Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and its Children’s Performing Arts Series will present “Curious George” in two performances on Thursday, Oct. 30, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Presented by Theatreworks USA, “Curious George” opens the 2014-2015 Children’s Performing Arts Series at SFA, which is committed each year to bringing the finest in affordable professional companies to East Texas young people and their teachers, according to Diane J. Peterson, manager of the SFA Fine Arts Box Office and director of the series.

In this play, “All-You-Can-Eat Meatball Day” comes just once a year. George helps his friend, Chef Pisghetti, cook some delicious meatballs and serve them to the hungry crowd. But this year, the crowd has vanished! In despair, Chef Pisghetti vows to cook no more. Determined to help his friend, George goes on a mission to enter the Chef’s meatballs in the world-famous Golden Meatball Contest … in Rome!

“Curious George” targets children in pre-kindergarten through third grades. Performances are at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Tickets are $6 for individuals and $5 per person for groups of 20 or more. For tickets or more information, call the Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.cpas.sfasu.edu.

Turner Auditorium is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present members of the SFA voice faculty with pianist Ron Petti in a recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus as part of the Cole Performing Arts Series.

Petti, director of accompanying at SFA, and voice faculty members Debbie and Ric Berry, Debbie Dalton, Charlotte Davis, Nita Hudson, Chris Turner and Jamie Weaver will present “The Lieder of Richard Strauss.” Weaver will also provide a short performance talk on the composer and his songs preceding the concert.

The theme of the concert is the “lieder,” which is the German word for songs, of composer Strauss, who wrote approximately 100 lieder, according to Petti.

“Many were inspired by his wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna,” Petti said. “Strauss blurs the line between art song and opera with expansive vocal lines and dramatic demands on the voice, as well as technical demands on the pianist. Strauss was one of the few 19th century song composers who was also successful in opera.”

Among Strauss’ songs to be featured in the program are “Allerseelen,” “Cäcilie” and “Zueignung.”

“But perhaps the most famous of them, ‘Beim schlafengehen,’ will be performed by Debbie Berry with SFA string faculty member Jennifer Dalmas,” Petti said.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

Tickets are still available for a performance of the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus as part of the College of Fine Arts’ 2014-2015 University Series, “Connect.”

The program will feature a performance of “Pursued,” written by Stephen Lias, professor of composition in the SFA School of Music. Prior to the concert, Lias will present a 7 p.m. informative talk in Griffith Gallery about the artists and their music. The audience is invited back to the gallery for a post-performance reception to meet the performers and to honor the event’s corporate sponsor, BancorpSouth.

Tickets range from $20 to $40, with discounts available for seniors, SFA faculty/staff, students and youth. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6406 or (888) 240-ARTS.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Art will present the exhibition “Vision & Substance: The Art of John Cobb,” showing Oct. 25 through Jan. 10 in Ledbetter Gallery in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

For more than 30 years, Cobb has been working on a series of egg tempera and gold leaf paintings for a chapel series. At present, the majority of the paintings are displayed in a temporary free-standing chapel that viewers can enter. Aside from the chapel series, Cobb also works as a landscape painter, creating beautifully detailed paintings of the Texas landscape. The chapel (still a work in progress), along with a series of landscapes, will be featured in this retrospective exhibition, according to John Handley, director of art galleries for the School of Art.

In the catalog that will accompany the exhibition, Handley wrote that Cobb’s vision is “the creation of a chapel filled with glistening egg-tempera and gold leaf paintings, executed in the methods of the old masters, depicting his rendition of modern day saints in Biblical semblance.”

“For Cobb, saints are defined in the everyday – the ordinary person on the street, the neighbor, the relative who lives in quietude in an ever steady, abiding faith,” Handley said. “They appear like ancient icons with their luminous gold leaf backgrounds, but the faces that gaze back at us are not Byzantine; rather they appear familiar, like somebody we know or have met at one time.”

Handley saw Cobb’s work for the first time two years ago at Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden in Dallas.

“I have spent a great deal of my life looking at art, but I have to say I had never encountered something like this – a 30-year-plus vision to create a chapel, which to this day still has no permanent home or a commitment for one,” Handley said. “ And yet, Cobb keeps working away, knowing that one day the chapel will have a permanent home and caretaker.”

Handley returned two weeks after that initial visit to hear the artist speak. Since then, Handley has visited Cobb in his studio in Austin on several occasions, and he is working with David Lewis, professor of art history at SFA, and Cheryl Vogel of Valley House to produce the first exhibition catalog devoted to his work.

Of Cobb’s work, Vogel writes: “The more I see the world interpreted through John Cobb’s compassionate eyes, the more I learn to observe the bounty of life.”

The exhibition will open with a reception at 6 p.m. Oct. 25. Prior to the reception, Vogel will interview the artist about his work starting at 5 p.m., followed by a question/answer session.

This exhibition, which is part of the 2014-2015 University Series, is supported by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden. It is sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and the Nacogdoches Junior Forum.

All exhibitions and gallery lectures are free.

For additional information about this exhibition and others presented by the SFA art galleries, visit www.art.sfasu.edu/ or call (936) 468-1131.