Things to Do, Aug. 22-29

A Fishing Bunny
STAYREAL Gallery
“A Fishing Bunny” (2011, fiberglass reinforced plastic) by No2Good is featured in a Johnson Museum exhibition of Taiwanese contemporary art.

Orientation Concert

The Department of Music welcomes new arrivals to campus with a free program by Cornell’s premier choral ensembles, Saturday, Aug. 23, 6:30 p.m. in Sage Chapel.

The Orientation Concert will feature the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club, conducted by Robert Isaacs, and selections by their groups After Eight and the Hangovers.

The Department of Music presents free concerts and performance events throughout the year.

Free movies

Cornell Cinema reopens for the semester Aug. 24 in Willard Straight Theatre, with free Orientation Week admission for new freshmen and transfer students with ID, through Aug. 29.

The repertory cinema is featuring two digitally restored classics: Harold Lloyd’s silent college comedy “The Freshman,” Aug. 24 and 26, and “Godzilla: The Japanese Original,” undubbed and with its anti-nuclear-weapons message intact, Aug. 26 and 28.

“Orientation to Cornell Cinema,” Aug. 25 at 7:15 p.m., is free to everyone and offers trailers of coming attractions, student films, film shorts, free popcorn and door prizes including movie posters, cinema passes and T-shirts. Cinema Director Mary Fessenden will present information on how to become involved in the cinema program.

Other free films include a restored version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” Aug. 24 and 27; Wes Anderson’s 2014 comedy “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Aug. 25, 27 and 28, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), Aug. 29-30 and Neil Burger’s 2014 science-fiction film “Divergent,” Aug. 29. Both Aug. 29 screenings are free to all Cornell students as part of Welcome Weekend.

 

A world of opportunities

New and returning students are invited to learn about Cornell's numerous language and international programs at the Language and International Studies Fair, Aug. 25 from noon to 2 p.m. on the Uris Hall first-floor terrace.

Students can meet language teachers and representatives from the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell Abroad, the Language Resource Center, Language Houses on campus, international programs and area studies programs around the globe. They will answer questions about language courses, international experiences, minors and majors, funding opportunities and study abroad.

The event is organized by the Einaudi Center in collaboration with Cornell Abroad, the Cornell Institute for European Studies, the Institute for African Development, the Language Resource Center, the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, the Latin American Studies Program and the South, Southeast and East Asia programs.

The view from Taiwan

Thirty-three Taiwanese artists explore the effects of globalization and the interconnected world in the new exhibition “Jie (Boundaries): Contemporary Art from Taiwan,” through Dec. 21 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Free and open to the public.

Adopting the philosophical connotations of the Chinese character jie (界, meaning “scope” and/or “boundary”), the exhibition reveals how human identity has become more fluid, variable, remixed and multidimensional, and less defined or determined by ethnicity, location or national allegiances.

Many of the artists grew up with, lived through and struggled against martial law (lifted in 1987), and address local and international politics and major social and environmental concerns, while younger generations show globalization affecting individual life experience, tinged with playfulness and anxiety.

The exhibition was co-organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and curated by An-yi Pan, associate professor of the history of art and visual studies, assisted by Ellen Avril, chief curator and curator of Asian art at the museum.

An artists’ forum and symposium on contemporary Taiwanese art Saturday, Sept. 6, will feature five of the artists in the exhibition, and presentations by Pan, art historians and scholars. Free registration; email eas8@cornell.edu or call 607-254-4642 by Aug. 29 to reserve a space.

First Friday

Students will celebrate the first Friday of the academic year and begin Welcome Weekend in style Aug. 29 from 7 p.m. to midnight with Thank Goodness It’s Friday, a free evening of activities and food at Ho Plaza and Willard Straight Hall (WSH).

Highlights include student groups performing in the WSH Memorial Room, testing your chess skills at a Chess Simule, and Late Night Breakfast, 10 p.m.-midnight in Okenshields. Learn how to do magic tricks, make balloon animals, tie-dye T-shirts on Ho Plaza, or get temporary body art.

The event is sponsored by Welcome Weekend and funded in part by CUTonight and the student activity fee.

Media Contact

Joe Schwartz