FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Mary Anthony

mary.anthony@trinity.edu

Jan. 13, 2010

Academy Award Winner Dustin Lance Black to speak at Trinity University as Part of Stieren Arts Enrichment Series 

SAN ANTONIO – A screenwriter, a percussion quartet, and an art historian are among the distinguished array of outstanding leaders and talents in the fields of drama, art, and music coming to Trinity University as part of the spring Stieren Arts Enrichment Series.  All events are free and open to the public.

Dustin Lance Black

Dustin Lance Black will speak during “An Evening with Academy Award Winner Dustin Lance Black” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, in Laurie Auditorium.  He transitioned quickly from art director for commercials into directing and writing, winning the 2008 Academy Award® and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for Milk.  As writer and co-producer of the HBO series “Big Love,” Mr. Black drew on his Mormon childhood experiences in San Antonio.  He will re-team with Milk director Gus Van Sant for Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, an adaptation of the Tom Wolfe novel. Mr. Black is an honors graduate of UCLA’s School of Film and Television.

Painter Jim Torok will present “I Am Not Schizophrenic” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4, in the Stieren Theater.  After completing his BFA from Indiana University in 1979, he moved to New York City, where he received his MFA from Brooklyn College in 1981.  In recent years, Mr. Torok has created two very different bodies of work linked by an interest in the observation of people.  His first solo exhibition was in 1996 and in 1999, he began exhibiting his portraits and cartoons together at numerous exhibitions throughout the U.S. and Europe, including exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery.

Percussion quartet So Percussion will perform a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 6, in the Stieren Theater at 7:30 p.m.  Since coming together at the Yale School of Music, they have been creating music that is at turns raucous and touching.  Praised by Billboard magazine and The New York Times, the Brooklyn-based group has performed all over the United States with concerts at the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, and other venues.  Their concert at Trinity will feature a range of selections from percussion classics to original music.

Film aesthetician George Wilson will present “Love and Bullshit in Santa Rosa: On the Coen Brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, in the Stieren Theater.  He is a professor of philosophy and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California.  His main research interests are film aesthetics, theory of action, Wittgenstein, and philosophy of language.

Art historian Katy Siegel will present “First Man | Last Man: Apocalypse in Contemporary American Art” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in Chapman Auditorium.  She is associate professor at Hunter College, CUNY, editor-in-chief of Art Journal, and a contributing editor at Artforum.  She is a co-author of Art Works: Money (2004) and author of “Since ’45”: The American Condition and Contemporary Art (2010).  She has written extensively on contemporary art, including the work of artists Richard Tuttle, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami, and subjects such as “the collector,” “youth,” and “the public.”

Please note: Nelita True’s performance scheduled for Friday, Feb. 5 has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

The Stieren Arts Enrichment Series is made possible through an endowment created by Jane and the late Arthur T. Stieren of San Antonio.  For more information, contact Mary Anthony at 210-999-8441.

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