NEW THIS WEEK

• Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children's Literature — This exhibition comprises selected works by Joyce Carol Thomas, the poet, novelist, playwright, educator and motivational speaker who is the featured author for the School of Education's seventh annual Words Take Wing program. The General Library prepared the exhibition, which is scheduled to stay in place through the winter quarter in the Shields Library lobby. Regular 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. This year's Words Take Wing is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 9, with Thomas due to present two talks: 10:30 a.m., Freeborn Hall, and 7 p.m., Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. More information.

• Shiny Fancies: Playing with Glass and Silk — By Kim Nguyen, spinning, weaving and small glass sculptures instructor at the Craft Center. Feb. 12-March 11, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends. Reception for the artist, 5-6 p.m. Friday, March 11.

RECEPTION FOR HIDDEN GEMS

A reception is set for Friday, Feb. 11, in connection with Corrine Singleton's exhibition of photos depicting her new bronze sculpture series: Hidden Gems. The reception is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, where the exhibition is scheduled to run through Feb. 28.

"My inspiration for the Hidden Gems comes from New Mexico's Northern Mountains," the artist said. "The Land of Enchantment fills me with a deeper connection and understanding of nature and its transformation process. Each of my rocks is a small reminder of nature's scenic splendor; whimsical, delightfully energetic formations to wonder about. What are they?"

Singleton has exhibited her work at the Pence Gallery, Sacramento Fine Arts Center and the Yolo County Fair. She worked as an art resource teacher in the San Juan Unified School District from from 1984 to 1996.

Singleton is not a UC Davis alumna, but her husband, Joe, served as a coach and athletic director here from 1969 to 1987.

The Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

• American Gothic: Regionalist Portraiture from the Collection — A survey of portraiture over the past 100 years, from the university’s Fine Art Collection. Guest-curator Lee Plested has selected more than 100 pieces, including several new acquisitions never exhibited previously at the Nelson. From Whistler through Warhol, the exhibition includes significant presentations of major artists with a special focus on the Davis Five: Robert Arneson, Roy de Forest, Manuel Neri, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley. Through March 13, Nelson Gallery, Nelson Hall (formerly the University Club). Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Friday (by appointment only). This is one of two shows that are the first to be presented in the gallery's new home. See separate story.

• BAG (Bags Across the Globe): Designing to Reduce Waste — Faculty member Ann Savageau is the curator of this installation, showing the environmental damage from plastic bags — and promoting (and showing) an alternative: reusable bags made from textile waste. Through March 11, Design Museum, 145 Walker Hall. Hours: noon-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2-4 p.m. Sunday. See separate story.

• 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. Regular 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.

• Euclides da Cunha: A Life Between the Disciplines — This exhibition takes its name from a UC Davis symposium, held in November, about the Brazilian writer, poet and intellectual Euclides da Cunha, whose seminal work, Os sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands), published in 1902, recounted the messianic religious uprising that led to the 1897 Canudos War. Da Cunha also worked as an engineer, cartographer and geographer, and he was an early environmental scientist. This exhibition is the work of Myra Appel, head of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Government Information Services Department and bibliographer, Latin American Studies; and professors Leopoldo Bernucci and Robert Newcomb of the Department of Spanish and Classics, with assistance from Tim Silva (graphics) and Alison Lanius (display). Through winter quarter, lobby, Shields Library. Regular 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.

• Gordon Cook: Out There — Twenty paintings, drawings and lithographs by San Francisco’s Gordon Cook (1927-85), focusing on Cook’s fascination with water views, including many sites in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, while at the same time giving a strong sense of the wide range of his work: still-life paintings and an example of the freestanding painted cutout constructions that Cook liked to make for his friends and family. Guest-curated by renowned San Francisco critic and poet Bill Berkson. The exhibition comes 22 years after the Nelson’s presentation of a Cook show organized by Price Amerson. In recognition of that event, people who visit the Out There exhibition will be able to view a video of Professor Emeritus Wayne Thiebaud’s 1988 tribute to Cook. Through March 13, Nelson Gallery, Nelson Hall (formerly the University Club). Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Friday (by appointment only). This is one of two shows that are the first to be presented in the gallery's new home. See separate story.

• Harvesting Sugar Beets, 1942 — Comprising work by F. Hal Higgins, a prominent California agricultural journalist of the early to mid 20th century, who had been asked to document — in words and pictures — the importation of Mexican guest workers under a U.S.-Mexico agreement that later became known as the Bracero Program. Patsy Inouye of the University Library's Special Collections Department assembled the exhibition from the library's F. Hal Higgins Collection, one of the largest and most significant agricultural technology history collections in the United States. According to the University Library's website, Higgins' photographs offer an extraordinary look at the optimism and promise that the Mexican guest workers brought to California agriculture. Through winter quarter, lobby, Shields Library. Regular 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.

• Sa Moana: The Sea Inside — American Samoan artist Dan Taulapapa McMullin presents oil paintings and installation sculptures that express the complexities of contemporary life for Pacific Islanders. The exhibition, comprising new works developed recently in the Cook Islands and Fiji, and in California, address the issues of tsunami, climate change, the indigenous body, communal traditions and urban change. “From indigenous icons and social media images, Taulapapa investigates the critical position of Pacific Islanders in contemporary Oceania in works that challenge perceptions about Polynesian art," reads a postcard announcement for the exhibition. Through March 10, C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Artist's talk, 4 p.m. Thursday, March 10, followed by closing reception.

• Stitch x Stitch — Embroidery sketches by Laura J. Reyes, who received a Master of Fine Arts in textile design from UC Davis. Through Feb. 11, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends.

OFF-CAMPUS EXHIBITIONS

Consilience of Art and Science — Co-sponsored by the Art-Science Fusion Program and the Pence Gallery of Davis. "The artwork we received from artists across the nation explores the creative nexus where art and science interconnect," said Diane Ullman, professor of entomology, an associate dean and co-director of the Art-Science Fusion Program. Ullman and James Housefield, professor of design, juried the show. A jurors' walk-through, free and open to the public, is scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11. The exhibition is scheduled to run through Feb. 27 at the Pence Gallery, 212 D St. Hours: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, and 7-9 p.m. on Second Fridays (6 p.m. for members).

• Wayne Thiebaud, professor emeritus of art — Five of his paintings are on display at the California Museum in Sacramento, in conjunction with his induction Dec. 14 into the California Hall of Fame. See separate stories on Thiebaud, "Painter, teacher, visionary" and his induction into the California Hall of Fame. The museum has gathered personal items from all of the 2010 inductees, for an exhibition that is scheduled to run through next Oct. 31. Thiebaud's picks: Bikini Figure (1966), Waterland (1996), Two Tulip Sundaes (2009), and Intersection Building and Cliff Ridge (both from 2010), all oils, on canvas or wood. The museum is in the California State Archives building at 1020 O St., at the corner of 10th Street, one block south of Capitol Park. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. (No one admitted after 4:30 p.m.) Closed all major holidays and furlough Fridays.