Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

A detail from Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija's print ‘Untitled 2008-11 (the map of the land of feeling’); the work has inspired a new exhibition at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

New displays of art

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will open four new spring exhibitions starting Jan. 23.

“Tradition, Transmission and Transformation in East Asian Art,” through June 12, features works from the Johnson’s collection showing how Japanese and Korean artists imitated and transformed Chinese models, tracing a long history of interaction between the three countries forming an identifiable East Asian cultural sphere.

In “The fire is gone but we have the light: Rirkrit Tiravanija and Korakrit Arunanondchai,” through May 29 in the Bartels Gallery, the museum follows its 2012 acquisition of Tiravanija’s “Untitled 2008–11 (the map of the land of feeling)” by inviting Arunanondchai, another Thai artist, to exhibit alongside his friend and mentor. (As a Columbia University student, Arunanondchai contributed to Tiravanija’s “Untitled” project.) The exhibition also features Arunanondchai’s 2015 video “Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3,” relating denim to the importation and appropriation of Western culture.

Opening Saturday, Jan. 30: “WPA Murals From Roosevelt Island,” the first public display of three abstract murals from Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island, commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. The murals, by Ilya Bolotowsky, Albert Swinden and Joseph Rugolo, were removed from the hospital for conservation in 2000 and will be reinstalled on the Cornell Tech campus.

The public opening reception for the museum’s spring exhibitions, including a show by Cornell art faculty, is Thursday, Feb. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Regular museum hours from Feb. 4 through May 4 are Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; open Thursdays until 8 p.m. and closed Mondays.

Out of this world

Cornell Cinema reopens Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. with Ridley Scott’s “The Martian.” Starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, the multiple Oscar nominee and Golden Globe Award-winning sci-fi film kicks off the film and event series Invaders from Mars: Dispatches from the Red Planet.

Also showing this week: “Straight Outta Compton,” tracing the rise of hip-hop group N.W.A in race-torn 1980s Los Angeles, Jan. 27 (with 35mm hip-hop film trailers) and Jan. 31, both at 7 p.m.; the 2014 documentary “The Winding Stream: The Carters, the Cashes and the Course of Country Music,” Jan. 28-29, beginning a semesterlong series of documentaries about musicians, artists, actors and filmmakers; and Spike Lee’s latest, “Chi-Raq,” with Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Basset, Jan. 28 and 30.

Voices of the people

The public is invited to share personal stories of life in America in “a new national civic ritual,” the People’s State of the Union, on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the History Center in Tompkins County, 401 E. State St., the Gateway Center building.

From Jan. 23-31, more than 150 groups across the country (organized by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, a nongovernment agency) will add their own voices and stories to supplement the president’s State of the Union address. Volunteer facilitators, local artists and musicians are donating their time and creativity to the Ithaca area’s second annual event. Free refreshments will be served. Co-sponsors include Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, Civic Ensemble and the Multicultural Resource Center.

“We are interested in lives lived at the local level and in exploring how reflecting on our stories can be a mechanism for informing future decisions and actions,” says Rod Howe, executive director of the History Center.

The Ithaca event is open to all but space is limited. To reserve a spot, send your name and email address to PSOTU14850@gmail.com or fill out the form at http://ccetompkins.org/story. Free child care and transportation assistance are available.

Philosophy on the radio

Philippe Baudouin, broadcast director of France Culture, Radio France/Paris, will give a lecture, “Walter Benjamin in Voice Land,” Thursday, Jan. 28, at 4:30 p.m. in 181 Goldwin Smith Hall.

Baudouin is the author of “Au microphone - Dr. Walter Benjamin” (2009). His talk is co-sponsored by the French Studies Program, the Institute for German Cultural Studies and the Department of Romance Studies.

Return-from-tour concert

The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club returns from a three-week concert tour of Guatemala and Mexico Jan. 25, and will perform music from their tour repertoire Friday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m. in Sage Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public; no tickets required.

Conducted by Robert Isaacs and Stephen Spinelli, the Chorus and Glee Club will perform music for men’s, women’s and mixed choirs. Tour highlights included a performance and recording of Roberto Sierra’s “Cantares” with the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lanfranco Marcelletti (former director of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra), school and community workshops, and a series of Cornell alumni events throughout Mexico.