KU News Release

Media advisory: Aaron Douglas events scheduled Sept. 26-29

LAWRENCE — Events celebrating Kansas artist Aaron Douglas (1899-1979) are scheduled daily in Lawrence and at the University of Kansas beginning today and concluding Saturday, Sept. 29, which Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has declared Aaron Douglas Day in Kansas. All events are part of a major exhibition organized by KU’s Spencer Museum of Art to celebrate Douglas’ work and life, “Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist,” which continues through Dec. 2.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26
WHAT: A community mural project honoring seven African-American artists with Kansas connections will be dedicated. A mayoral proclamation will name Wednesday, Sept. 26, as Aaron Douglas Community Mural Day in Lawrence. The Spencer Museum of Art commissioned the mural as part of its Douglas exhibition. Designed in the style characteristic of Douglas, the mural features Douglas, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, Gwendolyn Brooks, Coleman Hawkins, Hattie McDaniel and Oscar Micheaux.
WHEN: At 2 p.m., junior-high students from the “Wednesdays @ Liberty Hall” program will gather at the mural site and create their own artwork in honor of Douglas. The dedication starts at 3 p.m.
WHERE: Aquila building on northeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets (north wall)
WHO: Saralyn Reece Hardy, director of the Spencer Museum of Art; Llewellyn Crain, executive director of the Kansas Arts Commission; David Loewenstein, Lawrence artist commissioned to design the mural; Yuri Zupancic, Lawrence artist and assistant to Loewenstein; Jill Ensley, a KU senior from Topeka and Lawrence who is an artist and volunteer assistant to Loewenstein; and Lemuel Sheppard, blues and folk singer from Pittsburg

THURSDAY, SEPT. 27
WHAT: Richard W. Gunn Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Department of English and the Hall Center for the Humanities
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Spencer Museum of Art auditorium
WHO: Author and biographer Arnold Rampersad, the Sara Hart Kimball Professor in Humanities and professor of English at Stanford University. Chancellor Robert Hemenway will introduce Rampersad.
MORE: News release on lecture

FRIDAY, SEPT. 28
WHAT: Free public reception with live music and refreshments
WHEN: 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Spencer Museum of Art
WHO: Art critic and scholar Richard J. Powell of Duke University will speak at 7 p.m. in the museum auditorium on “Paint that Thing! Aaron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance call to Modernism.”

SATURDAY, SEPT. 29 (two events)
WHAT: “Aaron Douglas an the Arts of the Harlem Renaissance” interdisciplinary conference. Free to the public.
WHEN: 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Spencer Museum of Art auditorium
MORE: Conference Web site

WHAT: Cabaret/Harlem Renaissance-style rent party with refreshments and food, live jazz and cabaret performances. Tickets are $10 for public and $5 for students with KUID.
WHEN: 8-11 p.m.
WHERE: Kansas Union ballroom
WHO: Eric Avery, a 2006 theatre and film alumnus from Minneapolis, Minn., will direct original cabaret performances. Music provided by Kansas City’s American Jazz Museum All Stars with Bobby Watson: Watson (alto sax), Tyrone Clark (bass), Gerald Dunn (tenor sax), Jason Goudeau (trombone), Al Pearson (trumpet) and Monica Warren (percussion); Lawrence deejay Josh Powers (a.k.a. Scenebooster)

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