Library News: Exhibits and Events

To mark May as Military Appreciation Month, two display cases on the fourth floor of James Branch Cabell Library pay tribute to the work of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist William Henry "Bill" Maudlin. His World War II cartoons were published abroad and in the United States. (Image at right: cover of "This Damn Tree Leaks, A Collection of War Cartoons," by Bill Mauldin, 1945.) 

Maudlin (1921-2003) first gained a following drawing cartoons for the 45th Infantry Division newspaper. His reputation grew at the global military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Willie and Joe, his best known creations, typified common soldiers and gave voice to their experiences. 

After winning the Pulitzer Prize for his wartime work in 1945, Maudlin received a second Pulitzer for a Cold War cartoon. At the Chicago Sun-Times, he created what many observers consider among the greatest editorial cartoons ever penned. In response to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1963, Maudlin drew Abraham Lincoln of the Lincoln Memorial bowed in shock and grief. 

• More about the Military Month display
• More on his work from a comics arts blogger and from his official site
• About VCU's new Military Veterans Alumni Council: Take the survey.
  

The Military Appreciation Month exhibition includes items from VCU Libraries' Comic Arts Collection, housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library. It consists of some 100,000 items, including more than 40,000 comic books, graphic novels, editorial cartoons, comic strips, memorabilia, comic journals, fanzines and an array of reference materials. In addition to the growing, comprehensive collections for the study of comic arts, VCU Libraries is the repository for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Archives.

 

 

 

Student work from a spring semester topics course, "The Photobook," is on view in the Fourth Floor Gallery at James Branch Cabell Library.

The Department of Photography and Film and VCU Libraries collaborated to develop and teach the 400-level course. The exhibit includes work by Christine Addison, Stephanie Fry, Anna Hendrick, Emily Jones, Melissa Rabin, Stephen Turner and Diego Valdez.

"The Photobook" course coupled studio instruction in bookmaking with a critical examination of artists' books and photobooks in the Cabell Library collection. Throughout the semester, students learned bookmaking techniques and structures ranging in difficulty from concertinas to case bindings. Students also met in Special Collections and Archives each week to explore the history and ideas represented by rare and important examples of artists' books and photobooks. Combining technical skills with their knowledge of the genre, students designed and produced their own photobooks.

A photobook is an autonomous art form in which images are sequenced to tell a story or convey specific concepts. Unlike other photography books, the images in a photobook are less significant as stand-alone photographs but are meaningful as parts of a comprehensive whole.

The course was taught by Helen Cassidy, a professional bookbinder, and Yuki Hibben, assistant professor and assistant head of Special Collections and Archives. 

Yusef Komunyakaa, a renowed poet and teacher, presented March 22 at the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. Some 300 attendees listened as he read and took questions. Event Web site To put his visit in context, University News reporter Leila Ugincius wrote an article "Poetry Thrives at VCU" that details the university's role as a mecca for poets. The article is reprinted here with permission of University News Center:

Writers and poets may not be able to pinpoint exactly what makes Richmond a hotbed for poetry, but most would agree the city is undoubtedly a mecca for poets, with Virginia Commonwealth University at its very heart.

"Richmond is a city with a wealth not just of history, but of living, breathing talent, perhaps literary talent especially," said Gregory G. Kimbrell, membership and events coordinator with VCU Libraries and himself a poet.

"Not every historical city thrives in this way, and I would say that we have VCU to thank for much of Richmond's vivacity. The nationally ranked MFA in Creative Writing Program continually brings to the literary community fresh faces to remind us all what it means to discover oneself as a writer, that good writing is not just about beautiful or important things, but about dedication and passion."

David Wojahn called the university a rich community for poetry. "There are a lot of complementary ventures on the campus that really are focusing on trying to give requisite attention to poetry in general and poetry in Virginia, specifically," said Wojahn, a professor in the creative writing program in the Department of English.

The university's latest celebration of poetry takes place this week with a reading by Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa (pictured) on Thursday, March 22. 

Komunyakaa's often-autobiographical poems draw from diverse experiences and interests: the civil rights movement, classical literature, the Vietnam War, class struggle and jazz.

"He's really one of America's premier poets," Wojahn said. "He began in the 1980s and '90s to write a lot about his experience - and the American experience in general - about Vietnam. So he's known above all for the poems he's written about that conflict."

Events that bring writers such as Komunyakaa to campus serve two purposes: both encouraging students and offering something to the community.

"Creative-writing students need contact with the great poets in order to have examples to aspire to and to improve their work, and this means not just reading the classics, but also reading and hearing the great poets who are living and writing right now," Kimbrell said. "The community provides VCU so much moral and financial support, and we are always looking for ways of both saying thank you and inviting them to come back to visit us.

"These readings bring people from all across the city. I suppose that the stereotype of poetry readings is the coffee house in which only five people are actually paying attention to the poet sitting on the wooden stool in the spotlight, but these readings at VCU attract hundreds. In a world that often seems to think that poetry stopped being written after the beat generation, this is tremendously heartening."

The event, part of the English Department's Visiting Writers Series and sponsored by the VCU Friends of the Library, continues both entities' interest and commitment to promoting poetry in the community.

The English Department has "a nationally ranked creative writing program in poetry and in fiction. And so, we also bring a lot of visiting poets to campus," Wojahn said. "The Cabell Library has really been in recent years very interested in promoting poetry in Virginia and in trying to beef up its special collections to include a lot of poetry."

Among Cabell's more notable acquisitions are the papers of the late Larry Levis, (pictured, left) a major American poet who taught at VCU at the end of his life. 

The English Department's celebrated poets include Kathleen Graber, a National Book Award finalist whose many awards include the Library of Virginia's Literary Award for Poetry, and Wojahn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, three-time winner of the Pushcart Prize and recipient of the Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry.

Student and alumni poets also have earned accolades for their works.

In 2006, the online literature and arts journal Blackbird -- already a national presence among literary and poetry magazines -- scored a coup when it featured a previously unpublished poem by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Sylvia Plath. That same year, VCU MFA alumni Elizabeth Seydel "Buffy" Morgan and Ron Smith were named co-winners of the first Carole Weinstein poetry prize, which rewards $10,000 to a Central Virginia poet annually for his or her contribution to the art of poetry. Smith and Morgan then became curators for the prize.

Other recent alumni honorees include Catherine MacDonald, (pictured, right), who won the 2012 Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize, and Anna Journey and Allison Titus, who each won NEA Literature Fellowships.

Why the university has devoted so much attention to poetry is simple, Wojahn said: "I think it's a force that may not help people to live their lives in a better way, but it certainly helps them to endure their lives a little bit better. When you read a poem that you're moved by, impressed by, compelled by, you feel like the author of the poem is speaking only to you and no one else.

"As a poet myself, I feel very lucky to be in a place where I practice a discipline that's appreciated. And I think not every academician -- even in a school that has a thriving creative writing program -- would be able to say that, but I feel no reluctance in saying that about VCU."

Expressions of the science of art made to inform and the art of scientific illustration are on view March 8 through September 28 at Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University.

INTERSECTIONS: ART AND SCIENCE. is curated by James Miller, chair of VCU's Department of Communication Arts, and organized by VCU Libraries' health sciences library on the MVC campus. Event Web site

The exhibition includes human anatomy: structural, muscular and anatomical drawings of the figure. Images in various media and digital technologies include plants, animals, insects, microorganisms, surgical procedures and animations.

"These artists' objective is to observe, draw, describe and reveal the majesty and wonder of our subject matter with the insight and vision of an artist and the acuity of a scientist," says curator Miller.

Works are by students, alumni and faculty of the Scientific and Preparatory Medical emphasis area. In 2006, the Department of Communication Arts created this academic focus area to prepare students for careers as scientific illustrators and for advanced study in the field of medical illustration.

Fitting for a university with both world class arts and medical schools, the VCU program is among a few in the nation. Students gain the skills and knowledge to produce images that present complex scientific and/or medical information for the purpose of explaining and understanding scientific, technical ideas, concepts, principles and facts.

"Students develop the ability to accurately interpret and portray the real and the abstract, fact and conjecture with either extreme precision or interpretive expression as required by the content," says Miller. "Observation and critical thinking are key to being a scientific or medical illustrator."

Participating artists are:

Students:

• Austin Anderson: "Insect Study," watercolor on paper
• Grace Huddleston: "Arm Study," graphite on paper
• Emily Bradfield: "Bone Study 1," and "Bone Study 2," graphite on paper
• Caitlin Johnston: "Artichoke," digital print
• Mary Carter: "Insect Study," watercolor on paper, "Phalaenopsis Orchid," digital print, "Feather Study," watercolor on paper, "Observatory," acrylic on panel, and "Chicken Heart Study," acrylic on panel
• Lucy Koo: "Figure Study," graphite on paper
• Jessica Foley: "Squid Dissection," watercolor on paper
• Lori Panico: "Cicada Study," watercolor on paper
• Juliana Phung: "Female Figure," graphite on paper.

Alumni:

• Anastasia Demson: "Portrait of a Hand II," graphite on paper, and "Performing an Emergency Cricothyrotomy," digital print
• Lauren Conroy: Animations entitled "Revolving Skulls and Endocasts," and "Bacteria World"
• Don Di Fiore: "Fish Head Study," watercolor on paper, and "Mouse," ink and watercolor Vinh Chau: "Open Clam," watercolor on paper, "Pompano Dissection," ink and watercolor on paper, "Hawk," ink and watercolor on paper, "Vulture," ink and watercolor on paper, and "Cricket," Prisma markers and graphite on paper
• Suzanne Ghuzzi: "Pedicle Graft," digital print, "Fontanelles: A Guide to an Infant's Soft Spot," digital print, "A Closer Look at Foliculogenesis," digital print, "Acute Otitis Media," digital print, "Chelydra serpentina: The Common Snapping Turtle," digital print, "Culex pipiens: The West Nile Virus Vector," digital print.

Adjunct faculty member:

•  Sarah Faris: "Laparoscopically Assisted Right Hemicolectomy," graphite and digital media, "Hands," graphite on paper, "LBWC," digital print, "Hip Bone," carbon dust on paper, "Muscles of the Pharynix," digital print, "Malaria," digital print, "Lumbar Surgery," digital print.

"Their illustrations suggest the beauty in the complexity of science and medicine," says Tompkins-McCaw Director Teresa L. Knott. "My aspiration for the attendees is that they come away with an appreciation of the amazing talent of those affiliated with this unique arts program and a broader vision of medical and scientific illustration and how it might be used. I believe that the exhibit will stimulate conversations and cooperation between the Monroe Park and MCV campuses."

Medical illustration is far more than art just for art's sake. Graduates are in demand for scientific, medical and biomedical visualization artwork in teaching, in digital and textbook illustration, as well as in patient and consumer health education. Artists with this specialty are hired for medical legal illustration, pharmaceutical advertising, web design, medical iPhone/iPad applications, to name a few. New digital imaging technologies and 3D interactive applications enable the scientific and medical and biomedical visualization illustrator to animate and employ movement and sequential imaging. These advanced technologies make possible imagery and special visual effects that are changing, expanding, and enriching the possibilities of the discipline and the way we learn and teach medical and scientific concepts.

The public is invited to attend an opening reception on Thursday, March 8, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. RSVP for the reception at www.support.vdu.edu/event/intersections. If special accommodations are needed, please contact Thelma Mack at (804) 828-0017 or mackta@vcu.edu. The exhibition will continue through September 28, 2012. The Tompkins-McCaw Library Gallery is at 509 North 12th St. on the MCV Campus. It is open to the public during regular library hours. 

Expressions of the science of art made to inform and the art of scientific illustration are on view March 8 through September 28 at Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University.

INTERSECTIONS: ART AND SCIENCE. is curated by James Miller, chair of VCU's Department of Communication Arts, and organized by VCU Libraries' health sciences library on the MVC campus. Event Web site

The exhibition includes human anatomy: structural, muscular and anatomical drawings of the figure. Images in various media and digital technologies include plants, animals, insects, microorganisms, surgical procedures and animations.

"These artists' objective is to observe, draw, describe and reveal the majesty and wonder of our subject matter with the insight and vision of an artist and the acuity of a scientist," says curator Miller.

Works are by students, alumni and faculty of the Scientific and Preparatory Medical emphasis area. In 2006, the Department of Communication Arts created this academic focus area to prepare students for careers as scientific illustrators and for advanced study in the field of medical illustration.

Fitting for a university with both world class arts and medical schools, the VCU program is among a few in the nation. Students gain the skills and knowledge to produce images that present complex scientific and/or medical information for the purpose of explaining and understanding scientific, technical ideas, concepts, principles and facts.

"Students develop the ability to accurately interpret and portray the real and the abstract, fact and conjecture with either extreme precision or interpretive expression as required by the content," says Miller. "Observation and critical thinking are key to being a scientific or medical illustrator."

Participating artists are:

Students:

• Austin Anderson: "Insect Study," watercolor on paper
• Grace Huddleston: "Arm Study," graphite on paper
• Emily Bradfield: "Bone Study 1," and "Bone Study 2," graphite on paper
• Caitlin Johnston: "Artichoke," digital print
• Mary Carter: "Insect Study," watercolor on paper, "Phalaenopsis Orchid," digital print, "Feather Study," watercolor on paper, "Observatory," acrylic on panel, and "Chicken Heart Study," acrylic on panel
• Lucy Koo: "Figure Study," graphite on paper
• Jessica Foley: "Squid Dissection," watercolor on paper
• Lori Panico: "Cicada Study," watercolor on paper
• Juliana Phung: "Female Figure," graphite on paper.

Alumni:

• Anastasia Demson: "Portrait of a Hand II," graphite on paper, and "Performing an Emergency Cricothyrotomy," digital print
• Lauren Conroy: Animations entitled "Revolving Skulls and Endocasts," and "Bacteria World"
• Don Di Fiore: "Fish Head Study," watercolor on paper, and "Mouse," ink and watercolor Vinh Chau: "Open Clam," watercolor on paper, "Pompano Dissection," ink and watercolor on paper, "Hawk," ink and watercolor on paper, "Vulture," ink and watercolor on paper, and "Cricket," Prisma markers and graphite on paper
• Suzanne Ghuzzi: "Pedicle Graft," digital print, "Fontanelles: A Guide to an Infant's Soft Spot," digital print, "A Closer Look at Foliculogenesis," digital print, "Acute Otitis Media," digital print, "Chelydra serpentina: The Common Snapping Turtle," digital print, "Culex pipiens: The West Nile Virus Vector," digital print.

Adjunct faculty member:

•  Sarah Faris: "Laparoscopically Assisted Right Hemicolectomy," graphite and digital media, "Hands," graphite on paper, "LBWC," digital print, "Hip Bone," carbon dust on paper, "Muscles of the Pharynix," digital print, "Malaria," digital print, "Lumbar Surgery," digital print.

"Their illustrations suggest the beauty in the complexity of science and medicine," says Tompkins-McCaw Director Teresa L. Knott. "My aspiration for the attendees is that they come away with an appreciation of the amazing talent of those affiliated with this unique arts program and a broader vision of medical and scientific illustration and how it might be used. I believe that the exhibit will stimulate conversations and cooperation between the Monroe Park and MCV campuses."

Medical illustration is far more than art just for art's sake. Graduates are in demand for scientific, medical and biomedical visualization artwork in teaching, in digital and textbook illustration, as well as in patient and consumer health education. Artists with this specialty are hired for medical legal illustration, pharmaceutical advertising, web design, medical iPhone/iPad applications, to name a few. New digital imaging technologies and 3D interactive applications enable the scientific and medical and biomedical visualization illustrator to animate and employ movement and sequential imaging. These advanced technologies make possible imagery and special visual effects that are changing, expanding, and enriching the possibilities of the discipline and the way we learn and teach medical and scientific concepts.

The public is invited to attend an opening reception on Thursday, March 8, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. RSVP for the reception at www.support.vdu.edu/event/intersections. If special accommodations are needed, please contact Thelma Mack at (804) 828-0017 or mackta@vcu.edu. The exhibition will continue through September 28, 2012. The Tompkins-McCaw Library Gallery is at 509 North 12th St. on the MCV Campus. It is open to the public during regular library hours. 

VCU Libraries, the Friends of the Library and the Francis M. Foster Francis M. Foster African-American History Endowment Fund present the 10th Annual Black History Month Lecture Feb. 22.

• The event is free and open but registration is required 
• Parking is available for a fee in the West Main Street and West Cary Street parking decks.
• If special accommodations are needed, call (804) 828-0593.
• A reception will follow the lecture.
• Event Web site
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Legendary advertising executive Tom Burrell created some memorable moments in advertising and media history in campaigns for McDonald's and Coca-Cola. By showing the world that "black people are not dark-skinned white people," Burrell's firm tapped into the purchasing power of the African-American community in new and positive ways and he became part of the ongoing conversation on race in America.

Burrell will deliver the 10th Annual Black History Month Lecture, Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m., University Student Commons, Richmond Salons, 907 Floyd Ave. The VCU Libraries event is free and open to all but seating is limited and registration is required.

The Chicago-based former CEO's 2010 book, "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority," sparked a lively, global conversation on race and brought attention to the media's role in the perpetuation of racism and race-based self-esteem issues. "Brainwashed" was named one of Ebony magazine's "65 Greatest Books" and was a Jet magazine editorial pick.

His Resolution Project, established in 2007, works to challenge and reverse ongoing mass media stereotypes and negative race-based conditioning. The Resolution Project is dedicated to creating and promoting positive "new media" campaigns, curricula, books, products and strategies that foster intra-racial dialogue and equip individuals, organizations and institutions with the tools necessary to counter centuries of negative societal and media messaging and conditioning.

The winner of many awards, including Advertising Person of the Year and the Albert Lasker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Advertising, Burrell is a member of the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Fame. He also received the Revolutionary Award from ImageNation for his work with his non-profit and his efforts to combat negative images of African Americans in the media. About the firm he founded.

 

Richmond klezmer ensemble Klezm'Or'Ami'm will explore the relationship between klezmer and jazz in a program of hit tunes by Gershwin and klezmer classics on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. at the Richmond Public Library.

This event is one of several tied to the exhibit "A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965" at VCU's James Branch Cabell Library Jan. 19 through Feb. 24. 

VCU's basketball history is showcased at the Stuart C. Siegel Center in an exhibition panel created by Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library.

Before VCU donned black and gold, it wore green and gold. The panel focuses on the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) intercollegiate men's team The Green Devils, formed in 1946. At that time, this forerunner of VCU, was affiliated with the College of William and Mary and shared the Williamsburg college's green and gold school colors. The Green Devils and they competed against other small Virginia colleges that formed an informal league the "Little Eight."

The green-and-gold Devils retired when RPI separated from William and Mary in the 1962-63 academic year. The 1963-1964 team took the court in blue and gray and RPI chose the ram as its new mascot. Following the merger of RPI and the Medical College of Virginia to form VCU in 1968, the new university selected black and gold for its colors and kept the horned sheep for its mascot.

"With the NCAA championship season last year, interest in basketball is especially high," said Archives Coordinator Ray Bonis, who researched and organized the display. "We'll be doing more of these basketball history displays for the Siegel Center."

The display exhibition notes some university firsts:

•    During the team's first season, local sportswriters dubbed the team "Big Green."
•    In 1950, RPI hired its first full-time athletic director and basketball and baseball coach, Ed Allen (1922-2005). The Rhode Island native came to Richmond after his first wife, Edythe Johnson Allen, became an instructor in social work. Allen was director of athletics from 1950-67, head basketball coach from 1950-68 and coach of the baseball team from 1950-75. He retired in 1985 and was one of the first inductees into the VCU Athletic Hall of Fame.
•    The first winning squad was in the 1956-57 season. The team finished with 13 wins and nine loses. One of the keys to this team's success may have been maturity. As team member Ed Peeples remembered: "We had some players who were Korean [War] veterans and they were more confident in themselves."
•    The first basketball team associated with what is now VCU was a women's team. RPI was founded in 1917 and by 1919, the department of recreation was fielding a team. It was not until the surge of post World War II GIs attending RPI that there were enough men on campus to organize a team.

The exhibition is part of the display in the second floor VIP skybox section of the Siegel Center. A new one will be mounted in the spring semester and the Green Devil panel will move to the Fourth Floor of James Branch Cabell Library.

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Want to know more about the 1956-57 Green Devils season? Turn to VCU Libraries Special Collections. The Cobblestone, the RPI yearbook, highlights the Green Devils winning 1956-1957 basketball season. Yearbooks from RPI, MCV and VCU also are housed in the libraries and also available online.