Key pieces from Southern Methodist University's Meadows Museum's permanent collection of Spanish masterworks debuted at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid on May 9. Carole Brandt, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, says the loan of 27 paintings is all part of a plan for the museum to become a greater player in the international art scene. "The opportunity to share our great treasures with the Spanish people is the first 'reach across the pond' by us," Brandt says. "We hope it will be the start of other cooperative ventures." The same paintings travel to Barcelona's National Museum of Catalan Art for an exhibition that opens September 5. The paintings will be back in Dallas in plenty of time for the March 2001 opening of the new, 66,000-square-foot Meadows Museum building, which will feature greatly enlarged gallery spaces to showcase them as well as other pieces in the Meadows' respected collection of Spanish art.
Dance students in the Texas Woman's University department of performing arts are kicking national butt, according to program director Dr. Penelope Hanstein, who says the Denton University's efforts to "encourage students to develop an individual and creative voice" are paying off, even before they graduate. Master's student Stephanie Beauchamp choreographed "Fists of Spaghetti," which was selected for performance at the American College Dance Festival Association's National Festival in Washington, D.C., May 18 to 20. Beauchamp was also nominated for a choreography scholarship from Dance magazine. "It's a real double-kicker," Beauchamp says. Five TWU students danced in Beauchamp's event, including Maria Arriaga, Susan James Angeles, Nancy Florene Hughes, Monica Mata Gilliam, and Elizabeth Gormly de Moraes. Master's student Michelle Ozmun's work, "It's All About Me," was selected as an alternate for the ACDFA festival, and doctoral student Frances Bruce recently received a graduate research award from the Congress on Research in Dance.
Art featuring burned charcoal, melted candles, gunpowder-burned figure drawings on carpet, and welding-torch drawings and sculpture will be featured in another of director Joan Davidow's quirky exhibitions for the Arlington Museum of Art. This time, though, there's method to her madness: The June 2 opening of "Burn It!" will coincide with the museum's official mortgage burning. Davidow says the "celebratory exhibit" will mark the end of payments on the former J.C. Penney building on Main Street, purchased in 1989.
Annabelle Massey Helber
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