s a look at some of the cultural events – both in-person and virtual – taking place at the University this weekend and next week:
Performances
“Together, Alone” Faculty Concert Series: Max Zorin – 7:30 p.m., Sept. 28, online. School of Music faculty member Max Zorin will livestream a violin performance. Free.
Events
“Mindful Making” creative workshop series: Self-care box decorating – 3 p.m., Sept. 24, patio tent, Eisenhower Auditorium, University Park campus. This five-week creative workshop series shares arts-based wellness practices that can help improve overall well-being. This session focuses on self-care box decorating. Free.
“Mindful Making” creative workshop series: Mindful calligraphy – 3 p.m., Oct. 1, patio tent, Eisenhower Auditorium, University Park campus. This five-week creative workshop series shares arts-based wellness practices that can help improve overall well-being. This session focuses on mindful calligraphy. Free.
Lectures
Dean’s Lecture Series: “The Impact of Structural Racism and Racial Discrimination on Health, Wellness and Well-Being” – 4 p.m., Sept. 24, via Zoom. The College of Health and Human Development’s fall 2020 Dean’s Lecture Series will focus on the impact of structural racism and racial discrimination on health, wellness and well-being. After a screening of the documentary “The Skin You’re In,” its producer, Thomas A. LaVeist, dean and Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Health Equity at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, will host a live Q&A session with attendees. Free.
Smith Creative Writers Reading Series: Lynn Emanuel – 6 p.m., Sept. 24, via Zoom. Lynn Emanuel, author of five books of poetry and founder of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, will be featured as part of the Penn State Behrend speaker series. Free.
Art After Hours: Art, Museums and Social Justice – 6-8 p.m., Sept. 24, via Zoom. The Palmer Museum of Art will kick off with the discussion “Museums and the Myth of Neutrality,” followed by social justice sticker party. Free.
Flash Symposium and Open House: “Design Thinking” – 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Sept. 25, via Zoom. This symposium will explore how designers design thinking. Free, but registration required.
John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series: Naomi Reis – 11:30 a.m., Sept. 28, via Zoom. Naomi Reis will present “Borrowed Landscapes: Artistic practice as space making.” Free, but registration required.
Virtual Speaker Session: LaVarr McBride – Noon, Sept. 29, via Zoom. Penn State alumnus LaVarr McBride will present “Struggles and Hope for Victims of Violent Crime.” Free, but registration required.
Climate Dynamics seminar series: Mikael Hiestand – 11:15 a.m., Sept. 30, via Zoom. Geography faculty member Mikael Hiestand will present “Annual variations in latent and sensible heat fluxes under differing synoptic regimes in the U.S. Corn Belt.” Free.
Journalism Speakers Forum: Madeleine Baran – 7 p.m., Sept. 30, via Zoom. Investigative reporter Madeleine Baran will present “Holding Power Accountable.” Free.
Journalism Speakers Forum: Lisa Wilson – 7 p.m., Oct. 1, via Zoom. Lisa Wilson, NFL editor for the Athletic, will be the featured speaker. Free.
“Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society” – 6 p.m., Oct. 1, via Zoom. Max Boykoff, professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, will be featured. Free, but registration required.
2020 Lippin Lecture in Ethics: Virginia Eubanks – 6 p.m., Oct. 1, via Zoom. Virginia Eubanks, author of the award-winning book “Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor,” will deliver the this year’s lecture. Free, but registration required.
Exhibits and Virtual Tours
“Celebrating the ADA: The Legacy and Evolution of Disability Rights & Lived Experience at Penn State” – Online. The University Libraries explores the first 100 years of national disability rights legislation and the movement’s impact on the Penn State community. Free.
“CARE. not convenience” – Through Nov. 20, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. Created entirely with salvaged plastic, this collaboration between an artist, designer and an environmental sciences researcher aspired to shed light on society’s dependence on, careless overuse and thoughtless disposal of plastic. Free.
“Hostile Terrain 94” – Through Nov. 20, Art Alley, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. “Hostile Terrain 94” is a participatory art exhibit occurring in nearly 150 cities around the globe that highlights the lives claimed by the U.S./Mexico border since the 1990s. Free.
“African Brilliance: A Diplomat’s Sixty Years of Collecting” Online Catalogue – Online. A digital catalogue of African works collected by retired U.S. ambassador Allen C. Davis, including text entries, high-resolution 360-degree images and contextual videos at the Palmer Museum of Art. Free.
“African Brilliance” Virtual Tour – Online. Explore an interactive tour created with teachers, students and families in mind. The tour includes installation images, pictures of selected works, videos for guided viewing and related art-making activity suggestions. Free.
“Drawing on a Legacy: Highlights from the John Driscoll American Drawings Collection” – Online. High-resolution images, text selections and a photo gallery of works on paper donated by Penn State alumnus John P. Driscoll, including early landscape views and botanical sketches, animal scenes and still lives, and portraits and preparatory figure studies. The works include a number of well-known 19th-century American artists. Free.
“Illuminating Illusions” – Online. The Penn State Museum Consortium presents this exhibition that explores facets of illusions in science, art, literature and nature. Free.
“Photography=Abstraction” – Online. The Palmer Museum of Art’s virtual pop-up exhibition is an interactive gallery with images, text and informational videos for selected works. Free, Google Chrome browser recommended.
Snowiss Gallery of American Art – Online. Tour the Palmer Museum of Art’s first-floor Snowiss Gallery. Free.
“Women in Art: Activism and Resistance” virtual tour – Online. This self-directed, interactive online tour features a selection of objects by female artists in the Palmer Museum of Art’s collection. In celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, this tour highlights artists working in a variety of media during the 20th and 21st centuries who have contributed to political, social and cultural change. Free.
“Human Expectations” – Through Jan. 31, 2021, Display Cases, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. Four artists explore the form of the human head in ceramic, neon and glass. Free.
“Border Exchange” – Through Jan. 31, 2021, Display Cases, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. The exhibition pairs two of artist Carlos Rosales-Silva’s paintings with a site-responsive wall painting. Free.
“Small Planet” – Through January 2022, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. The HUB-Robeson Center has commissioned a site-specific wall painting located in the first-floor eateries by artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann titled “Small Planet.” Free.
