'A Cello's Birthday: Music for a Very Old Friend' is noon concert Thursday

Oct. 26, 12:05 p.m. to 1 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center, free

Alexandra Roedder, Baroque cello, and
Faythe Vollrath, keyboard and UC Davis lecturer in music

Program

• Francesco Geminiani: Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Minor   
• Jean-Baptiste Barriere: Cello Sonata No. 6 in C Minor
• Jean-Phillip Rameau: Les Cyclopes
• Luigi Boccherini: Cello Sonata No. 6 in A Major       

Free, a Shinkoskey Noon Concert​

About the Artists

Alexandra Roedder, cello, holds degrees in music, early music, and musicology from UC Berkeley, UCLA, and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She plays in ensembles throughout California, including the Stockton Symphony, Sacramento Baroque Soloists, InConcert Sierra, Camerata California, the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, and the Sacramento Philharmonic. Dr. Roedder serves as principal cello of several community orchestras and maintains a large teaching studio of ages 5 to 85.

Faythe Vollrath, harpsichordist, is actively heard as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States. Hailed by the Wall Street Journal for her “subtly varied tempo and rhythm that sounds like breathing,” her solo performances include venues such as MusicSources in Berkeley, California, Gotham Early Music in New York City, and Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Other unique experiences include a solo performance pairing Japanese harpsichord works with Japanese art at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and performing in a columbarium as part of the Garden of Memory in Oakland.

Read about this and other UC Davis concerts.

Sky Hopinka: Visting Artist Lecture Thursday

4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., Community Room, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis

Sky Hopinka, who was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington, is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and nonfiction forms of media.

His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape

Hopinka’s work was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial and Cosmopolis #2 and has been screened at Sundance, Punto de Vista, and the New York Film Festival. He has had solo exhibitions at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College and most recently at LUMA in Arles, France and fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Art Matters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In the fall of 2022, Hopinka received a MacArthur Fellowship for his work as a visual artist and filmmaker.

Organized by the Department of Art and Art History. Supported by the UC Davis College of Letters and Science and co-sponsored by the Manetti Shrem Museum.

Art Spark Studio at Manetti Shrem Museum

Art Spark 
1–4 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays 
Carol and Gerry Parker Art Studio

October: Horsing Around 

Incorporate natural materials into sculptures inspired by Deborah Butterfield: P.S. These are not horses. Exhibition information.

Julie Fowlis, interpreter of Gaelic songs, at Mondavi Friday

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, 7:30 p.m. Friday

For an artist who will forever be known for “Touch the Sky,” the stirring theme song from the Disney/Pixar film Brave, Julie Fowlis is anything but a one-hit wonder.

Fowlis, a native of the Outer Hebrides, is one of the preeminent modern interpreters of traditional Gaelic songs and a deeply knowledgeable scholar of Highland and Gaelic culture. With a career spanning five studio albums and numerous high-profile collaborations, her crystalline and intoxicating vocals have enchanted audiences around the world.

Run time: 1 hour and 30 minutes plus a 20-minute intermission.

Tickets and more information.

Renny Pritikin book signing Saturday

Renny Pritikin, formerly of the UC Davis Nelson Gallery, will sign his book, At Third and Mission, a Life Among Artists,  Saturday, Oct. 28, 248 Utah Street, San Francisco, 3:30 to 5 p.m. (Lecture is at 4 p.m.)

Pritikin is an American curator, museum professional, writer, poet and educator. He was the chief curator of San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum from 2014 to 2018. He was director of the Richard L. Nelson Gallery and the Fine Arts Collection at UC Davis from 2004 to 2012.

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Halloween events

TANA hosts Día de Muertos activities and fun Saturday

Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. through October, TANA

Special event Saturday, Oct. 28, 5 p.m. 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland

Throughout the month of October, TANA will offer family workshops facilitated by regional artists including Elyse Doyle-Martinez, whose work is included in Malaquias Montoya and the Legacies of a Printed Resistance. Day of the Dead-themed activities include calaca printing, papel picado, cempazuchil stringing and more. These sessions, open and free for all, take place throughout October at TANA. Read more about the whole TANA month, and a special event Oct. 28.

THIS SATURDAY: Celebrate with food, live performances, themed crafts for all ages and dancing. More information on the TANA site.

Shields Library features 'Myth, Folklore and Legend in the Archives'

Shields Library (Lobby - Left Side of Main Staircase), through Dec. 15, UC Davis

Welcome to Myth, Folklore, and Legend in Archives and Special Collections. For this year’s spooky season, the library is channeling witchy vibes by showcasing items such as Saducismus Triumphatus: Or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparition…, A Sensuous Witch and The Witches’ Frolic. Beyond the folklore of witches we also feature the “science” of palm reading, hoaxes gone awry and beasts of legend. Enjoy our sampling of rare illustrations depicting the wonders of the known and unknown.

Halloween-themed symphony concert is free

On this Halloween night, Oct. 31, as we begin the Día de los Muertos holiday, let us treat you to a free 1-hour concert. No tickets are required; simply walk in the door. The program features orchestral works that vividly illustrate traditional scenes of death. In “Danse macabre” a detuned violin calls the spirits of the dead (or even the skeletons!) into a frenzied dance on the stroke of midnight. “Death and Transfiguration” illustrates a slowing heart (or clock), a final breath, and a transfiguration into the heavens above. No tickets required.

More information.

Get a full list of Halloween activities (some art, some not) at UC Davis

Next week...

Dancer Misty Copeland headlines symposium

The American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland will headline a public symposium on women, philanthropy and mentorship on Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, University of California, Davis. Tickets are on sale now.

The event will feature a one-on-one conversation with the activist and bestselling author, who is the first Black woman principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Three notable UC Davis alumnae will also participate in a panel discussion: Kimberly S. Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Victoria Coleman, director of winemaking at the Caves at Soda Canyon; and Rinki Sethi, vice president and chief information security officer at BILL, a financial operations platform for small and midsize businesses.

The event is sponsored by Women & Philanthropy at UC Davis, a group that aims to ignite connections and nurture curiosity, and will also feature the announcement of the 2023 Women & Philanthropy Impact Award winner.

The award honors a UC Davis faculty or staff member for contributions to the advancement of women, exemplary leadership, and significant impact on local and global university communities. It comes with a $25,000 prize to be directed to the UC Davis fund of the winner’s choice. Read more about last year’s winner, Leigh Ann Simmons, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology.

This is the second annual Wisdom of Women symposium, following last year’s sold-out event with philanthropist, podcaster and bestselling author Glennon Doyle.

Read the full story.

Creating art with artificial intelligence explored in talk next Friday

Digital artist and educator Nettrice Gaskins, a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence in artmaking, will give a talk “Theory, Content and Style for the AI Revolution” for the Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design in the UC Davis Department of Design. Her free talk takes place Nov. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

• A livestream is available by registering in advance via
  arts.ucdavis.edu/alberinilivestream

In her presentation Gaskins will explain her methods, motivations and cultural critiques through her art. Her work centers on African Americans, Afrofuturism, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) education for historically marginalized communities.

“Where traditional artists would wield a paint brush, or camera, the 21st century affords artists tools from artificial intelligence to 2D imaging and 3D modeling to virtual reality, enabling them to create in innovative and novel ways,” said Gaskins. “Advancing technologies have dared artists to take new risks and art has responded in kind. My work explores human imagination and software algorithms to produce visuals that open new possibilities for creative expression.”