Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

Slater Bradley's "Sequoia Alina" (2013), alluding to Alfred Hitchcock, is included in the new History of Art Majors' Society exhibition at the Johnson Museum.

Exposing fame

Undergraduate students in the History of Art Majors’ Society have curated a new exhibition, “15 Minutes: Exposing Dimensions of Fame,” opening April 16 in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art wing gallery. A free, public reception and opening celebration is scheduled for April 15 from 8 to 11 p.m.

The exhibition investigates a modern network of cultural connections, emphasizing the interweaving of fame, celebrity and photography – a medium that functions as a substitute for memories, experiences and physical closeness.

Images are shown as a means to construct celebrity in public and preserve memory within a familial circle.

Included are 19th-century daguerreotypes and monumental staged self-portraits; Bert Stern’s final posed photographs of Marilyn Monroe from 1962, re-created by Stern 46 years later with Lindsay Lohan; work by Eileen Cowin and Slater Bradley responding to director Alfred Hitchcock’s legacy; and a section showing how photographers construct and manipulate their own and their subjects’ identities. Taken together, the works highlight these connections and underscore the cyclical and enduring nature of fame.

William Ganis, author of “Andy Warhol’s Serial Photography,” gives a related lecture, April 21 at 5:15 p.m.

The exhibition runs through July 24.

Pao Bhangra

Cornell Bhangra presents “Pao Bhangra XV: The Bhangra Olympics,” a South Asian dance exhibition with 13 acts, Saturday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. in Barton Hall. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door, $20 VIP, plus fees. Advance tickets are available from Cornell Bhangra members, the Willard Straight Hall Ticket Desk and online.

One of the largest student-run shows on campus and the largest Bhangra exhibition in North America, the event has attracted more than 2,600 people to its annual showcase event in Barton, featuring high-energy routines, original choreography and colorful handmade costumes. Cornell Bhangra, with four groups including mixed and alumni, and four visiting teams – from Boston, Cleveland, Princeton University and Tufts University – will perform, in a 21st-century version of the traditional folk dance and music of northern India and Pakistan. Exhibition acts include Breakfree, Cornell Sitara, Yamatai and Sabor Latino Dance Ensemble.

Stucky memorial concert

A memorial concert dedicated to Steven Stucky, the Given Foundation Professor of Music Emeritus, will be held April 18 at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer taught at Cornell for 34 years, and died Feb. 14 at age 66.

Pianist and professor of performance Xak Bjerken, Stucky’s successor as artistic director of Ensemble X, will perform music from the composer’s “Album Leaves” (2002); and “in memory” (2016) by Christopher Stark, DMA ’13. The concert program also includes selections by William Byrd; Marc Mellits, DMA ’96; J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Witold Lutosławski and John Steinmetz.

Performers include the Cornell Chamber Singers, Cornell faculty musicians Bjerken, David Yearsley and Miri Yampolsky; guest violinist Ellen Jewett, a co-founder of Ensemble X; and Ithaca College musicians.

Book talks: Bailey, Migiel

Mann Library hosts a panel discussion highlighting the recent 100th anniversary edition of Liberty Hyde Bailey’s “The Holy Earth,” April 19 at 4 p.m. in the Stern Seminar Room.

Bailey, a botanist, farmer, naturalist and philosopher, was known as the “father of modern horticulture” and served as dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell from 1903 to 1913. “The Holy Earth” was his environmental manifesto, arguing in 1915 for responsible land stewardship in an era of increasing industrialization.

The panel includes Scott Peters, professor of development sociology; Jim Tantillo, professor of natural resources; and John Linstrom, former curator and director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum and editor of the anniversary edition (with new editorial content and a foreword by Wendell Berry).

• Migiel on ‘Decameron’: Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece “The Decameron” challenges readers to consider the ethical choices we make. Professor and chair of Romance studies Marilyn Migiel contends the book catches us as we move through it, obligating us to reveal ourselves, and reflect on how we form our assessments. Migiel discusses her new book, “The Ethical Dimension of the ‘Decameron’,” April 20 at 4:30 p.m. in 107 Olin Library.

Events in Cornell University Library’s Chats in the Stacks book talk series are free and open to the public, with refreshments served and books available for purchase.

Denis Johnson reading

Writer Denis Johnson will read from his fiction Thursday, April 21, at 4:30 p.m. in Klarman Hall Auditorium. Free and open to the public, the reading is presented by the Department of English Creative Writing Program as part of the Spring 2016 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series.

Johnson is the author of several works of fiction including “Jesus’ Son” and “Tree of Smoke,” which won the 2007 National Book Award, as well as a collection of nonfiction, “Seek.” His latest novel, “The Laughing Monsters,” is a literary thriller set in Uganda, Sierra Leone and the Congo.

A visiting writer at Cornell in 2008, he also writes plays and poetry, and has been a correspondent for The New Yorker, Esquire, Spin and Rolling Stone. His honors include a Medal of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Signs of spring

Springfest, Cornell’s annual Earth Day festival, will be held Friday, April 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Ho Plaza. The free celebration will feature local sustainable food and farm vendors, free snacks, water bottles, games and prizes, a clothing swap, puppies and entertainment.

The event is co-sponsored by the Campus Sustainability Office, the College of Human Ecology, the Farmers’ Market at Cornell, the Cornell Environmental Collaborative and the Bartels Family.

Art from culinary plants

Student artwork inspired by edible plants at Cornell Plantations is on display in “Mise en Place,” through April 30 in Plantations’ Brian C. Nevin Welcome Center. Nevin Center admission is free and open to the public daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

Associate professor of art Greg Page’s fall Introduction to Print Media class made two site visits, touring the International Crop and Weed Garden and Robison Herb Garden, where they researched (and tasted) crops, flowers and herbs as part of their studies of issues related to horticulture and the natural environment.

The class collaborated with Plantations staff this semester to present culinary plants and their diverse uses in a portfolio of 26 prints (including lithographs, relief and screen prints) for the exhibition. Page’s students also drew inspiration from the Mundy Wildflower Garden for a recent display in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art study room.