What's happening at Penn State? Here's a look at some of the cultural events — both in-person and virtual — taking place across the University this weekend and next week:
Performances
Mystery Science Theater 3000 LIVE — 7:30 p.m., Oct. 30, Pullo Center, Penn State York. The "Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) LIVE: Time Bubble Tour" will lampoon the 1985 Roland Emmerich film "Making Contact."
"The Wild Party" — Nov. 2-14, Playhouse Theatre, University Park campus. Penn State Centre Stage presents Andrew Lippa's adaptation of "The Wild Party," a jazz-flavored contemporary musical about risk and excess.
Lectures
Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers lectures — Oct. 27 and 28, various locations, University Park campus. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Jim Schaefer of the Detroit Free Press and Stephanie Saul of The New York Times will present sessions on Oct. 27 and 28, respectively. Free.
Department of Geosciences fall 2021 colloquium series — 4:30 p.m., Oct. 28, 220 Hammond Building, University Park campus, and via Zoom. Barbara Sherwood Lollar, University Professor in Earth Sciences and Dr. Norman Keevil Chair in Ore Deposits Geology at the University of Toronto, will talk about her work in subsurface environments and subsurface processes and how they apply to our understanding of planetary evolution in her presentation "Imaging Habitable Worlds — Lessons from the Deep Biosphere and Hydrogeosphere." Free.
School of Labor and Employment Relations Outstanding Alumni Lecture: Beth Albright — 7:30 p.m., Oct. 28, 104 Keller Building, University Park campus. Beth Albright, a 1989 labor and employment relations graduate and a Fortune 500 C-suite executive and independent board director, will present "Enough Already?!? Making a Change." Free.
Fall 2021 Science Achievement Graduate Fellows Lecture — 10 a.m., Nov. 1, via Zoom. Mathematician Maria Chudnovsky will present "Parties, doughnuts and coloring. Old and new problems in graph theory." Free.
Fall 2021 EESI EarthTalks series: Rebecca Hamilton — 4 p.m., Nov. 1, via Zoom. Rebecca Hamilton, postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute, will present "Fire dynamics in tropical Asia: from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene." Free.
"Cooling Water: A Source of the African American Cultural Imprint in the Landscape" — 6 p.m., Nov. 1, jury space, Stuckeman Family Building, University Park campus, and via livestream. Diane Jones Allen and Austin Allen, the duo behind Design Jones LLC, which was the recipient of the 2016 American Society of Landscape Architects Community Service Award, will give a lecture as part of the school's Lecture and Exhibit Series.
"Academy Blues, Post-Academy Joy: There is Life Outside of a Academia" — 1 p.m., Nov. 3, via Zoom. Michele Simms-Burton, a retired professor and current consultant and program manager, will discuss her experience in academia and her post-academy life. Free.
Davis Lecture: Bianca Guimaraes — 6:30 p.m., Nov. 3, Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library, University Park campus. Bianca Guimaraes, CEO of New York-based ad firm Mischief, will present "Social Responsibility in the Creative World." Free.
Events
Cafe Laura Theme Dinner: "Greenhouse Harvest: A Taste of the Season" — Oct. 28 and Dec. 2, Cafe Laura, Mateer Building, University Park campus. Students in HM 430 Advanced Food Production and Service Management prepare a series of themed dinners throughout the semester to be served in the student-run Cafe Laura restaurant. Reservations required.
Centre Film Festival — Nov. 1-7, various locations with hybrid and virtual offerings, University Park campus. The third annual festival will offer 18 documentaries, eight feature films, numerous shorts and more than a dozen related discussions and question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers and local activists.
Cafe Laura Theme Dinner: "Acropolis: A Feast for the Gods" — Nov. 3, Cafe Laura, Mateer Building, University Park campus. Students in HM 430 Advanced Food Production and Service Management prepare a series of themed dinners throughout the semester to be served in the student-run Cafe Laura restaurant. Reservations required.
Cafe Laura Theme Dinner: "A Tribute to Queen: Taste the Music" — Nov. 4, Cafe Laura, Mateer Building, University Park campus. Students in HM 430 Advanced Food Production and Service Management prepare a series of themed dinners throughout the semester to be served in the student-run Cafe Laura restaurant. Reservations required.
Virtual exhibits
"African Brilliance and the Purpose of Art" — This interactive virtual tour accompanied the Palmer Museum of Art’s spring 2020 special exhibition "African Brilliance: A Diplomat’s Sixty Years of Collecting" and will remain available throughout the current academic year. Explore the exhibition installation, images of selected works, videos for guided viewing and related art-making activity suggestions. Free.
"Celebrating the ADA: The Legacy and Evolution of Disability Rights and Lived Experiences at Penn State" — The University Libraries virtual exhibit explores the first 100 years of national disability rights legislation and the movement's impact on the Penn State community. Free.
"Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundations" — This web-based, interactive program from the Palmer Museum of Art features guided video tours of selected exhibition artists in addition to an introductory overview by the curator. Learn about the “Global Asias” concept of personal and cultural identity in a contemporary world. Artists featured include: Jacob Hashimoto, Dinh Q. Lê, Hung Liu, Takashi Murakami, Roger Shimomura, Do Ho Suh, and Rirkrit Tiranvanija. Free.
"Pandemic Spaces (1918 Edition)" — The University Libraries virtual display explores architecture related to the devastating influenza epidemic of 1918. Free.
"Who Am I? Art and Identity" — This self-directed, interactive, online tour features a selection of objects from diverse areas of the Palmer Museum of Art’s collection, related through a common exploration of personal or cultural identity. Free.
"Women in Art: Activism + Resistance" — This self-directed, interactive, Palmer Museum of Art online tour is intended for college-level courses and features a selection of objects by female artists in the museum’s collection. In celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, this tour highlights artists working in a variety of mediums during the 20th and 21st centuries who have contributed to political, social and cultural change. Free.
In-person exhibits
"100 Years After the 19th Amendment: Their Legacy, Our Future" — Through Oct. 31, H. Laddle Montague, Jr. Law Library, Lewis Katz Building, University Park campus. Penn State Law hosts the American Bar Association and Law Library of Congress traveling exhibit. Free.
"Wind Spirits" — Through Nov. 20, Art Alley, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. “Wind Spirits” is an exhibition of artists Tatiana Arocha, Deirdre Murphy and Rachel Sydlowski, considering the power and delicacy of Earth’s avian creatures and the larger implications that duality poses for human roles in the natural world. Free.
"Ukiyo-e: Images of the Floating World, Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Permanent Collection" — Through Dec. 5, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. The art of ukiyo-e flourished in Japan during the Edo period (1615-1867). Period artists specializing in genre scenes, portraits of actors and courtesans, and later, landscape, in a manner that reflected the most contemporary fashions and attitudes, their work became known as ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world.” Free.
"Blackout Poetry" — Through Dec. 10, campus library, Penn State Fayette. “Blackout Poetry” is a creative way to bring new meaning to any written text and make it your own. Redact words in order to create a one-of-a-kind piece. All entries will be displayed in the campus library. Free.
"Patchwork Voices Community Collection" — Through Dec. 10, Coal and Coke Heritage Center, campus library, Penn State Fayette. The Patchwork Voices Community Collection is one of the Coal and Coke Heritage Center's unprocessed collections. Unprocessed means that a traditional finding aid has not been created for researchers to access materials. The collection consists of smaller, family collections. Visitors will find materials such as photographs, letters, recipes, mining certificates, newspapers, magazines, union materials, clothing and mining tools. Free.
"Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II" — Through Dec. 10, campus library, Penn State Fayette. The exhibit examines the complicated history and impact of Executive Order 9066 that led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Free.
"Celebration of Trees" — Through Dec. 12, Henry Gallery, Penn State Great Valley. The presentation hosts photographs, prints, paintings and mixed media works. All of the artists are inspired by the architecture of trees themselves, formative memories, the experience of being in nature, and environmentalism. To support improved environmental policies and draw attention to climate change, they manifest a connection to the earth and an understanding of the importance of forests. Free.
"Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" — Through Dec. 12, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. This web-based, interactive program features guided video tours of selected exhibition artists in addition to an introductory overview by the curator. Learn about the “Global Asias” concept of personal and cultural identity in a contemporary world. Free.
"Place to Place: Recent Gifts of American Drawings and Watercolors, 1900-1950" — Through Dec. 12, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. "Place to Place" offers a jaunt around America in the first half of the 20th century. From New York to New Mexico to New Orleans, a range of sites in several different media are gathered to explore notions of place. International locales represented include Belgium, England, France, Germany and Morocco. Free.
"Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal" — Through Dec. 31, Ronald K. DeLong Gallery, Penn State Lehigh Valley. The exhibit features a collection of artist Jason Travers’ ink and graphite drawings that capture what he’s seeing in real time at a particular moment. The gallery also is showcasing student works depicting significant moments shown from various perspectives. Free.
"Lost Bird Project" — Through Jan. 26, 2022, exhibition cases, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. The "Lost Bird Project" consists of five sculptural monuments to extinct bird species. Conceived by artist Todd McGrain, the "Lost Bird Project" recognizes the tragedy of modern extinction by immortalizing the five most recently extinct North American birds. Free.
"Why Biodiversity Matters" — Through Jan. 26, 2022, exhibition cases, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. "Why Biodiversity Matters" includes avian research and educational materials from Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center and Penn State’s Wildlife and Fisheries program. Free.
"Altar" — Through Jan. 30, 2022, exhibition cases, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. Kiana Honarmand’s installation in the exhibition cases utilizes text from the poem “Gift” by Iranian feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad to pay homage to the history of hiding critical commentary in Persian poetry and visual arts.