Fall is in the air, students will be returning to campus, and it’s time to start gearing up for arts-related autumn events.

National Hispanic Heritage Month begins Sept. 15, with many events scheduled to be announced on campus and in the community. And over the summer, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art launched a variety of new exhibitions that you won’t want to miss.

And Ducks After Dark returns with snacks, activities and a screening of Disney’s “Cruella.” Also back is the popular Ideas on Tap lecture series, in which Zachary Stocks, executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers, will discuss the deadliest maritime accident in American history and the role the ship that sank played in Oregon’s Black history.

Art

Experience art outdoors Sept. 2 at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History courtyard. Be inspired by Oregon native plant species while learning drawing and color-layering in “The Art of Nature,” a hands-on workshop led by illustrator Kris Kirkeby. 

Exhibitions

Experience the Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s award-winning exhibition “Racing to Change: Oregon’s Civil Rights Years—The Eugene Story” exhibition before it leaves for good Sept. 19.

The exhibit chronicles the civil rights movement in Eugene during the 1960s and 1970s, a time of upheaval, conflict and celebration. Photographs, recorded interviews and historical archives explore the legacies of racism and the unceasing efforts of Oregon’s Black communities to bring about change.

Catch up on all the new exhibitions that opened at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art over the summer. Part of an international campaign curated by photographer Cephas Williams, “56 Black Men” features a selection of the artist’s photographs that aim to change the narrative on the representation of Black men in the media.

Inspired by the “56 Black Men” campaign, Lisa Abia-Smith, director of education and senior faculty instructor in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, has created the “I Am More Than Who You See” education programs and exhibitions based on a series of annual UO student workshops focusing on identity and misrepresentation.

During the 1930s and ’40s artist Morris Graves experimented with materials such as newsprint, cardboard and rice paper to create still life paintings and studies of objects based on his interests in furniture design, domestic spaces, symbolism and transcendental consciousness. The “On the Surface” exhibition is drawn from the museum’s “Graves at Oregon collection” and includes two photographs of the artist and his home by Mary Randlett.

Featuring new work created almost entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, Libby Wadsworth's “Always InFormation” incorporates letterpress printmaking, painting and photography to blur the distinctions between text and image.

“Tiempo suspendido (Suspended Time),” featuring the work of Myrna Báez and Norma Vila Rivero, explores the relationship between figure and landscape in Puerto Rico through silkscreen and woodcut prints by Báez and new photographs by Vila Rivero.

Experience art from the comfort of home with the museum’s virtual tours of selected special exhibitions and permanent collection galleries. Take a leisurely stroll at your own pace using circle icons to navigate. Zoom in on individual artworks for a closer look, view high-resolution, 360-degree photos or click on object labels for access informational links, brochures and study guides.

Be sure to also visit the art museum’s “Shared Visions” exhibitions in person or online to see works by internationally recognized artists and artworks from around the world, borrowed from private holdings. View artwork from Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas and others.

The Visual Arts Team presents “Generative Art: The Beautiful Side of Math,” an exhibition by Cruz Godar, a graduate student in the UO math department. His images of fractals and related objects highlight an intrinsic beauty anyone can appreciate, mathematician or not. The exhibition opens Sept. 24 in the Adell McMillan Gallery at the Erb Memorial Union.

Theater

University Theatre announced its 2021-22 season, which kicks off in November with the classic Dicken’s holiday drama “A Christmas Carol,” followed in January by “Personal History,” a drama about American life from the perspective of a Chicago African American couple. The Broadway hit “Once” will be presented in February and “God Said This,” a drama that busts the stereotypes about submissive Japanese American women, in April. The season wraps in May with the Noël Coward classic comedy “Hay Fever.”

Cinema

Join fellow film lovers Sept. 30 in the EMU Redwood Room for a Ducks After Dark screening of the Disney drama “Cruella,” starring Emma Stone as the notoriously fashionable villain Cruella de Vil. Free for UO students with a valid UO ID.

Lectures

Ideas on Tap, the popular monthly pub talk from the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, returns virtually on Zoom and Facebook Sept. 1 with “Brother Jonathan and Oregon’s Black History.”

When the steamship Brother Jonathan wrecked near the Oregon-California border in 1865, it made headlines for being the deadliest maritime accident in American history. Join Oregon Black Pioneers Executive Director Zackary Stocks for a deeper understanding of the ship’s significance in Oregon’s Black history.

Streaming resources

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

Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month online. View exhibits and collections and watch and listen to video and audio presentations on Hispanic history, culture and folklife, music, poetry and literature, politics and government, and sports from the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

If you’ve mined everything from the streaming channels and are searching for a more eclectic collection of films, Open Culture offers more than 4,000 free movies, from classics, indies and film noir to documentary foreign and silent films.

Explore the UO Channel for a variety of livestreamed events, Department of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series videos, guest speakers and more.

—By Sharleen Nelson, University Communications