Winter stars shine on the UO's arts calendar during January

Ring in the decade with a roundup of shiny events: Learn how to make those New Year’s resolutions stick with UO psychology professor Elliot Berkman in the first Quack Chat of the year on Jan. 8 (“Brain-Based Tips for Sticking to New Year’s Resolutions”); explore the early 20th century Paris art scene Jan. 4 at Insight Seminars: Americans in Paris; hear acclaimed flutist Jackie Cordova-Arrington perform Jan. 18 at Beall Concert Hall; or catch University Theatre’s second production of the season with the Tony Award winning show “Sons of the Prophet” on Jan. 24 and much more.

Music

Award-winning piano duo Karen and Jeffrey Savage of 88 Squared perform Jan. 9 at Beall Concert Hall. Both graduates of the Julliard School, the couple have played around the world, from Carnegie Hall and the Shanghai Grand Theater to Kyoito’s International Chamber Music Festival.

Flutist Jackie Cordova-Arrington Acclaimed flutist Jackie Cordova-Arrington will perform Jan. 18 at Beall Concert Hall. A professional flutist and educator, Cordova-Arrington is a recipient of the William D. Ford Fulbright Grant and was the first American to study extensively with principal flutists of the Berlin Philharmonic. Her training in Berlin initiated her success as an orchestral flutist, leading to performances with major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic and Louisiana Philharmonic.

On Jan. 23, join Eric Richardson, executive director of the Eugene-Springfield NAACP, for an evening of jazz performances and a discussion about the role jazz music played in the American civil rights movement at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Other music performances in January include a UO clarinet studio recital Jan. 14 at Beall Concert Hall; a performance by the UO Wind Symphony in the Soreng Theatre at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts Jan. 18; and Opera Ensemble: II Matrimonio Segreto by Domenico Cimaros on Jan. 31 at Beall Concert Hall.

Visit the School of Music and Dance for all upcoming events.

Cinema

Kick off the winter term with free popcorn, soda and fun activities at Ducks After Dark: Hobbs & Shaw on Jan. 9 at the Erb Memorial Union. In this 2019 spin-off of the action-packed “Fast & Furious” film franchise, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham reprise their roles as Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, respectively, to battle a cybernetically enhanced terrorist threatening the world with a deadly virus.

The annual Nordic Film Series held in Lawrence Hall kicks off Jan. 10 with “Of Horses and Men,” an award-winning 2013 Icelandic drama featuring several stories about the relationships of a group of rural Icelanders with their horses and each other. On Jan. 17, catch “Italian for Beginners,” a light-hearted 2000 Danish romantic comedy filmed using the Dogme XII style of handheld video cameras and natural lighting which follows several lonely hearts who use a beginner’s course in Italian to find romance. “Mother of Mine,” a drama chronicling pain and confusion through the eyes of one child during the WWII evacuation of 70,000 Finnish children to neutral Sweden to avoid the conflict, will be screened Jan. 31.

Don’t miss two films from director and Spanish documentarian Almudena Carracedo, who will be on hand for a Q&A session following each film. On Jan. 13, catch the Emmy Award-winning feature documentary “Made in L.A,” which follows the three-year journey of three Latina immigrants to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer in Los Angeles. On Jan. 14, “The Silence of Others” chronicles the struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Francisco Franco and their continuing efforts to seek justice.

Theater

Opening Jan. 24 is University Theatre’s production of “Sons of the Prophet” from Tony Award-winner Stephen Karam. A finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for drama, this comedy-drama traces a year in the life of Lebanese-American brothers Joseph and Charles Douaihy as they deal with life’s uncertainties, from the death of their father and their uncle’s illness to saving a young man’s career and facing their own human failings.

Lectures

Explore the Paris art scene of the first half of the 20th century when many American writers, artists and musicians gathered in the City of Lights at Insight Seminars: Americans in Paris on Jan. 4. Focusing on three writers frequently associated with the period, the seminar will highlight Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Join UO professor of journalism and John L. Hulteng Chair in Media Ethics Tom Bivins on Jan. 11 and explore the balance between editorial cartooning and the First Amendment at the Downtown Eugene Library.

Event poster On Jan. 17, Juan Eduardo Wolf, associate professor of ethnomusicology and a 2016-17 faculty research fellow, will speak about his book “Styling Blackness in Chile: Music and Dance in the African Diaspora,” in which he explores the multiple ways that black individuals in Africa have performed music and dance to frame their blackness in relationship to other groups of performers, a process he calls “styling.” Hear him in the OHC Conference Room in Prince Lucien Campbell Hall.

Early modern Europe historian and 2019-20 Oregon Humanities Center faculty research fellow David Luebke will speak at a Wine Chat on Jan. 23. “Strange Cohabitations: Sharing Churches after the Reformation, 1530-2020” explores the shifting meanings that ordinary people ascribed to community, religion, toleration and intolerance from the 16th century to the present.

Join Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design and head of the department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Jan. 23 for a Department of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series talk on “Wearables: Helpful or Harmful.”

Art

Event poster An exhibition of photography, video and installation by Portland-born artist Carrie Mae Weems opens at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Jan. 18. “The Usual Suspects” asks the question: “How do you measure a life?” Weems addresses the constructed nature of racial identity — specifically, representations that associate black bodies with criminality and the resultant killings of black men, women and children without consequence. Through a formal language of blurred images, color blocks, stated facts and meditative narration, she questions this sustained history of violence and judicial inaction.

STILL Photography,” selected from the art museum’s photography holdings by Thom Sempere, associate curator of photography, highlights 13 iconic images by Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Lewis Hine and Raúl Corrales brought together with contemporary works of Sally Mann, Dan Powell and Richard Tuschman, among others. 

The UO Counseling Center is accepting submissions for its annual All Sizes Fit Art Show. All Sizes Fit is a positive body image campaign designed to decrease the social pressures of obtaining an “ideal body.” Art entries should focus on and explore the themes of body positivity/acceptance/image. UO students are eligible to win prizes but anyone can submit an art piece.

Crafts

Be sure to check out the Craft Center’s Freebie Fridays, fun and free events for making all sorts of crafty things, beginning Jan. 9.

Pub talks

In the first Quack Chat of 2020, UO psychology professor Elliot Berkman dives into the science of how habits work in his Jan. 8 talk “Brain-Based Tips for Sticking to New Year’s Resolutions” at the Ax Billy Grill and Sports Bar at the Downtown Athletic Club at 6 p.m. All Quack Chat pub talks are free and open to the public.

—By Sharleen Nelson, University Communications