Katja Loher: Videoplanet-Orchestra

Davenport, Iowa (January 21, 2014) - Beginning Saturday, New York-based Swiss video artist Katja Loher will create a multi-sensory environment in the third floor gallery of the Figge Art Museum for the exhibition Katja Loher: Videoplanet­-Orchestra.

This site-specific "inter-planetary" installation will feature kaleidoscopic video works projected onto floating spheres and from within glass spheres. Elements from new and existing works will be incorporated and will all come together for the first time.

Visitors of Katja Loher: Videoplanet-Orchestra will enter the darkened third floor gallery space into a magical universe of floating spheres of varying sizes, whose rounded forms serve as sites for video projections. Museum patrons will have the chance to peer into a series of mini or micro-worlds in which costumed dancers form letters that compose words and sentences to pose simple, thought-provoking questions.

Loher's dramatic installation creates dreamlike, immersive environments for the visitor that question the balance between humans, nature and technology. Each tiny "universe" in the exhibition provides an elaborate commentary on big issues.

The exhibition is presented through a generous grant from the Riverboat Development Authority and through a multi-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Eastern Iowa Community College District and will be on view through May 4, 2014.  

Companion Programming:

Donor Luncheon

Noon Thursday, January 23

Donors at the Benefactor Level and above as well as media members are invited to a luncheon with artist Katja Loher. RSVP to Amy Martens 563-326-7804 x2007.

Artist Talk

7 p.m. Thursday, January 23

Join artist Katja Loher as she introduces her exhibition. All are invited to this event, which will include a special live performance by Loher's Bubble Lady, Saori Tsukada.

Gallery Talk

7 p.m. Thursday, February 13

Join photographer/videographer Josh Ford, award-winning choreographer Kim Munn and WQAD Channel 8's chief meteorologist James Zahara in a lively, engaging discussion of Katja Loher: Video Planet - Orchestra, a unique, multi-media exhibition. From discussion on video and dance to floating spheres, this is a not-to-be-missed gallery talk!  Sponsored by River Cities' Reader.

FREE Family Day

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Saturday, February 22

Beat the winter blues during this family celebration. Explore the amazing world of glass and video through art projects, gallery quests and more. $5 burger baskets will be served in the Dining Room until 1:30 p.m. Sponsored by U.S. Bank.

Katja Loher Exhibition Tours

1:30 p.m. Saturdays • February 8 and March 22

1:30 p.m. Sundays • February 9, 16, 23 and March 9 and 30

About the Figge Art Museum 

The Figge Art Museum is located on the riverfront in downtown Davenport at 225 West Second Street. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday and Sundays 12-5 p.m. Thursdays the museum is open until 9 p.m. Admission to the museum and tour is $7. Admission is free to Figge members and institutional members and free to all on Thursday evenings from 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. To contact the museum, please call 563.326.7804, or visit www.figgeartmuseum.org.

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Davenport, Iowa (January 15, 2014) - Kids Design Glass, sponsored locally by U.S. Bank, will open at the Figge Art Museum on Saturday. This traveling exhibition of 52 colorful glass sculptures, along with the original drawings that inspired them, originated as an educational program where master glass artists from the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington selected drawings of mythical monsters by local school children and turned them into glass sculptures.

The exhibition explores the creative process, from pure imagination to advanced technical skills. As Benjamin W. Cobb, one of the lead artists on the project, wrote in the exhibition catalog, "For the kids, it is several minutes of creativity and fun in the studio. For the glassblowers, the program means several hours of sweating it out in the Hot Shop, staying true to a design with unrealistic dimensions, unforgiving irregularities, and strange color combinations...we, the glassblowers, have to let go of everything we have learned about symmetry, form, color and perfection and embrace an artistry that colors outside the lines."

To personalize the experience of presenting Kids Design Glass at the Figge, a drawing by a young artist (12 and under) from the Quad Cities will be selected by the Hot Shop artists from the Museum of Glass. The lucky child's artwork will be translated into a glass sculpture. This process will be streamed live from the Hot Shop in Tacoma, Washington from 2-7 p.m. on March 30 in the Figge Art Museum auditorium. The contest will run from February 1 - February 22. Visit www.figgeartmuseum.org for an entry form.

Kids Design Glass will be on view through May 4, 2014.  

Companion Programming:

FREE Family Day

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Beat the winter blues during this family celebration. Explore the amazing world of glass and video through art projects, gallery quests and more. $5 burger baskets will be served in the Dining Room until 1:30 p.m.

Kids Talk about Kids Design Glass

7 p.m. Thursday, March 6

Melissa Mohr, director of education, introduces the exhibition. Local children will also share their perspectives.

Art Talk: Kids Design Glass

7 p.m. Thursday, March 20

Alex Stisser, one of the original Hot Shop artists, will discuss the exhibition and his involvement with the initial project at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington.

Kids Design Glass LIVE 

2-7 p.m. Sunday, March 30

Join the local winner of the Kids Design Glass drawing contest as he/she Skypes with the glass team from the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington live in the Figge Art Museum auditorium. Watch as the glass sculpture comes to life on the live feed.

Kids Design Glass Exhibition Tours 

1:30 p.m. Saturdays • February 1, 15, 22 and March 8, 29

1:30 p.m. Sundays • February 2 and March 16

About the Figge Art Museum 

The Figge Art Museum is located on the riverfront in downtown Davenport at 225 West Second Street. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday and Sundays 12-5 p.m. Thursdays the museum is open until 9 p.m. Admission to the museum and tour is $7. Admission is free to Figge members and institutional members and free to all on Thursday evenings from 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. To contact the museum, please call 563.326.7804, or visit www.figgeartmuseum.org.

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Red Cedar Chamber Music Performs He's Gone Away

Red Cedar Chamber Music presents He's Gone Away at Brucemore on Saturday, February 22 at 8:00 p.m. Flutist Jan Boland, guitarist John Dowdall, tenor Jonathan Dyrland, narrator Michael Zahs, and actor Susie Streit commemorate the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a blend of nineteenth-century American music, readings from Iowa Civil War letters, and stories about Iowa's role in our nation's greatest conflict.  The poignant Appalachian ballad, He's Gone Away, and letters between a Washington, Iowa soldier and his wife highlight the challenges faced by women left at home, while stories of Iowa nurses reveal contributions women made on the battlefield.  A champagne and dessert reception will be held during intermission.

Tickets are $35 per person or $30 per Brucemore member.  Space is limited; purchase tickets online at www.brucemore.org, by telephone at (319) 362-7375, or by visiting the Brucemore Store.

The He's Gone Away concert provides a natural partnership between two local cultural organizations?nineteenth-century chamber music in a nineteenth-century parlor. As artists in residence at Brucemore in 1983, Jan Boland and John Dowdall began performing nineteenth-century music on period instruments?an 1830 wooden flute and an 1830 gut-strung guitar. Currently celebrating its seventeenth season, Red Cedar Chamber Music continually strives to reach, challenge, and expand audiences that rarely have the opportunity to attend chamber music performances. Red Cedar Chamber musicians inform and entertain audiences, engaging them with lively commentary about the music, composers, and instruments. Their first recording, Czech Chamber Music, received a Critics' Choice award from the American Record Guide, which stated, "Chamber music should be just like this?intimate, bonding, and conversational." For more information about Red Cedar Chamber Music or other performances, visit www.redcedar.org or call (319) 377-8028.

Experience Brucemore, an unparalleled blend of tradition and culture, located at 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the heart of the historic 26-acre estate stands a nineteenth-century mansion filled with the stories of three Cedar Rapids families.  Concerts, theater, programs, and tours enliven the site and celebrate the heritage of a community.  For more information, call (319) 362-7375 or visit www.brucemore.org.