Mind’s Eye
Found in Cuba: Handmade books illustrate Cuban poetry through repurposed materials
Nov. 3, 2020—Ediciones Vigía, a publishing house in the town of Matanzas, Cuba, began to create handbills and invitations in 1985 for local cultural events. Displayed through March of this year, these works now can be enjoyed again in the online exhibit Found in Cuba: The Ingenuity and Creativity of Ediciones Vigía.
American Experiment: Professor hopes to inspire the vision of indivisibility for which the American flag stands
Jul. 29, 2020—The symbolism of frayed, worn flags in "Flag Exchange" by Mel Ziegler, Paul E. Schwab Professor of Fine Arts, raises questions about the capacity of the American experiment to be sustained through national triumphs and shortcomings, including our own time of divisiveness.
Reimagining a Lost Book
Feb. 17, 2020—Artists from the United States, Cuba and Haiti envision social change through reinterpretation of a lost work Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom brings together 20 contemporary artists working across a range of media to interpret an extraordinary—and now lost—historical artifact: a so-called “Book of Paintings” created by José Antonio Aponte, a 19th-century Afro-Cuban revolutionary...
Mind’s Eye: Vanderbilt performing arts groups put on a show for first-year students
Nov. 7, 2019—During their first week at Vanderbilt, first-year students are met with an overwhelming number of organizations vying for their attention. However, the Vanderbilt Performing Arts Community grabs the interest of new students the old-fashioned, time-tested way: They put on a show. VPAC has been producing the Spotlight Showcase for several years to demonstrate the breadth...
Ceramics Capstone
Aug. 20, 2019—Clay artist Susan DeMay’s retirement exhibit showcases a three-pronged approach to ceramic art From the day in 1977 that Susan DeMay, MS’79, arrived at George Peabody College for Teachers to study with artist and professor Michael Taylor in the basement ceramics studio at East Hall, her journey as a ceramic artist has followed three paths....
Mind’s Eye: Piece by Piece
May. 23, 2019—Mosaic artists convene in Nashville, bringing two exhibits to Vanderbilt Mosaics were originally invented about 4,000 years ago to create durable and inexpensive flooring, but they quickly became more art than craft. A highly refined technique developed during the Early Christian (260–525 C.E.) and Byzantine (fourth–15th centuries C.E.) eras, mosaics were used by the new...
Patterns: Visual artist Alicia Henry challenges conventions of femininity
Feb. 19, 2019—Paper dolls have long been used to emphasize cultural norms regarding femininity and beauty. As often happens, childhood play subtly reinforces society’s notions of the “ideal.” Once these playthings are cast off and one enters adulthood, these romanticized notions should fall out of our conscience as easily as clothes from paper dolls. Yet, somehow, they...
Mind’s Eye: New Perspective
Nov. 19, 2018—Works by Middle Eastern women artists build bridges of understanding Stereotypes are hard to escape when pondering the Middle East, especially those applied to women. Misconceptions about the hijab and abaya, the head scarf and black robe that many women wear, and about the status of women in Islamic culture pervade the West’s understanding of...
Seasons Greetings: Polly Cook’s mural attests to the rhythms of campus
Sep. 6, 2018—Come sun, rain or snow, one of the best places on Vanderbilt’s campus to find shelter is under Calhoun Hall’s stone portico, facing out toward the law and business schools. This refuge is also home to a mural of campus life, Seasonal Cycles, created in ceramic tiles by Nashville native Polly Cook. Installed in 1993,...
Painting Personality: Everett Raymond Kinstler ‘performs’ the role of portrait painter
Jun. 8, 2018—Successful portraiture is all about conveying the personality of the sitter. It sounds easy, but it’s not, because those character traits that make up a person’s true self have little to do with actual physical appearance. To successfully capture the sitter, portraiture requires the artist to be part psychologist or anthropologist—or maybe to possess a...
Mind’s Eye: Violins of Hope
Feb. 26, 2018—The power of hope—and a dark history—come to life through violin project Some say the violin is the instrument that most closely imitates the human voice. In March, 22 violins, most of which were played by Jewish musicians interned in concentration camps during the Holocaust, will arrive in Music City from Israel, where they will...
Winning Hand: Vanderbilt now home to extraordinary gaming collection
Nov. 21, 2017—The George Clulow and United States Playing Card Co. Gaming Collection—one of the world’s premier collections of books about card games, games of chance, playing cards and chess—has been acquired by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. The collection of approximately 1,000 volumes dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries was acquired from The...