Wonders of the sea

Selections from a historic collection of 570 glass marine animals, acquired by Cornell in 1885 for use as teaching aids, go on display Sept. 2 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Created by father and son glass artists Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939), the delicate life-size models of jellyfish, mollusks, anemones, octopods and more are marvels of intricate, true-to-life detail.

“From the Darkness of the Sea: The Cornell Collection of Blaschka Glass Invertebrate Models” will be on display through Dec. 24. The exhibition also features related drawings and book illustrations by the Blaschkas, from the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG).

A Fall Party at the museum, Friday, Sept. 8, from 5 to 11 p.m., features a tour of the Blaschka exhibit with curator Nancy Green and professor Drew Harvell, the collection’s curator and author of “A Sea of Glass;” CMOG associate conservator Astrid van Giffen; Corning’s Mobile Glass Lab and more. The event is co-sponsored in part by CUTonight.

Also at the museum: Four artists from Taiwan, included in the new “Power, Haunting, and Resilience” exhibition, will participate in a moderated discussion, Sept. 7 at 5:15 p.m.

Current exhibitions also include “Robert Richenburg: Abstract Expressionist Painter,” through Sept. 10. Admission is free. Museum hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays until 7:30 p.m. Sept. 7-Nov. 30 (closed Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23). For more information, email museum@cornell.edu or call 607-255-6464.

CU Downtown

The talents of Cornell students take center stage at the second annual CU Downtown, a free back-to-school celebration Sept. 2 from 1 to 5 p.m. on the Ithaca Commons.

Performances at the Bernie Milton Pavilion include Cornell Bhangra, the Absolute Zero Breakdance Club, Yamatai, the Big Red Pep and Marching Bands, and several other a cappella, instrumental and dance groups.

The event for all Cornell students and the Ithaca community is meant to welcome Cornell’s incoming class and encourage students to explore the city beyond the campus. It is organized by the Carol Tatkon Center, a support and resource center for first-year students, in partnership with the Cornell Office of Community Relations, the Ithaca Downtown Alliance and TCAT.

Unearthed film and haunted roads

Cornell Cinema screens the Ithaca premiere of Bill Morrison’s “Dawson City: Frozen Time” Sept. 1 and 5 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Morrison chronicles the transformations in a Yukon Territory Gold Rush town through rare nitrate-stock films found buried beneath a hockey rink and untouched for more than 50 years.

Also showing: “Pop Aye,” with producer Weijie Lie, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m., is part of “Haunted Roads,” a series of three contemporary Southeast Asian films on migration, exile and haunted memories. “Pop Aye” follows a disenchanted architect who bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok, beginning a journey across Thailand to find the farm where they grew up together. Cosponsored with the Society for the Humanities and the Southeast Asia Program.

British archaeologist, adventurer, diplomat and spy Gertrude Bell is the focus of two recent films – she is voiced by Tilda Swinton in the documentary “Letters from Baghdad,” showing Sept. 7 and 9, and portrayed by Nicole Kidman in Werner Herzog’s feature “Queen of the Desert,” Sept. 16-17.

Jazz trio, Midday Music

The Department of Music welcomes The Actual Trio, led by jazz drummer and Ithaca native Matt Garrity, Friday, Sept. 8, at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.

Performing together since 1996, the New York-based jazz trio includes Pete Smith on guitar and David Ambrosio on bass. They play original compositions and their own creative arrangements of standard jazz repertoire including the music of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Freddie Hubbard.

The members have performed and recorded with such notable artists as Madeline Peyroux, Norah Jones, Kenny Werner, Ingrid Jensen, Buddy DeFranco and Vincent Herring, who will be visiting Cornell later this semester.

Also: University Organist Annette Richards performs music of the English Voluntary in the first Midday Music concert of the semester, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 12:30-1:15 p.m. in Anabel Taylor Chapel. Performances take place on select Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the academic year, continuing a tradition of free, casual lunchtime concerts on campus. See music.cornell.edu/events for more free music on campus.

Community walk

A nonpolitical community walk will be held Sept. 6 at 7:30 a.m. from Stewart Park to Ithaca High School to mark the beginning of the public-school year. “Ithaca NY: Leading with Love” is billed as “a celebration of education, young people, and the power and potential of unified, loving communities, from every background.” 

The event ends at 8:15 a.m. with remarks by Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09, Ithaca school district superintendent Luvelle Brown and an Ithaca High School student. Rain location: Kulp auditorium, Ithaca High School. Sponsored by several community organizations and by Cornell’s Office of Community Relations.

Virtuoso quartet

The Catalyst Quartet opens the Cornell Concert Series’ 115th season Saturday, Sept. 9, at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium. Tickets are $27 general, $19 for students.

Comprised of virtuoso alumni and laureates of the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Competition for young black and Latino string players, the quartet formed in 2010 and debuted that year at Carnegie Hall, and has performed in the U.S. and internationally for a variety of audiences.

The program for their Cornell performance is titled “Bach to South America” and features works by J.S. Bach, Heitor VillaLobos, Astor Piazzolla and Alberto Ginastera.

The 2017-18 concert series was planned to begin with the Simón Bolívar String Quartet, which was forced to postpone a North American tour due to the current political environment in Venezuela.

Roads to Nepal

Two scholars in the Department of Natural Resources will discuss the impact of road-building in the Himalayas in a Chats in the Stacks book talk, Sept. 7 at 4 p.m. in Mann Library’s Stern Seminar Room.

The construction of new roads can bring unintended negative consequences on the environment, the economy and the cultural practices of communities. In their new book “Himalayan Mobilities: An Exploration of the Impact of Expanding Rural Road Networks on Social and Ecological Systems in the Nepalese Himalaya,” doctoral student Robert E. Beazley and James P. Lassoie, CALS International Professor of Conservation, examine the environmental, socio-economic and socio-cultural impacts of expanding rural road networks in Nepal and globally.

Their talk will discuss the history of rural road development, the challenges of designing and constructing efficient future roads and obstacles that need to be overcome.

Book talks are free and open to the public, with refreshments served.

Reading series begins

Award-winning poet and fiction writer Ron Rash reads from his work Sept. 7 at 4:30 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, G70 Klarman Hall. It is free and open to the public.

The event kicks off the Fall 2017 Zalaznick Reading Series, featuring established and emerging writers and presented by the Department of English Creative Writing Program. A reception and book signing will follow in the English Lounge, 258 Goldwin Smith Hall.

Rash is the author of five collections of poems, a children’s book (“Shark’s Tooth”) and seven novels – the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and New York Times best-seller “Serena,” “One Foot in Eden,” “Saints at the River,” “The World Made Straight,” “The Cove,” “The Risen” and “Above the Waterfall.”

A two-time recipient of the O. Henry Prize, his story collections include “Burning Bright,” winner of the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; “Chemistry and Other Stories,” a 2007 PEN/Faulkner finalist; and most recently, “Something Rich and Strange.” He teaches at Western Carolina University.