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September 30, 2009 7:00 PM, Wednesday

Strange Fruit, Dir. Joel Katz, 2002, 57 min.
September 30, 7:00 p.m., Paley Library Lecture Hall

This event is a part of a Film Series Curated by Wolgin Prize Finalist Sanford Biggers
Introduction by Dr. Diane D. Turner, Curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

Director Joel Katz explores the history of the popular song "Strange Fruit," written by Abel Meeropol and famously performed by Billie Holiday, through interviews with musicians, historians, genealogists and more. Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind this heartbreaking American classic.

This event is part of a series of collaborative public programs presented in conjunction with the Tyler School of Art’s Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts

About Wolgin Prize Finalist Sanford Biggers

Sanford Biggers (b. 1970, Los Angeles) is a native of Los Angeles, California, and current New York resident, who uses the study of ethnological objects, popular icons, and the Dadaist tradition to explore cultural and creative syncretism, art history, and politics. An accomplished musician, Biggers often incorporates performative elements into his sculptures and installations, resulting in multilayered works that act as anecdotal vignettes, at once full of wit and clear formal intent. Biggers has won several awards and has participated in a number of prestigious national and international artist residencies and fellowships. Sanford Biggers' installations, videos, and performances have appeared in institutions in China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Russia as well as several notable exhibitions such as the Prospect.1/New Orleans biennial, Illuminations at the Tate Modern, Performa 07, the Whitney Biennial and Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He is currently preparing for solo shows at the Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara and the Brooklyn Museum and a permanent commission in New York City through the New York Percent for Art.

About the Competition

Created in 2009 by the real estate developer, banker and philanthropist Jack Wolgin of Philadelphia, the Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts was established at the Temple University Tyler School of Art to recognize an emerging artist with a significant studio practice who critically and creatively engages with existing histories and images, and whose work transcends traditional boundaries. With a cash prize of $150,000, the Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts grants the world’s largest juried visual art prize awarded to an individual.

Inspired by the diversity of Temple University and its unique connection to the thriving art communities of Philadelphia, Mr. Wolgin chose the Tyler School to host and administrate the Competition. By bringing the work of innovative and talented artists to the Tyler School, the Competition seeks to open a dialogue among students, the diverse communities of Philadelphia, and the greater art world. The exchange of ideas and art inspired by the Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts also perpetuates the spirit of Philadelphia, a cultural hub since our nation’s founding, rich in both historic and contemporary art.

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

An exhaustive, three-year search for some tapes that contained the original footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk has concluded that they were probably destroyed during a period when NASA was erasing old magnetic tapes and reusing them to record satellite data.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106637066

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2009

Contact:
Jennifer McLennan
jennifer@arl.org

SPARKY VIDEO CONTEST GOES LOCAL, ADDS PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
Competition showcases student videos, promotes library services
and offers instructors a fun and thought-provoking class assignment

Washington, DC - April 9, 2009 - The organizers of the popular Sparky Awards, which recognize the best new short videos on the value of information sharing, are calling on colleges and universities to organize their own campus video competitions in 2009 to get maximum benefit from the third-annual installment of the contest.

Well-suited for adoption as a class assignment, the Sparky Awards invite contestants to submit videos of two minutes or less that imaginatively portray the benefits of the open, legal exchange of information. The contest is an opportunity to promote library services, including media services or the information commons, where students can edit video, browse media, work collaboratively and learn about copyright.

Last year Brigham Young University (BYU), Penn State University, and Dartmouth College were among the campuses that organized local Sparky contests. "The experience was remarkable," said BYU librarian Randy Olsen. "Although our contest was open for less than a month, we received seven submissions prepared by 58 students. The night we screened the entries I invited the video producers to introduce their works. In every case the students spoke articulately, even passionately, about open access and it was obvious that they had become conversant with all of the issues we as librarians care so much about. By the end of the evening I felt that our investment in the awards - an iTouch and two fifty dollar checks - was money well spent."

Entries in the international Sparky Awards competition must be received between April 9 and December 6, 2009. To be eligible, videos must be freely available on the Internet and available for use under a Creative Commons License.

In addition to the international Grand Prize and Runner-up winners selected by a distinguished jury, the organizers are adding a People's Choice Award this year, which will give visitors to the Sparky Web site a chance to vote for their favorite entry in the international competition. People's Choice voting will be open between December 8, 2009 and January 30, 2010, after all entries have been received.

The international award-winning videos will be announced in conjunction with the January 2010 American Library Association Midwinter Conference in Boston, where the winners will be screened. The national Grand Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000 along with a Sparky Award statuette. The Runner Up and People's Choice winners will each receive $500 plus a personalized award certificate. At the discretion of the judges, additional Special Merit Awards may be designated.

For details on the contest and tips on organizing a local competition, visit the Sparky Awards Web site at http://www.sparkyawards.org.

# # #

THE SPARKY AWARDS are organized and sponsored by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), an alliance of academic libraries and research institutions that promotes new scholarly communication models that expand sharing of information via the Internet. SPARC is a founder of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, representing taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and institutions that support open public access to taxpayer-funded research.

The Secret Cinema and The Urban Archives present
Films from the Urban Archives: Secrets from Philadelphia's Past

This event will be the first ever public screening of films held in the Urban Archives collection, comprised of the former news and public affairs film libraries of two Philadelphia television stations. The Television Audiovisual Collections of the Urban Archives consists of approximately 14,000 cans of 16mm film from WPVI (formerly WFIL) and KYW. They include both aired and unused news footage, original documentaries and other special programming. The footage dates back to 1947 (when WFIL-TV first went on the air) and continues through the early 1980s. There will be two different blocks of film, each lasting approximately 90 minutes.

For more info: http://www.thesecretcinema.com

* Bruce Baillie, Here I Am (1962)
* Wallace Berman, Aleph (1956-66?)
* Stan Brakhage, The Riddle of Lumen (1972)
* Robert Breer, Eyewash (1959)
* Shirley Clarke, Bridges-Go-Round (1958)
* Joseph Cornell, By Night with Torch and Spear (1940s?)
* Storm De Hirsch, Peyote Queen (1965)
* Hollis Frampton, (nostalgia) (1971)
* Larry Gottheim, Fog Line (1970)
* Ken Jacobs, Little Stabs at Happiness (1959-63)
* Lawrence Jordan, Hamfat Asar (1965)
* George Kuchar, I, An Actress (1977)
* Owen Land, New Improved Institutional Quality: In the Environment of Liquids and Nasals a Parasitic Vowel Sometimes Develops (1976)
* Standish Lawder, Necrology (1969-70)
* Saul Levine, Note to Pati (1969)
* Christopher Maclaine, The End (1953)
* Jonas Mekas, Notes on the Circus (1966)
* Marie Menken, Go! Go! Go! (1962-64)
* Robert Nelson & William T. Wiley, The Off-Handed Jape...& How to Pull it Off (1967)
* Pat O'Neill, 7362 (1967)
* Ron Rice, Chumlum (1964)
* Paul Sharits, Bad Burns (1982)
* Jane Conger Belson Shimane, Odds & Ends (1959)
* Harry Smith, Film No. 3: Interwoven (1947-49)
* Chick Strand, Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
* Andy Warhol, Mario Banana (No. 1) (1964)

Tuesday, March 24, 2:30 PM, Paley Library Lecture Hall

Moskowitz exhumed the book Stones of Summer from obscurity and turned it into a full-length film highlighting the importance of creating a repository for books and information. His “re-discovery” of this book and eventual creation of the film emphasizes the relationship between new mediums and traditional print materials. Please join us as Moskowitz discusses filmmaking, his extraordinary journey into his Lost Book Club, and his current projects which tie together history and art.

Questions?
Contact Library Communications Manager
Phone: 215-204-2828