KU to present 18th annual Evening of Performance Art Dec. 11

LAWRENCE -- Students' creative energy and talent will be in full force at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, during the 18th annual Evening of Performance Art in the Art and Design Gallery at the University of Kansas.

Roger Shimomura, distinguished professor of performance and painting at KU, teaches a performance art class annually, and at the end of the class, the students give a free, public performance.

"Every year the class decides upon one theme that will be common to all of the performances," Shimomura said. "This year they decided that each of them would be assigned a separate color and that all the props, equipment and costumes would reflect only that color in their individual pieces."

The 15 students each have been assigned a space in the gallery where they will perform autobiographical works. Doors open at 7 p.m., when the audience may walk around the gallery and view each piece. The pieces will finish at 8 p.m.

"For this one hour people will be able to roam freely in the gallery viewing the performances," Shimomura said. "On an average, approximately 400 people cycle through during this time period."

Shimomura started teaching performance art classes at KU in 1984. His own performance art projects have won him critical acclaim, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He paints and writes scripts for a variety of productions that have been performed everywhere from Seattle to New York.

The Art and Design Gallery is on the third floor of the Art and Design Building, at the northeast corner of 15th Street and Naismith Drive. Visitor parking is available at the Allen Fieldhouse Parking Garage, 1501 Irving Hill Road.

For more information, please call the Department of Art, (785) 864-4401.