David O. Brown/Johnson Museum

Tonal sculptures are featured in the exhibition "Harry Bertoia: Sound and Vision," closing Dec. 23 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

Town-Gown Awards

The 2012 CU TOGO (Town-Gown) Awards and Recognition Ceremony will be held Saturday, Dec. 8, 9:30-11:30 a.m. in the Ithaca High School cafeteria. The public is invited.

The free, informal event, with remarks from President David Skorton, highlights notable Cornell-community partnerships and recognizes top elected or professional local leaders who have or will be leaving their posts. Those to be recognized include Dr. Rob Mackenzie, Cayuga Medical Center; Bill Gray, Allen Green and Ed Vallely, City of Ithaca; Judy Willis, Gadabout; Ellen O'Donnell, TST BOCES; and Roger Sibley, Franziska Racker Centers.

Town-gown partnerships being recognized this year are the CU-Ithaca City School District Working Group, the Gorge Safety Task Force, Ours & Yours, TCAT and the Johnson Board Fellows Program.

A food drive will be held at the event, led by a group of Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars. Everyone is encouraged to bring a can of soup, vegetables or assorted meals, to be delivered to the Ithaca Kitchen Cupboard, where shortages and needs are substantial. Meinig Scholars are selected each year for their leadership abilities, academic excellence and commitment to serving the greater Ithaca community.

1960s drama

The Civic Ensemble presents a staged reading of "Slashes of Light" by Judy Tate, Monday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at The Kitchen Theatre, 417 W. State St., Ithaca. Free.

The play takes place in an all-black parochial middle school on Chicago's South Side in 1966, with characters confronting the changing times, the civil rights movement and echoes of the Holocaust.

A discussion with the playwright follows the reading, which is directed by Melanie Dreyer-Lude, assistant professor of acting and directing in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. The cast includes Cornell theater students Amara Aja '13 and Regina Russell '13, Ithaca College theater student Jelani Pitcher, and professional actors Sarah K. Chalmers (a lecturer teaching acting at Cornell) and Godfrey L. Simmons Jr. (a former Resident Professional Teaching Associate).

The Civic Ensemble is a professional theater company in Ithaca devoted to new play development, community engagement and creating work opportunities for local theater professionals. Information: http://www.civicensemble.org.

Disease detectives

The next Science Cabaret will feature a medical detective story, where community members are invited to role-play as a historical response team to stop a cholera outbreak in 19th century London.

Marshall Hayes of the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology will lead the program, "19th Century Disease Detectives and the Curious Case of the Broad Street Pump," Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. at Lot 10 Lounge, 112 S. Cayuga St., Ithaca. Free and open to the public. Information: http://www.sciencecabaret.org/.

Science Cabaret topics and hosts are featured on "Science Cabaret On Air," Sunday nights from 7-7:30 p.m. on WICB-FM 91.7, sponsored by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Podcasts of the program are archived at http://sciencecabaret.podomatic.com/.

Budget forums

An open forum series launches this month on "Decisions for Implementing the New Budget Model." The Cornell community is invited to attend. The new budget will be rooted in transparency and will encourage healthy engagement across campus.

Provost Kent Fuchs and Vice President for Planning and Budget Elmira Mangum will discuss the results of what it means to replace the three existing Ithaca campus budget models with a single, coherent model, at a pair of identical forums, Dec. 12 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. in Milstein Auditorium and Dec. 20, 10 a.m.-noon in 251 Malott Hall.

Topical panel-based forums will be held in January, with locations to be announced. All events will be updated on the university events calendar, http://events.cornell.edu.

The panel topics and dates are: Utilities, Maintenance, Building Care, Debt Service, Jan. 8; Tuition, Enrollment, Financial Aid, State Appropriations, Jan. 10; Facilities and Administrative Cost, Research, Jan. 16; and Allocated Costs, Libraries, University Support Pool, Jan. 17. Information: 607-255-0155 or vp-dpb@cornell.edu.

Last chance: Exhibitions

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will close four fall exhibitions Dec. 23, ranging from prints and drawings to rare books, sonic sculptures and a film-laboratory installation.

The exhibitions are "Mirror of the City: The Printed View in Italy and Beyond, 1450-1940," "Cinemania: Harun Farocki and Holly Zausner," "Illuminated: The Art of Sacred Books" and "Harry Bertoia: Sound and Vision."

The museum will be closed for the holidays Dec. 24-Jan.1. Regular museum hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information: 255-6464, http://museum.cornell.edu.