February 4, 2002

Contact: Susan Earle, Spencer Museum of Art, (785) 864-0144; Sally Hayden, 864-0135.

Artist Tim Rollins to lead youth in Langston Hughes project at museum

LAWRENCE -- Renowned contemporary artist and teacher Tim Rollins will be artist in residence at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas Feb. 3-10. Rollins will guide a project with 24 Lawrence middle-school students to study the writings of Langston Hughes and produce a collaborative work of art based on Hughes' poetry. The work will evolve in after-school workshops in a Spencer Museum of Art gallery. The process involves tutorials, discussion, group consensus and extensive preparatory drawings, and it will focus on the poem "A Dream Deferred" for the final piece. The project is funded by a MetLife Foundation Museum Connections grant.

This project is an important component of the international symposium at KU to celebrate Langston Hughes. "Langston Hughes: Let America Be America Again" is Feb. 7-10. It brings together performing and literary artists, scholars and the community. Find complete information at www.kuce.org/hughes.

In conjunction with this symposium, the Langston Hughes Project with Tim Rollins at the Spencer Museum is a living tribute to the continued relevance and vibrancy of Hughes' poetry and life. The students will unveil their collaborative work at a public opening from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Spencer Museum. Hip-hop music inspired by Hughes' writings, performed by local group Sounds Good, will supplement the reception. Following the reception, the work will be exhibited during regular gallery hours through May 26. A tour for the works is being planned and will be announced later.

Tim Rollins will present the lecture "Art and the Dream Deferred," at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, in the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium. This symposium event is free and open to the public.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) have worked collaboratively since 1982, when Rollins took a teaching job in the South Bronx to create a special course in art for students with educational and emotional disabilities. Since then, Rollins and his students across the country and around the world have created works of art based on literary texts, often combining the actual text pages with painted images laid down on a canvas ground. Tim Rollins looks for a diverse group of students, often finding those who dislike school but love art. Through their intense interaction, Rollins and his collaborators create remarkable works of artistic and social significance. Rollins has succeeded in changing young people's lives and the communities in which they live through the power of intense dialogue with literary texts in order to create enduring and meaningful works of art.

The gallery is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Wed., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thurs., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday. Admission is free, but a $3 donation is suggested.