Lecture 7 p.m. in the Vanderslice Reception Rooms.
 
Janet Burroway is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita of the Florida State University and the author of eight novels, plays, poetry, essays, texts for dance and children's books. Her "Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft" is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and her multi-genre "Imaginative Writing" is preparing for a third edition.

Her poems, stories and essays have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Mademoiselle, New Statesman, The Guardian, MS, Story Quarterly, New Virginia Review, Prairie Schooner, Prague Review, Five Points, St. Petersburg Times, Ninth Letter and New Letters.

Her poems, plays and stories have been broadcast by the BBC Radio and Television, Thames Television, ATV Television (all London), and National Public Radio in the U.S.

Her play for television Hoddinott Veiling went to the Monaco Festival as British ITV's entry.

She has collaborated since 1995 with choreographer Lynda Davis on pieces for the stage: "Dadadata," "Text\ile," "The Empty Dress" and "Quiltings." Her play "Medea With Child" was produced by the Bloomington Indiana Playwrights Project as the receipient of the Reva Shiner Award, and another play, "Sweepstakes," was given staged readings at the Playwrights Centre of San Francisco, the Theater of Yale Drama Alumni and at the National Theater Studio in London and was produced by the Actors' Repertory Theatre of Tallahassee.

Her one-act, "Division of Property," was chosen by Lanford Wilson as winner of the 2002 Arts & Letters Award and produced by The Imago Festival at the Stella Adler Theater in Los Angeles. A new play, "Parts of Speech," was given its initial reading with Jane Alexander in a staging by Edwin Sherin and was featured at Women's Playwright Initiative in Orlando in January 2007.

For more information, contatct Phyliis Moore at pmoore@kcai.edu.

7 p.m., Epperson Auditorium 

Claudia Hart has been active as an artist, curator and critic since 1988. She creates virtual paintings that take the form of 3-D imagery integrated into photography, animated loops and multi-channel animation installations.

After graduating cum laude from New York University with a B.A. in art history in 1978, Hart studied architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and received an M.S. in 1984.

She then practiced as an art and architecture critic. In 1988, Hart began to exhibit with the Pat Hearn Gallery, moving from critical to artistic practice. After receiving a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1989, she shifted her practice to Europe where she spent 10 years.

Hart returned to New York in 1998 to publish two illustrated books, originally catalogs for her exhibitions. She wrote, illustrated and designed "A Child's Machiavelli" and "Dr. Faustie's Guide to Real Estate Development."

Hart is currently a visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is represented by bitforms gallery in New York, where she had her first solo exhibition in May.
 

Graphic designer and KCAI alumna April Greiman ('70 design) will speak at 6 p.m. Nov. 5 in Atkins Auditorium at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for museum members and $15 for non-members. For tickets, call 816-751-1ART or purchase online at www.nelson-atkins.org/calendar.

Greiman will present a transmedia talk about her unique approach blending technology, science, word and image with color and space. She has been instrumental in the acceptance and use of advanced technologies in the arts and design process since the 1980s. Her design consultancy, Made in Space, creates projects ranging from signage and exhibitions to development of color and materials palettes to 3-D work and art commissions. Clients have included PacTel, Esprit, US West, Walker Art Center, SCI-Arc and the U.S. Postal Service.

Her appearance is part of the Mary Atkins 2009-10 series at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

“Pattern & Form in a Graphic Design Context”
Curated by Ramzy Masri (senior, graphic design) and Ian Tirone (senior, graphic design)
KCAI Crossroads Gallery at 1908 Main St.
6 to 9 p.m.
Nov. 6, 13 and 20

An opening reception for "Pattern & Form in a Graphic Design Context" will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. 

Masri and Tirone describe the show: “The School of Design at the Kansas City Art Institute presents a kaleidoscope of line, color and form. Defined as the drone of any modular object, patterned work spans from sculptural solutions to fashion, verifying the philosophy that it is a skin that can be applied to anything — even a gallery.”

"What Was Dan Brown Thinking" by Michele Fricke
7 p.m. Nov. 9

KCAI Northland Campus for Special Programs
1801 N.W. Platte Rd., Ste. 275
Riverside, MO 64150

In 2003, Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" was published, preceded by the 2001 book, "Angels and Demons." In both books, the author placed his protagonist, the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, against a backdrop of artists and their works to spin fantastical yarns, which are admittedly exciting, compelling reads.

Both books have been translated into successful movies, "Angels and Demons" the most recent and arguably the better book and movie. In this lecture we will explore the art historical claims made in these books and movies.

Lectures are free and open to the public. Call 816-505-1443 by Nov. 2 to RSVP for the Nov. 9 lecture.

7 p.m., Epperson Auditorium

Jordan Bass and Chris Ying from McSweeney's, a quarterly journal that features art and fiction from both new and established artists and writers, will co-present this lecture as part of the college's Current Perspectives lecture series.

Chris Ying is an editor and designer for McSweeney's and the magazine Meatpaper. He is also the co-author of a children's book titled, "109 Forgotten American Heroes and Nine or so Villains," as well as the upcoming McSweeney's book, "What If I Ate this Boot?"

Jordan Bass is the managing editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, for which he also does a great deal of design.  
 

“Pattern & Form in a Graphic Design Context”
Curated by Ramzy Masri (senior, graphic design) and Ian Tirone (senior, graphic design)
KCAI Crossroads Gallery at 1908 Main St.
6 to 9 p.m.
Nov. 13 and 20

Masri and Tirone describe the show: “The School of Design at the Kansas City Art Institute presents a kaleidoscope of line, color and form. Defined as the drone of any modular object, patterned work spans from sculptural solutions to fashion, verifying the philosophy that it is a skin that can be applied to anything — even a gallery.”

“The 2009 Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artists Awards” featuring new work by fellows Dylan Mortimer, Jaimie Warren and Andrzej Zielinski

Opening reception: 6 to 8 p.m. at The H&R Block Artspace, 16 E. 43rd St.

The exhibition will be on view from Nov. 14 to March 27.

Learn more about the exhibition.

Image: “God Hooks My Ass Up!,” Dylan Mortimer, 2009, cardboard, glitter and Christmas lights, 68 inches by 108 inches.

Four KCAI professors will discuss their international experiences and how these activities have fostered global relationships, developed their professional practice as artists and enriched their careers as educators in a presentation at 7 p.m. Nov. 16 in Epperson Auditorium.

Free and open to the public, the event coincides with the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, which takes place Nov. 16-22.

Speakers at KCAI will include Karen McCoy, associate professor of sculpture; Brett Reif, assistant professor in the School of the Foundation Year; George Timock, professor of ceramics; and Michael Wickerson, chair of the sculpture department.
 

7 p.m., Epperson Auditorium 

Dan Cameron is founding director and chief curator of Prospect New Orleans, a new international biennial whose first edition opened in November 2008 at multiple sites around the city and closed in January 2009.

He also serves as director of visual arts for the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. Cameron was senior curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York from 1995 to 2006, where his exhibitions included survey or new-work exhibitions by Eugenio Dittborn, Carroll Dunham, Teresita Fernandez, William Kentridge, Los Carpinteros, Nalini Malani, Paul McCarthy, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Marcel Odenbach, Pierre et Gilles, Faith Ringgold, Doris Salcedo, Carolee Schneemann, Francesco Vezzoli, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong and Xu Bing.

In 2003 Cameron was the artistic director for the 8th Istanbul Biennial, and in 2006 he co-organized the 10th Taipei Biennial. In 2006 he was the curator of "New York, Interrupted," the inaugural exhibition for pkm Gallery Beijing. In 2008, as guest curator for the Orange County Museum of Art, he organized a retrospective of the American painter Peter Saul.

Cameron also serves as senior curator for Next Wave Visual Art at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and is a member of the graduate faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York.