MORE AT SHIELDS LIBRARY

Last week we told you about two new exhibitions in the lobby of Shields Library. Now comes word of another — and it is one that resonates amid the ongoing national debate over immigration, and in particular, Mexican immigration.

Patsy Inouye of the University Library's Special Collections Department has put together Harvesting Sugar Beets, 1942, about farmworkers who entered the United States under the first formal agreement between the United States and Mexico.

Later known as the Bracero Program, Mexican guest workers came to the United States out of desperation for work at a time when the United States was desperate to replace the farmworkers who had been called to service in World War II.

The U.S.-Mexico agreements guaranteed payment of at least the prevailing area wage; employment for three-fourths of the contract period; adequate, sanitary and free housing; decent meals at reasonable prices; occupational insurance at the employer's expense; and free transportation back to Mexico at the end of the contract.

The Bracero Program was controversial. Most historians believe farmers ignored the rules, benefiting from the Mexicans' desperation for work. Mexican nationals believed they were underpaid and seen as cheap, plentiful labor. Books and articles from the library's collection provide an opportunity for further reading.

The exhibition comprises work by F. Hal Higgins, a prominent California agricultural journalist of the early to mid 20th century. UC Davis holds the F. Hal Higgins Collection, one of the largest and most significant agricultural technology history collections in the United States.

Higgins had been asked to promote and document the importation of Mexican guest workers, by writing articles and taking photographs — and, according to the University Library's website, his photographs offer an extraordinary look at the optimism and promise that the Mexican guest workers brought to California agriculture.

The website further states: "His descriptions were purposely very positive in order to publicize the success of the program and to ensure its continuation. These early images were chosen to highlight the optimism that the Mexican guest workers brought to the sugar beet farmers as they struggled to harvest their record-breaking crop. The photographs will be of particular interest to ethnic and agricultural historians."

The Harvesting Sugar Beets exhibition is scheduled tio run through the fall quarter. Shields Library hours: 7:30 a.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-midnight Sunday.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

• The Architecture of Thought — Ceremic works by Latika Jain, wheel throwing instructor at the Craft Center. Through Oct. 29, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Reception, 3-6 p.m. Oct. 23. Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and 10 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends.

• Conversations About Race — Built around this year's Campus Community Book Project: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, by Beverly Daniel Tatum. The General Library Committee on Diversity prepared the exhibition. Through spring quarter, lobby, Shields Library. Hours: 7:30 a.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-midnight Sunday.

• De Atole a Cuitlacoche … De Panuchos a Tlacoyos: Los Sabores de Mexico — A monthlong exhibition of many of the library’s food ethnographies, cookbooks and culinary histories of Mexico — which boasts one of the world's four greatest cuisines, according to the library's website. Through October, lobby, Shields Library. Hours: 7:30 a.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-midnight Sunday.

The exhibition coincides with food historian Diana Kennedy's Oct. 28 visit to campus. On that day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the library's Special Collections Department (first floor) will host a one-day viewing of some of the library's select holdings on the food and beverage of Mexico.

• Lampo Leong — Guest-curated by Katharine P. Burnett, professor, art history. Through Dec. 12, Nelson Entryway Gallery, 125 Art Building.

• Larry McNeil xhe dhé and Da-ka-xeen Mehner — Native Alaskan artists, exploring ideas that inform our times — from their ancestral and personal histories to global climate change. The artists work in photography and lithography, and, for the former, incorporate Kodachrome film in homage to its pending demise and place within the history of photography. Through Dec. 5, C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. Lecture program with both artists, along with a reception, 6 p.m. Oct. 27.

• Monotypes-Mixed Media on Paper — Described by the artist, Emma Luna, as "unique impressions produced by painting oil inks onto a plate." Through Oct. 31, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

• Vanishing Traditions: Textiles and Treasures from Southwest China — Wearable textiles and ornaments typical of the minority population of southwest China, where the skills of such adornment are vanishing.The exhibition's curator, Bea Roberts, shares what the museum describes as a "visually superb collection, acquired during her early visits to the region, when the villages were primarily intact in their cultural identity and before the traditions vanish in today's globalization race." Tthrough Dec. 5, Design Museum, 145 Walker Hall. Hours: noon-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2-4 p.m. Sunday.

• Wonderers — In guest-curating this exhibition, Matthias Geiger, assistant professor in the art department, gathered images from seven photographers and a collective whose work reflects the uprooted, peripatetic, nomadic existence that is many younger people live today. The exhibitors include Abby Banks, Richard Gilles, Justine Kurland, Joel Sternfeld, and Kyer Wiltshire, and the Cutter Collective. Through Dec. 12, Nelson Gallery, 124 Art Building. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and by appointment Friday-Sunday.

• Works by Maurine (Fay) Morse Nelson — Largely overshadowed by her husband, the Nelson Gallery namesake, Fay Morse Nelson "was "clearly a talented artist in her own right," says Renny Pritikin, director of the Nelson Gallery, who curated this exhibition. It includes almost all of Fay Morse Nelson's works from the university's Fine Arts Collection — with most of the works being exhibited for the first time in 13 years. Through Jan. 21, Gallagher Hall (home of the Graduate School of Management).

OFF CAMPUS

Christopher Dewees, professor emeritus in the Sea Grant Extension Program and a Cooperative Extension specialist in  Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, is one-half of the artist team behind Fins, Feathers & Flowers: Art From Nature — an exhibition of delicate fish and plant prints.

Dewees' art partner is his wife, Christine. Their exhibition is scheduled to run through Jan. 21 at the Davis Community Gallery, 2051 John Jones Road. 

Read more and see their work online.