Hallmark Symposium brings top art, design professionals to KU

LAWRENCE -- The Hallmark Symposium at the University of Kansas returns for its 21st year with an exciting lineup of innovative designers and artists who will share their insights and experiences through a series of talks.

The symposium is sponsored by an endowment from Hallmark Cards Inc. Each semester, creative and articulate designers, writers, artists and educators are invited to speak at 6 p.m. Monday nights at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art at KU.

The Hallmark Symposium series is free and open to the public. For more information on the events, call (785) 864-4401.

Carl Magnusson, Knoll Inc.

Carl Magnusson, executive vice president of design for Knoll Inc. in New York City, will give a talk Monday, Sept. 22. Magnusson studied architecture and design at Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 1966 he joined the design office of Charles and Ray Eames and later opened his own design studio in Rudolf Schindler's house in Los Angeles. In 1976 he joined Knoll, a designer and manufacturer of office furniture.

Magnusson has lectured on design at universities such as Cranbrook Academy of Art, the University of Architecture in Venice, Polytechnic University in Milan and the Yale Art Gallery. In 1997 he received the Pacific Design Center's award for lifetime achievement.

Jhane Barnes, Jhane Barnes Textiles

Jhane Barnes of Jhane Barnes Textiles will give a talk at 6 p.m. Oct. 6. Barnes designs and markets textiles internationally. Her product lines include menswear, carpet, upholstery and draperies.

While Barnes was a student at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, a retail executive gave her an order for 1,000 pair of pants after he spotted a model wearing one of her designs while dining out. She was in the menswear business to stay.

Barnes incorporates her love of science and math into the approach she takes to design: innovative use of fabrics and fibers, an appreciation of artisanal and ancient crafts Ð balanced by cutting-edge technology and techniques from around the world.

Nicholas Wilton, painter

Celebrated painter Nicholas Wilton is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. Oct. 20. Wilton's work, rich in color, texture and symbols, references the magical imagery of dreams and the subconscious. In addition to gallery exhibitions and the inclusion in numerous private collections, his paintings have been featured internationally in editorial and corporate print media, and they have appeared on numerous magazine and book covers, including the national bestseller "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz.

Charles Lazor, Blu Dot

Charles Lazor will speak at 6 p.m. Nov. 17. Lazor founded Blu Dot, along with John Christakos and Maurice Blanks. The firm began as a loose collaborative of three college friends trained in architecture and art, based on the premise that design should be affordable. The partners chose furniture as the subject of interest and opened a studio and operations in 1996 in Minneapolis, Minn.

Blu Dot's pieces are in the permanent collections of several museums, have appeared on the sets of well-known television shows such as "Friends" and "ER," and have won numerous national and international awards. The collection is distributed in stores around the world.

The series will conclude with a speaker to be announced, whose talk will be in conjunction with "The Art of Gold" exhibition, Nov. 8 to Jan. 4 at Spencer art museum. For more details on the exhibition, please visit the museum's Web site, www.ku.edu/~sma.