August-September Highlights

	Peter Welz, “airdrawing 1 / above / study / movement of the right hand.”

The Renaissance Society
Peter Welz / William Forsythe: “Whenever on on on nohow on / Airdrawing”
Sunday, Sept. 18 through Sunday, Oct. 30
Exhibition hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
Cobb Hall, Room 418, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. http://renaissancesociety.org. 702-8670. Free.

German artist Peter Welz collaborated with Frankfurt-based choreographer William Forsythe to create this multi-channel video installation, which takes its name from a text fragment by Samuel Beckett. Forsythe translates “Whenever on on on nohow on” into physical movements, which culminate in a dance recorded by various cameras, including those attached to the dancers’ wrists. Five camera angles, screened simultaneously on separate screens, create the experience of an endless circle. Accompanying the video, “Airdrawing” includes Welz’s gestural drawings that depict the dance’s different hand placements, frame by frame. There will be an opening reception from 4 to 7 p.m., with an artist’s talk from 5 to 6 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 18.

	A saxophonist in the early days of Jazz N’ the Alley

Jazz N’ The Alley
3 p.m. Saturdays, Aug. 20, Sept. 3 and Sept. 17
New Approach Restaurant, 641 E. 47th St. (312) 263-1649. Free.

Sponsored in part by the Humanities Division’s Civic Knowledge Project, this music series invites local jazz musicians to riff and improvise together. The series, which began in the mid-1960s, is one of the oldest community-based jazz events in Chicago. At the event’s outset, jazz DJs would gather at an alley between 50th and 51st streets at Champlain on Sundays, trying to outdo each other spinning jazz records. Because of the ideal acoustics in the red-cobblestone alley, the event became a tradition. Now the series has returned, bringing acclaimed jazz artists to Hyde Park. On Saturday, Aug. 20, Tony Norman and the Heart to Heart Band, Ray Mosely and the ICE Band, and the Ancestral Resurrection Ensemble will perform. In a Saturday, Sept. 3 salute to Oscar Brown Jr., jazz vocalists Maggie Brown, Joan Colaso, Senabella, Theo Reed, Eddie Chappel and Nasir Mohammed will perform. On Saturday, Sept. 17, the program will honor the 40th anniversary of Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

	Ruth Duckworth, "Vessel.”

The Smart Museum of Art
Lecture: “Women and Ceramics”
3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18
Museum hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
5550 S. Greenwood Ave. 702-0200. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. Free.

In conjunction with the exhibition “Centers and Edges: Modern Ceramic Design and Sculpture, 1880-1980,” Moira Vincentelli, lecturer in art history and curator of ceramics at the School of Art at the University of Wales, will give a lecture titled “Women and Ceramics.” Vincentelli, author of Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, is an influential writer, educator and curator. She oversaw the development of the Ceramic Collection and Archive at Aberystwyth, one of the major holdings of studio ceramics in Britain.

	The Oriental Institute’s colossal statue of King Tutankhamun.

The Oriental Institute Museum
The Great Pharaohs of Egypt Film Series
2 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 4 through Sept. 25
1155 E. 58th St. 702-9507. http://oi.uchicago.edu. Free.

In September, the Oriental Institute Museum will celebrate Archaeology Awareness Month with screenings from The Great Pharaohs of Egypt, the acclaimed series that tells the stories of ancient Egypt’s greatest rulers. Episode I, which will be screened Sunday, Sept. 4, explores how the warrior Narmer united Egypt to become the first pharaoh. On Sunday, Sept. 11, Episode II will focus on the military-minded rulers of Egypt’s New Kingdom while exploring the legacy of Hatshepsut, one of the most well known women pharaohs. Episode III, which follows Akhenaten’s ascension to the throne and the controversies of his rule, will be screened Sunday, Sept. 18.