Provided/Johnson Museum

A 2013 image, "she was my vertigo," is included in "Sequoia: Recent Work by Slater Bradley" at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

Town-gown forum

The Campus-Community Coalition will sponsor a forum, “Town-Gown Best Practices, and Related Challenges and Opportunities,” Oct. 16 from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Ithaca High School Cafeteria. Free and open to the public.

The forum features a presentation by Jim Fitzgerald, associate director of community relations at the University of Virginia and president of the International Town-Gown Association (ITGA). The association, whose 800 members include Cornell and the City of Ithaca, serves to provide “links to resources that are specifically tuned to town-gown issues,” Fitzgerald says.

Past ITGA President Tom Fountaine, borough manager of State College, Pa. (home of Penn State University), also will speak from the municipal perspective.

The Campus-Community Coalition is a joint initiative of Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College.

Healthy economy

Professor of policy analysis and management Sean Nicholson will discuss “The Economy’s Effect on Health Care and Health Care’s Effect on the Economy,” Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. in the Café Lounge of the Carol Tatkon Center on North Campus.

Nicholson will address topics including the relationship between economic growth in the United States and health care spending, and predicted future spending on health care having an impact on the economy through higher taxes and/or reductions in nonhealth spending. He will also answer questions on health policy and careers in health management.

Information: 607-253-4282.

Poetry reading

David Baker will read from his poetry Oct. 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, as part of the Fall 2013 Barbara and David Zalaznick Reading Series.

Baker is poetry editor of The Kenyon Review and professor of English and Thomas B. Fordham Chair of Creative Writing at Denison University. He is the author of 10 books of poetry; his most recent, “Never-Ending Birds,” won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize in 2011. His five nonpoetry volumes include “Radiant Lyre: Essays on Lyric Poetry” (with Ann Townsend) and the forthcoming “Show Me Your Environment: Essays on Poetry, Poets and Poems.”

The reading series is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English.

‘The Red Shoes’

Ballerina Moira Shearer falls under the spell of shoes that can dance their wearer to death in “The Red Shoes,” presented by Cornell Cinema in a new restored print, Oct. 18 and 20 in Willard Straight Theatre.

Based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 film, with its surreal images and visually stunning Technicolor presentation, is a lifelong favorite of filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Shearer’s portrayal of a dancer’s artistic obsession is comparable to Natalie Portman’s driven ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 thriller “Black Swan.”

Cornell Cinema’s first Home Movie Night is Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m., featuring films submitted by members of the Cornell community. The cinema is closed for fall break Oct. 12-15, and resumes screenings Oct. 16 with Otto Preminger’s “Laura.”

Information: http://cinema.cornell.edu

Ancient spirit

The Cornell Concert Series will present The Rose Ensemble for a performance of ancient and vocal music in “Land of Three Faiths: Voices of Ancient Mediterranean Jews, Christians and Muslims,” Friday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. in Sage Chapel.

The concert program will highlight music from the Hispano-Arabic world in the Middle Ages, featuring the laments of the Sephardic Jews, Arab-Andalusian dances, Spanish court songs and more.

The 12-member ensemble was founded in 1996 and is led by artistic director Jordan Sramek. Their repertoire spans 1,000 years and more than 25 languages, including new research in Swedish, Middle Eastern and American vocal traditions.

Tickets are $25 general admission; $12 for students, available at http://baileytickets.universitytickets.com. Information: http://www.cornellconcertseries.com

Memory and vision

Recent video works by Slater Bradley are making their premieres at Cornell’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art through Dec. 22.

Bradley’s melancholy “Doppelgänger Trilogy” of a decade ago explored the mythology of images and the cult of celebrity, casting his own spitting image, model Benjamin Brock, to impersonate Ian Curtis, Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain in performances that viewers assumed were by Bradley himself.

Bradley’s new videos “Sequoia” and “she was my la jetée” (the latter alternating with his 2006 single-channel video “My Conclusion/My Necessity”) each elaborate on his earlier work by blurring boundaries between truth and fiction and dwelling on memory and obsession, referencing Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” and Chris Marker’s “La Jetée” – itself the direct inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s 1995 film “12 Monkeys.”

Bradley visits the museum for an artist's talk, Nov. 21 at 5:15 p.m. Information: http://museum.cornell.edu

Advice for writers

Allie Larkin, the best-selling author of “Stay” and “Why Can’t I Be You,” will give a talk on her writing process and career path, Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in Robert Purcell Community Center.

Larkin will offer advice for authors, and the talk will be followed by a Q-and-A with students, a book signing and refreshments. Free and open to the Cornell community.

Larkin’s talk is sponsored by Cornell University Nerdfighters, a student organization that works with charitable organizations, promotes individual passion and creativity among members, and emphasizes knowledge and education as positive means to achieve change.

Insectapalooza

The Department of Entomology in Comstock Hall will be abuzz with the 2013 installment of Insectapalooza, Saturday, Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $2, free for children under age 3.

This year’s event focuses on the qualities of arthropods, which can be beneficial, pestiferous, invasive or simply amazing. Displays will be coordinated to emphasize these themes, with rooms highlighting pollination, natural enemies, plant-insect interactions, evolution and diversity, invasive insects and bug innards.

Exhibits and live insect displays include “Pondering Insects” and the popular Arthropod Zoo and Butterfly Room.

Information: http://entomology.cals.cornell.edu/news-events/insectapalooza