This Thursday, September 8th at 5pm, Dr. Asen Kirin will be presenting “Exuberance of Meaning: The Art Patronage of Catherine the Great.” This talk kicks of the VCC Lecture series for the 2011-2012 academic year, so make sure to put this on your schedule! Kirin will be discussing a current exhibition which, according to the Lamar Dodd School of Art website, “intends to make a contribution to the current knowledge of patronage in eighteenth-century Russia and to our understanding of the perception of Byzantine culture in the era of neo-Classicism.” Interestingly, the curator of this exhibit plans to “accomplish this goal with a relatively limited number of objects—loans from a small number of museums in the U.S.A.” “The exhibition will illustrate the complex dynamic between the collection of historical art and the commissioning of new works of art during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-96). The focus of the exhibition is on the particular manner in which Catherine applied not only her knowledge of ancient and medieval glyptic art but also her collection of carved gems to new works of art that she commissioned. This was a deliberate continuation of the centuries-old tradition of placing pagan, Greek, and Roman carved stones onto sacred Christian liturgical and devotional objects. The empress not only shared the Enlightenment sentiment that carved gems were essential material vestiges from the past, but she was also fully cognizant of the cultural meanings associated with the practice of collecting cameos. Accordingly, she addressed these cultural meanings in her art patronage.” For more information, visit: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=179#
To writers, poets, artists, and anyone else feeling inspired- a new literary zine in Athens is looking for submissions of your original work.  The Stray Dog Almanac, started “one warm July evening, damp with rain, after a tasty dinner of eggplant and a jug of beer,” when some art students recognized the need for a more prominent literary and artistic presence in the form of publications. Their name is derived from and inspired by the Russian Stray Dog Cabaret, part of the Silver Age that boasted the beginnings of many Russian writers, poets, and artists. Now’s your chance to become part of the movement. From the website: Stray Dog will be an almanac, which means we are interested in variety - from different voices as well as different subject matter and genres. Our call is open to all writing styles and writers, so that if you’ve had something for a while and have been waiting for the right opportunity, this is it! No theme, no constraints. Perhaps you’ve been too timid to show people your work or you may have never considered submitting work for publication before. We at the Stray Dog Almanac encourage you to challenge yourself and SUBMIT your work! We accept your poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction or black and white illustrations/comic strips. We have an arbitrary word limit of 5,000 words, but we will consider excerpting longer works. You may submit up to 5 poems and 2 prose pieces. E-mail your submission to straydogalmanac (at) gmail (dot) com with your name, the title(s) of your work(s) and, if you like, your affiliation with our Classic City (i.e. student, recovering student, downtown barkeep, professor, local band guru) by SEPTEMBER 28, 2011 to be considered for our winter 2011 publication! Please include the word “Submission” in the title of your email. All submissions will undergo a fair, blind review. Entrants will be notified of their acceptance by November 1, 2011. If your work is selected you will receive 2 free copies of our hand-bound almanac, not to mention ensuing fame and fortune. Our goal is to include as many different artists and writers as possible, but we must sadly admit that our space is limited. Please keep this in mind when submitting your work.  Visit the Stray Dog Almanac’s website at: http://www.straydogalmanac.com/