Arts & Culture

Figurative ceramic artist Tom Bartel will present a lecture  during a special visiting artist event at MTSU April 4.

Bartel, an associate professor of art at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, is known for his disturbing, humorous and thought-provoking fragmented figures. His work was included in a 2007 exhibit, “Of the Body,” in MTSU’s Todd Art Gallery as well as extensive U.S. and international exhibits.

His visiting artist lecture is planned for Thursday, April 4, at 3 p.m. in the Student Union Video Theater.

This event is free and open to the public.

The presence of Islam in some European nations is the focus of an upcoming lecture sponsored by MTSU’s University Honors College.

Dr. Ahmet Yukleyen, Croft Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Mississippi, is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. Friday, April 5, in Room 106 of the Paul W. Martin University Honors College Building.

Yukleyen is the author of “Localizing Islam in Europe: Turkish Islamic Communities in Germany in the Netherlands,” which was published in 2012.

A unique approach to awareness and prevention of drug use among young people takes center stage at a special after-school performance of Cranked at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Friday, April 12 at 4:00 p.m.

Blending spoken word poetry and hip hop, the 45-minute play is presented by TPAC Education. It tells an intense, personal story about a talented rap artist’s destructive addiction to meth and his struggle to rebuild his life.

Whether you’re looking for something familiar or something peculiar, MTSU Theatre will have the answer beginning Thursday, April 4, with a new production of the Stephen Sondheim musical comedy classic, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

Directed by speech and theatre professor Kristi Shamburger, the beloved Tony Award-winning musical features a cast of 18. 

MTSU’s free Chinese Film Festival celebrates its 16th semester beginning this Sunday, March 24.  The films of will be screened in Room 103 of the Bragg Mass Communication Building.

Sponsored by the College of Mass Communication and the Confucius Institute, each movie will begin promptly at 6 p.m. in COMM 103. Chan Chen, a mass-comm master’s degree candidate, will lead a question-and-answer session after each film. 

All movies in the series have English subtitles. There is no admission charge, and each is open to the public.

MTSU is preparing to send students deep into the heart of centuries of world history.

April 1 is the deadline to sign up for a 10-day trip to Israel July 15-25, part of a summer 2013 class on “The Politics of Being ‘Israel’ from Abraham to Modern Democracy.”

“The course is broadly defined as Israeli politics with emphasis on conflict in the region and the relationship between the U.S. and Israel,” said Dr. Karen Petersen, assistant dean of MTSU’s College of Liberal Arts and a professor of political science