The Artist in the Library: Art and Crafts by the People of UCLA Libraries and Affiliated Institutions
July 1 – August 31

More than thirty pieces by twenty-six artists were featured, including paintings, drawings, photographs, needlework, knitting, quilting, jewelry, and stained glass. Artists included Susan Abler, Claire Bellanti, Sharon Benamou, Lynn Briance, Janet Carter, Normal Corral, Joel Daavid, Laura Danielson, Kay Deeney, Jamillah DeLaney, Mark Gens, Jan Goldsmith, Robert Gore, Esther Grassian, Callie Holmes, Cindy Kimmick, Marsha Kmec, Julie Kwan, Nouchinne Lavasani, Aura Lippincott, Octavio Olvera, Elizabeth Patterson, Louise Ratliff, and Rhonda Super.

Photo by C. Brown	Photo by C. Brown
Photo by C. Brown	Heatwave by Elizabeth Patterson Photo by the artist

The Artist in the Library Performance
August 10, 2006 – 2pm

Talented UCLA Library staff featured were Bridget Risemberg, performing selections on classical guitar; Daniel Luckenbill, reading from his novel “Michael Lyon,” Laura Horwitz, performing vocal works “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “Vissi d’Arte” from Tosca; Robert Gore, reading from his poetry; Gia Aivazian, reading Armenian folk tales; and Linda Ninomiya, Elaine Sakamoto, Harumi Ziegler and their teacher Charles Dauzat performing a Wu style Taiji Sword Form demonstration.

Photos by C. Brown

A Passion for Books: a 100th Anniversary Tribute to Lawrence Clark Powell
September 12 – October 31, 2006

Lawrence Clark Powell, for whom the Powell Library Building is named, was born on September 6, 1906. Beginning in 1944 until his retirement in 1966, he served variously as university librarian, head of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, and founding dean of UCLA’s graduate program in library science. UCLA Library collections and staff increased ten-fold during his tenure, and the number of campus libraries grew from one to eighteen. A powerful speaker as well as a gifted writer, he used his talents to promote his passions for books and reading; he was the author of nearly thirty books, a play and numerous articles.

This exhibit featured books, photographs and other memorabilia highlighting his professional and personal life; it was drawn from the holdings of the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, which houses his archive. It was organized with the assistance of Davis Dutton; Robert Gore, librarian, Arts Library; and Cristina Favretto, rare books librarian, Genie Guerard, manuscripts librarian, and Octavio Olvera, public services assistant, all in the Research Library Department of Special Collections.

The exhibit text is available here.

Also, read Davis Dutton’s tribute to Powell in the November 2006 issue of Westways magazine.

Photo by C. Brown	Photo by C. Brown
Photo by C. Brown	Oil painting by Netta Aldington, 1951
Photo by C. Brown	Oil painting by Frederick S. Wright, 1962

5th Annual Valentino’s Tango and Ragtime Ball
Saturday, October 21

Participants participated in learning the tango, waltz, foxtrot, and various “animal dances.” Dancers also watched the tango scene from Rudolph Valentino’s film “The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.”

Photo by C. Brown

6th Annual Waltz Through Time
Saturday, November 18

Special guest teacher Michael Espinoza taught the Argentine waltz or “Vals Cruzado.” Also featured were Regency period waltzes down to the present day.

Collegium Musicum, Early Music Workshop
Elisabeth Le Guin, Director
Friday, December 8, 2006
Afternoon Concert – 2:30pm

Sixty audience members attended this brief concert of medieval sacred and dance music just before final exams! Featured were an anonymous introit and psalm, and the kyrie from Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame followed by two estampies or dances, during the last of which Professor Le Guin invited the audience to participate. Vocalists included Caitlin Austin, Tara Biard, Ian Martyn (also on tin whistle), Adam McCrory, Ry Robinson (also on organ), Hanli Tjahyona (also on violin), Professor Elizabeth Upton, and Vlad Vizireanu (also on organ).

Photos by C. Brown

Tales of the Imagination: the Middle East in American Popular Fiction
November 6, 2006 – January 12, 2007

This exhibit featured items that testified to the powerful, continuing hold the Middle East has on Western imaginations. Its contents included books, magazines, and comic books illustrating themes inspired by the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, Rudolph Valentino’s character of the Sheik, biblical stories, Egyptian history, and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The exhibition curators were Jonathan Friedlander of the G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies, and filmmaker Erik Friedl. It’s contents drew from a large archive of Middle Eastern Americana collected by Friedlander and housed in the Research Library Department of Special Collections. It was the second in a series of exhibitions dealing with American Orientalism, the first of which “Seducing America: Selling the Middle Eastern Mystique,” which appeared in the Powell Library Rotunda last year.

Photos by Erik Friedl

Exhibit lecture:

“Terrorists, Fanatics and Spies: The Middle East in American Crime Fiction” by Reeva Simon, Yeshiva University, January 11

Photos by Erik Friedl