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Tuesday,
March 30, 2004 |
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Month-long
festival will teach culture
The
inter-department celebration will expose students to different
cultures through concerts, art and plays.
By
Lauren Lea
Staff Reporter
A colorful celebration of Latin American heritage begins
Thursday as TCU hosts a month-long Latin American Arts
Festival.
Six departments on campus collaborated to feature different
varieties of art created by Latin American artists. Scheduled
events include concerts, plays, dance recitals and a month-long
art exhibit featuring pre-Columbian sculpture and ceramics,
recently donated to TCU.
Scott Sullivan, dean of the college of fine arts, said
TCU hosts the festival to expose students to the arts
of Latin American countries.
“This gives students a chance to learn about other
cultures through art, which is an important part of education,”
he said. “It exposes students and the Fort Worth
community to art forms that they probably know very little
about.”
The festival began in 1998 originally as only a music
festival and other art forms were incorporated in 2002.
Each department organizes and plans its aspect of the
festival, and tries to include as many different art forms
as possible. He also said they try to include many different
types of cultures.
“Hopefully it will be broader and deeper than the
Mexican culture that we are used to,” Sullivan said.
A new addition to this year’s festival is literature,
which will be discussed in the lecture about Argentine
literature. “The Labyrinth, the Ring and the Spaceship”
will be at 7 p.m. on April 12 in Moudy Building North,
Room 141.
Sullivan said students go to area schools and perform
concerts and plays for children. He said they also try
to appeal to the Hispanic community through advertisements
in the Spanish newspaper “La Estrella” and on
Spanish television and radio stations.
One of the first events is the play “Burning Patience”
by Chilean author Antonio Skarmeta. Harry Parker, the
theater department chairman, said it’s the true story
of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize winning poet. This year
they made sure to select a play written by someone from
Latin America, he said.
“I think the festival is a great program,” Parker
said. “The students are very excited and we’re
glad to be a part of it.”
Lori Diel, assistant professor of art history, said the
art department was very excited to receive the collection
of pre-Columbian sculptures from William Runyon. The pieces
are from various cultures in Central America, but most
are from western Mexico, she said. They will be on display
all month in the lobby of the Walsh Center for the Performing
Arts.
The festival culminates April 24 with the “Fiesta
Latina” party in the Student Center. There will be
free food, live music and salsa dancing for students. |
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