Where is the place you call your home? How do we become familiar with a place, and how does that place live in us? A series of events that poses these questions and celebrates community will be offered through the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point March 4-April 21.
"Expressions of Place" events will include community performances, lectures, activities and exhibits in Stevens Point and on the UW-Stevens Point campus. All events are free and open to the public.
"We invite people who live or have lived in Stevens Point to come celebrate this place, listen and learn, and share their own stories, ideas and memories," said Diana Hoover, a professor of graphic design who is coordinating the series.
A community memory map will travel to different locations and events so residents may add their own personal reflections on living in the area. It will be exhibited at the end of the series.
Events include:
- Saturday, March 4, 4:30-6:30 p.m., "Honoring People and Place" Opening Reception and Feast, Noel Fine Arts Center courtyard
Local foods will be served, and special recognition will be given to native people of the Stevens Point area, the Menominee and Ho-Chunk nations, as well as other indigenous people of Wisconsin.
- Thursday-Saturday, March 9-11, Interaction Design dance installation, Studio Theatre, Noel Fine Arts Center
Interact with a video in which text forms and moves with the dancer in this video piece by Joan Karlen, professor of dance.
- Wednesday, March 15, 6-8:30 p.m., "The Bird Woman of the Lonely Fjord" dance performance, Noel Fine Arts Center courtyard and balconies
Dance students will perform an original piece, created by Dance Professor Michael Estanich, that visualizes migration, place and identity. A talk will follow.
- Wednesday, March 15-Monday, April 15, "terrain/territories: dreams of place" art exhibition, Edna Carlsten Gallery, Noel Fine Arts Center
The exhibit, created by Graphic Design Assistant Professor Matt Groshek, features artists who address place, mapping and concepts of navigating both physical and internal worlds as part of the human experience. An opening reception will be held Wednesday, March 15, from 4-6 p.m.
- March 20-April 12, Traveling and Transformation, art exhibit, Agnes Jones Gallery, College of Professional Studies
A showing of artwork by faculty and staff, produced while or about traveling. A closing reception will be held Monday, April 10, from 2-4 p.m.
- Thursday, March 30, 6-8 p.m., "Placemaking: Using Public Art to Build Community," speaker and community forum, IDEA Center, 1039B Ellis Street, Stevens Point
Greg Wright, executive director of the CREATE Portage County, will speak about the arts organization's work and offer networking and sharing opportunities.
- Friday, March 31, 2-6 p.m., "Representing Place" research symposium, College of Professional Studies Room 116
UW-Stevens Point students and faculty members from geography, design and sociology will present projects focusing on aspects of place.
- Thursday, April 6, 7-9:30 p.m., "Sky Hopinka: Encounters with Place," video screening and discussion, IDEA Center
Alex Ingersoll, professor of Media Studies at UW-Stevens Point, will host the screening with Hopinka, a native American from Washington who lives in Milwaukee.
- Thursday, April 13, 1-4:30 p.m., "Indigenous Perceptions of Place," speakers circle, Albertson Hall lobby and 107A
Featured speakers from Wisconsin's Native American tribes as well as archeologists will present insights on the land, mapping work, culture and how place holds meaning.
- Friday, April 14, 4-6 p.m. "Reflective Spaces" Labyrinth Talk and Walk, Stevens Point Sculpture Park, 900 2nd St. N., Stevens Point, WI 54481
Katja Marquart, associate professor of interior architecture, leads an interactive exploration of the labyrinth installed at the Sculpture Park. Judi Olson of the park's Education Committee will speak on her work with area schools.
- Friday, April 21, 12-4 p.m. "Remembering Where We Are" closing reception, Specht Forum/Sundial This celebration of community is the final stop of the community memory map.
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