Smithsonian curator and urban revitalizers will speak at Augustana

On Wednesday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. in Centennial Hall (3703 7th Ave.), Dr. Lee Glazer, associate curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, will speak on “Heirloom of the Artist: Rethinking Whistler’s Peacock Room.” On Thursday, April 3 at 5:30 p.m. in Wallenberg Hall inside the Denkmann Memorial Building (3520 7th Ave.), Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert from Design 99, a Detroit-based design team and art studio, will talk about using art to revitalize urban neighborhoods. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Dr. Glazer, who recently reinstalled the Peacock Room to match its appearance in 1908, will speak on the ways in which the Peacock Room, James McNeill Whistler’s famed decorative interior, has intersected with the history of collecting Asian ceramics in the West. She is the author of the accompanying publication, The Peacock Room Comes to America (2012).

Dr. Glazer’s lecture is sponsored by the Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts, which was established in 1994 by a bequest from the estate of the late Paul A. Anderson, Augustana alumnus, former member of the Augustana Board of Trustees and successful Chicago Board of Trade commodities broker.

On April 3, Cope and Reichert will share how they’ve led a movement to take over abandoned houses and turn them into artists’ studios, community spaces and even artwork. Since founding Design 99, the pair has investigated new models of contemporary art and architectural practice.

For more information contact Sam Schlouch at samschlouch@augustana.edu or (309) 794-7833.