Tired of being cooped up? Need to get out and experience some up close and personal art and culture? Although many events are still opting for a virtual format, many venues are open for in-person events.

Several art exhibitions are currently on display at the Erb Memorial Union, including Cameron McCafferty’s “Pea Baby” in the Aperture Gallery, “Lost/Found” in the Adell McMillan Gallery and “Orbits and Entanglements” in the LaVerne Krause Gallery in Lawrence Hall. And while you’re at the EMU, be sure to pick up your free embroidery craft kit.

Art

Join Macarena Gómez-Barris, Lucy L. Lippard, Nomusa Makhubu, Julie Sze, T.J. Demos, Emily Eliza Scott and Subhankar Banerjee for the virtual book launch of “The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture and Climate Change” on April 2. The volume brings together leading and emerging voices to address questions on how art and visual culture matter in a world shaped by climate breakdown.

The spring 2021 Visiting Artist Lecture Series will welcome on April 8 New York museum curator, writer and historian Glenn Adamson, who will present “Craft in America: Real and Ideal.” In a conversation with UO art professor Anya Kivarkis, Adamson will discuss his new book, “Craft: An American History,” on the implication of race, gender and class in U.S. craft history.

Art, inspiration and stories merge in “The Power of Indigenous Stories and Art” in the “Conversations About our World Talk Series” virtual event April 9. Join a conversation with Yakama women Crystal L. Buck and Indigenous author Michelle M. Jacob and learn about what inspires their artwork and storytelling.

Aruna D’Souza will host the virtual event “Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And” April 14 to discuss O’Grady’s contributions in performance, conceptual photography and feminist art since 1980 and the entrenched segregation of the art world.

On April 15, the spring 2021 “Visiting Artist Lecture Series” will host a conversation with Alison Saar and Hank Willis Thomas, whose works are on display at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art through June 14. Saar’s sculpture, prints and paintings focus on issues of race, gender and spirit. Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist working with themes related to perspective identity, commodity, media and popular culture.

Next up in the series on April 22 is “Rebecca Morris: Artist Talk.” An abstract painter, Morris’ large-scale canvases explore questions of frame dynamics and figure/ground illusions within a shallow pictorial space.

Crafts

Swing by the Outdoor Craft Center in the EMU April 14 and pick up your free bee embroidery craft kit. Each kit includes instructions, an embroidery hoop, thread, a needle and preprinted fabric.

Cinema

Join Department of Cinema Studies associate professor and Oregon Humanities Center faculty research fellow Daniel Gómez Steinhart for his work-in-progress talk, “Cross-Border Hollywood: Film Politics, Production and Style in Mexico” on April 16. Based on his book of the same name, Gómez Steinhart examines the history of Hollywood productions in Mexico from the early 1940s to the late 1960s and the complicated cross-cultural exchanges that connect the two countries.

Co-sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center, the 2021 African Studies Lecture Series presents Allison McGuffie’s lecture on “Wholesome Entertainment: Transnational NGO Films in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1989-2009” on April 28.

Exhibitions

Sponsored by the UO Center for Art and Research, Garrick Imatani’s project “Monologue,” which explores the artist’s Japanese cultural heritage and questions the aesthetics of assimilation and authenticity, can be viewed beginning April 3 at Eugene Contemporary Arts gallery Anti-Aesthetic.

What happens when you swallow a holy pea? Through a series of illustrations on exhibit through April in the EMU’s Aperture Gallery, artist Cameron McCafferty explores religion through the story of Angela, who has been chosen to give birth to a pea baby.

“Lost/Found,” works by advanced printmaking students, is on display at the EMU’s Adell McMillan Gallery. Ranging from traditional techniques of relief, intaglio, screen print and letterpress to unique and unconventional works on paper and textiles, the exhibition showcases the diversity of printmaking as well as its artists.

Visit the LaVerne Krause Gallery in Lawrence Hall to view “Orbits and Entanglements,” featuring new work by Elijah Denker, Eva Emter and Billy von Raven.

Every year, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art partners with the UO’s Common Reading program, which focuses on a shared book and its themes, for “Common Seeing,” an exhibition that explores the book through visual art. The 2020-21 Common Reading novel is “This is My America” by Kimberly Johnson, the UO’s assistant vice provost for advising. Highlighting themes on Blackness, the Black experience and dismantling racism, the “Common Seeing Look. Listen. Learn. Act” exhibit will feature works by Hank Willis Thomas, Alison Saar, Lezley Saar and Kara Walker. Be sure to also explore the museum’s virtual tour of Look. Listen. Learn. Act.

Theater

On April 23, associate professor of theater arts Theresa May will give a books-in-print talk, “Earth Matters on Stage: Ecology, Environment and American Theater.” Her book tells the story of how American theater has shaped popular understanding of the environment throughout the 20th century and its potential power in the age of climate change.

Music

The Twentieth Century and Beyond Piano Recital happens April 3 at Beall Concert hall. Pianist Anson Sin and accompanist Nathalie Fortin will perform classic selections from Mozart, Chopin, Barber and Prokofiev.

Classic rock music from the 1960s through the 1980s finally gets the respect it deserves! Nullifying the misconception that pop music is unrefined, assistant professor of music theory and 2016-17 Oregon Humanities Center faculty research fellow Drew Nobile presents “Form as Harmony in Rock Music” for a books-in-print talk April 9. Although many elements contribute to the cohesion of a song, Nobile contends that the rock music of these decades is built around a fundamentally harmonic backdrop, giving rise to distinct types of verses, choruses and bridges.

The sixth annual Musicking Conference kicks off April 12-15 with a variety of events, from workshops and online concerts to master classes, and then segue into the Society for Seventeenth Century Conference Music through April 18.

On April 22, Stephon Alexander, professor of physics at Brown University and the president of the National Society of Black Physicists, will give the talk “What a Scientist Learned from Jazz about Innovation” via Zoom as a guest of the UO physics department. A jazz saxophonist, Alexander also explores interconnections between music, physics, mathematics and technology though recordings, performance, teaching and public lectures.

On April 23, the School of Music and Dance’s THEME Colloquium Series: “Uncovering Lost Treasures” will feature American pianist Lara Downes, who will speak about her experience uncovering a set of previously undiscovered music by composer Florence Price and her collaboration with musicologist J. Michael Cooper of Southwestern University and other musicologists.

Browse the UO School of Music and Dance YouTube site, which features a variety of excellent music and dance performance.

Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Join University of Oregon oceanographer Dave Sutherland April 7 for “Beneath the Tips of Greenlandic Icebergs,” the Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s Ideas on Tap monthly virtual pub talk. Sutherland’s discussion will center on the iceberg life cycle and how Greenlandic iceberg melt is affecting global climate.

Streaming resources

The internet is a virtual treasure trove of exhibits, collections, audio, video and images for online entertainment.

National Public Radio provides a comprehensive list of free things that weren’t free before the coronavirus, from Broadway musicals and concerts to educational resources and sports.

Be sure to check out the UO Channel, featuring an assortment of livestreamed events, Department of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series videos, guest speakers and more.

Explore the vast virtual collections of museums, stories, galleries and more at Google’s arts and culture site.

—By Sharleen Nelson, University Communications