November Highlights

Oriental Institute Museum
“European Cartographers and the Ottoman World 1500-1750: Maps from the
Collection of O.J. Sopranos”
Exhibition: Friday, Nov. 2 through Sunday, March 16, 2008
Gallery tour of the exhibition: 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3

Maps are windows into the societies that produce them as much as they are representations of the real world. A rare, never-before-seen collection of early printed maps, atlases and sea charts that trace the changing view of the Ottoman world from the age of discovery to the 18th century will be exhibited at the Oriental Institute Museum as part of the citywide, Festival of Maps Chicago. Join O.J. Sopranos for a guided tour highlighting the extraordinary maps on view in “European Cartographers and the Ottoman World 1500-1750: Maps from the Collection of O.J. Sopranos.” Most of the material being exhibited is from Sopranos’ private collection, and it is augmented by material from the Newberry Library, the University Library’s Special Collections Research Center and the Walters Museum, Baltimore. No registration is required for this free tour; participants will meet in museum lobby.
1155 E. 58th St.

Smart Museum of Art
“Looking and Listening in Nineteenth-Century France”
Exhibition: Tuesday, Nov. 6 through Sunday, March 23, 2008
Panel discussion: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8

The experience of looking and listening is not historically constant, but rather varies with social settings, technologies and trends. Mixing prints, paintings, drawings and sculpture with music from 19th-century France, this exhibition cuts to the heart of debates about art and its function, and examines just what it was that attracted and secured the attention of 19th-century audiences in visual and musical works. A discussion in conjunction with this exhibition will consider how the technological advances and shifting notions of consciousness shaped the experience of art and music in 19th-century France. Curators Martha Ward, Chair of Art History, and Anne Leonard, Smart Museum Curator and Mellon Program Coordinator, will lead a panel discussion with students, who contributed to the “Looking and Listening” catalogue and exhibition, and guest discussant Gloria Groom, the David and Mary Winton Green curator at the Art Institute of Chicago. During a reception following the discussion, Claudia Hommel of the Jazz Fauré Project wil perform a selection of French cabaret music.

International House
East Meets West Piano Concert
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14
A Glimpse into Asia through Asian-Inspired Music

This concert will feature acclaimed solo pianist Cristina Valdes playing Asian and Eastern-influenced works, including Hidden Voices written by Kotoka Suzuki, Assistant Professor in Music and the College; China Gates by John Adams; Simurg by Mario Lavista; and Eight Memories in Watercolor by Tan Dun. The concert is co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies and the Department of Music.
Assembly Hall, International House, 1414 E. 59th St.

Court Theatre
What the Butler Saw
Thursday, Nov. 8 through Sunday, Dec. 9

Wild, risqué and ferociously playful, Joe Orton’s classic farce has become a seminal work of modern comedy. When a psychiatrist invents a series of increasingly outrageous lies to cover up his attempts to seduce his young secretary, all manner of pandemonium breaks loose. Director Sean Graney makes his Court Theatre debut.