March 19, 2007

April 5 Museum Nights features lectures, journal readings

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—  The Harn Museum will host University of Florida student journal readings and two lectures during their April 5 Museum Nights event. CHEN Songchang, director of the Hunan Provincial Museum, will begin lecturing at 5 p.m., followed by CHEN Wei’s lecture at 6:15. “The Art of the Journal” student readings will begin at 7 p.m.

Songchang is keeper of archaeological materials excavated from Mawangdui tombs. Songchang’s lecture is titled, “New Researches on the Mawangdui Silk Manuscripts.” Wei’s lecture is titled, “Voices from the Tomb: A Legal Case from the Documents Excavated in the Baoshan Tomb, ca. 316 BCE.” Wei is a professor at Wuhan University. A reception will follow.

“The Art of the Journal” readings will be presented by students in professor Debora Greger’s upper-division English course by the same name. Students will read journal excerpts inspired by their experiences at the Harn Museum of Art.

The class has been meeting at the Harn Museum since January 17 to discuss assigned journal readings and to explore artwork on display at the museum. The class focuses on diaries and journals through reading texts such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Crack Up” and Sei Shonagon’s “The Pillow Book,” and through writing journals of their own.

“I have been encouraging my students to write about anything and everything concerning their time at the Harn.  I've been thrilled to see how sometimes they find themselves struck by a particular piece on exhibit, other times by the view out a museum window or by the presence of other museum-goers, or even by a gallery with no one in it,” said Greger.

The Harn Museum is open every Thursday during the University of Florida academic year for Museum Nights. The Harn, the Camellia Court Café and the Florida Museum of Natural History remain open until 10 p.m.

Admission to the Harn Museum of Art is free. For more information about programs and events call 352.392.9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.

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The Harn Museum, at SW 34^th St. and Hull Rd., Gainesville, Fla., is one of the southeast’s largest university art museums with more than 6,200 works in its collection and an array of temporary exhibitions. Admission is free. The museum enhances the activities of the University and serves a culturally diverse audience through educational programming. The Harn expanded by more than 18,000 square feet in Oct. 2005 with the opening of the Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion, which includes new educational and meeting areas and the Camellia Court Cafe, the first eatery for visitors of the University of Florida Cultural Plaza. Museum Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The Camellia Court Café is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The Museum and Café are open until 10 p.m. Thursdays for Museum Nights. For more information call 352.392.9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu