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Spencer Museum extends public hours before closing for renovations May 17
LAWRENCE — The last day to experience the Spencer Museum of Art’s current exhibitions is May 16. Public hours are extended for the next two weeks to accommodate more visitors: 1-8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 1-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Visitors are strongly encouraged to make an advance reservation. The museum’s galleries will close May 17 to begin renovations and reinstallation of exhibitions, reopening in fall 2021.
Translator helps acclaimed children’s books gain wider audience
LAWRENCE – Unless they dwell on the authors’ names, the average American child drawn in by the colorful new books “Sound” and “Sight” (Chronicle Books) will have no clue that they were originally Ukrainian. That’s a tribute, in part, anyway, to the work of a University of Kansas associate professor of Slavic Languages & literatures, who translated the books into English. It’s the latest of Vitaly Chernetsky’s efforts to build cultural exchange and international understanding with his translation work.
Funk expert: Chaka Khan deserves Rock Hall induction
LAWRENCE – One of the leading academic experts on funk music says finalist Chaka Khan should be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when the 2021 class of inductees is announced. Tony Bolden is a University of Kansas associate professor of African & African-American studies and the author of “Groove Theory: The Blues Foundations of Funk” (University Press of Mississippi, 2020). He is available for interviews about singer Chaka Khan’s Rock Hall nomination or any funk music topic.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Elizabeth Kanost, Spencer Museum of Art, 785-864-0142, [email protected], @SpencerMuseum
Spencer Museum extends public hours before closing for renovations May 17
LAWRENCE — The last day to experience the Spencer Museum of Art’s current exhibitions is May 16. Public hours are extended for the next two weeks to accommodate more visitors: 1-8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 1-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Visitors are strongly encouraged to make an advance reservation. The museum’s galleries will close May 17 to begin renovations and reinstallation of exhibitions, reopening in fall 2021.
Funded in part through a National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant, Phase II renovations will elevate all gallery spaces to the standard set by the museum’s award-winning Phase I renovation completed in 2016. A major enhancement of Phase II is the creation of a second study center embedded in the museum’s fourth-floor galleries. The Ingrid and J.K. Lee Study Center will serve as a hybrid space for class and research visits as well as temporary installations.
Other fourth-floor updates will include renovating the Kress Gallery and 2021 Gallery, which were not addressed in Phase I. Additionally, enhancements to storage will improve the long-term care of the museum’s collection. Construction for these aspects of Phase II will begin this summer and last into 2022.
The architectural changes of Phase II also provide an opportunity to rethink the installation, presentation and interpretation of fourth-floor collection galleries. While third-floor galleries will reopen in fall 2021, the reinstalled fourth-floor galleries are slated to reopen beginning in summer 2022. The updates of both Phase II renovations and gallery reinstallation will help the Spencer Museum better engage its many communities and remain a leader of academic art museums.
Even while galleries are closed, the Spencer Museum will continue providing educational opportunities and programs throughout the summer and into the fall with Spencer At Large events off-site in the community and online.
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Translator helps acclaimed children’s books gain wider audience
LAWRENCE – Unless they dwell on the authors’ names, the average American child drawn in by the colorful new books “Sound” and “Sight” (Chronicle Books) will have no clue that they were originally Ukrainian.
That’s a tribute, in part, anyway, to the work of a University of Kansas associate professor of Slavic Languages & literatures, who translated the books into English. It’s the latest of Vitaly Chernetsky’s efforts to build cultural exchange and international understanding with his translation work.
The Odessa native has spent large parts of the last few years translating into English the novel itself and the film-script adaptation of Sophia Andrukhovych’s acclaimed book “Felix Austria,” a romance that elucidates Ukraine’s multiethnic makeup.
His latest translation to be published are two children’s books written and illustrated by the Ukrainian wife-and-husband team Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv: “Sound” (2020) and the forthcoming “Sight.”
Chernetsky said that as newly independent Ukraine’s book industry outgrew the domination of the Soviet system in the 21st century, Romanyshyn and Lesiv were establishing their reputations as two of the nation’s most acclaimed graphic designers.
In the first book that they wrote and illustrated together, “The War That Changed Rondo,” (2013) the circular title character is a metaphor for the Ukrainian nation – battered and scarred by war (i.e., Soviet/Russian aggression) but bravely carrying on.
It was published by the same leading Ukrainian publishing house, Old Lion, that published “Felix Austria.” So when editors there decided to publish “Sound” and “Sight” in English, they thought of Chernetsky as their translator.
Although “Rondo” drew praise for treating the serious issue of trauma in a positive way, Chernetsky said the authors decided on something lighter for their next project. “Sound” and “Sight” explain from various viewpoints, from anatomical to physical to philosophical, how humans hear and see.
“They long wanted to create engaging books for children that explain things in new, nondogmatic, non-Soviet ways,” Chernetsky said. “Soviet books for children … did not encourage free, creative exploration.”
This project was a change from Chernetsky’s more serious work, incorporating as it does the words and letters as part of the colorful drawings. The biggest challenge in translation, he said, was keeping it tight.
“The text plays second fiddle to the images, but it still needs to be something that readers don’t stumble on,” Chernetsky said. “It helps deliver the message, which in this case primarily comes from the visuals. It’s short. Very often it’s very, very short. It’s almost like subtitles for a movie, where you do not want to be wordy because you do not want the subtitles on the screen to be overwhelming.”
Chernetsky said some aspects of translation remain the same, regardless of the type of literature.
“As with a book for adults, you need to make sure that a successful translation works in the context of the target culture,” he said, “especially because it is popular science. The fact that it is Ukrainian is incidental. But if people find out, OK, cool.
“There are not many children’s books brought into the American book market that were originally written in other languages,” Chernetsky said. “This is an exception, rather than a rule. So to have one of the leading publishers of children’s literature in Chronicle Books publish something from Eastern Europe, it’s a very unusual and a big event.”
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Funk expert: Chaka Khan deserves Rock Hall induction
LAWRENCE – One of the leading academic experts on funk music says finalist Chaka Khan should be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when the 2021 class of inductees is announced.
Tony Bolden is a University of Kansas associate professor of African & African-American studies and the author of “Groove Theory: The Blues Foundations of Funk” (University Press of Mississippi, 2020). He is available for interviews about singer Chaka Khan’s Rock Hall nomination or any funk music topic.
“It is my firm belief that Khan deserves her rightful place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Bolden said recently.
“Sultry, sensual, sui generis — the ultimate songbird. These are just a few attributes that describe the incredible Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan. Her stratospheric sound and breathtaking performances exemplify the distinctive flair of her inimitable aesthetic as well as her indomitable, free-spirited sensibility.
“Born Yvette Marie Stevens in Great Lakes, Illinois, in 1953, Khan developed her chops in nondescript spaces in Chicago, including talent shows where she squared off against Minnie Riperton, among others. Khan and her sister, Taka Boom (aka Yvonne Stevens), often faced stiff competition from the Hutchinson Sunbeams, a gospel group of sisters who formed the gospel group that rose to fame as the Emotions.
“But that’s just a fraction of the story. As a youth, Khan was inspired by Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, the young activist who epitomized selfless integrity and political commitment in the late 1960s. Thus, she worked as a volunteer for the Chicago chapter of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. And though she soon became disillusioned by the organization, her experience reflected her rebellious spirit and commitment to integrity that became synonymous with her name: Chaka Khan.”
To interview Bolden, contact Rick Hellman, KU News Service public affairs officer, at [email protected] or 913-620-8786.
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