Maymont-VCU Discovery Institute spring lecture series begins April 15

By Mike Frontiero and Catherine Dahl

RICHMOND Va. - The Maymont-VCU Discovery Institute has announced the lineup for its 2004 spring lecture series, which features speakers who incorporate science into their artwork.

The lineup includes renowned watercolor artist and Rector of the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors Dr. W. Baxter Perkinson, Jr. in a lecture/demonstration titled "The Science of Watercolor."

The collaborative Discovery Institute was formed in May 2003 to offer continuing education seminars to the general public, as well as opportunities for undergraduate students and teachers to further their studies and training in the life sciences.

All six lectures will take place at Maymont�s Robins Nature & Visitor Center at 7 p.m. Galleries will open at 6 p.m. before each lecture. The fee is $5 per lecture, $3 for students and Maymont members, and $25 for the series. For registration information, call 358-7166 ext. 325 or 827-5600.

•         April 15 - "Biological Architecture," presented by Kendall Buster, Ph.D., VCU associate professor of sculpture. Buster draws on her microbiology and medical technology background in designing her sculptures. She has received international acclaim, exhibiting at numerous museums including the Hirshhorn, Kreeger and Corcoran in Washington, D.C., as well as venues in New York, Germany and South Africa. A reception will precede the lecture at 6 p.m.

•         April 22 - "The Science of Watercolor," by Dr. W. Baxter Perkinson, Jr., a scientist and dentist by profession, and rector of the VCU Board of Visitors. Perkinson became fascinated in the ways science combines with art. He uses the medium of watercolors to depict various sites along the James River and his work is exhibited extensively in the Richmond area. Perkinson will include a demonstration of the chemical and physical properties of his medium.

•         April 29 - "Constable and the Natural World: There is room enough for a Natural Peinture." Malcolm Cormack, former Paul Mellon curator of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Yale Center for British Art, as well as former Keeper of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, is author of numerous articles and books including books on artists John Constable, Richard Bonington and Thomas Gainsborough. Cormack will lecture on the scientific approach that Constable brought to his work on landscapes.

•         May  6 - "Memory: Things Felt and Things Known." Tanja Softic, associate professor of art at the University of Richmond, has received significant international attention for her work which draws on scientific illustrations and structures. She is the recipient of the 1996 National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Arts Federation Visual Artist Fellowship, and winner of the Fifth International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Kochi, Japan.

•         May 13 - "The Art of Wildlife Photography." Lynda Richardson, a Virginia-based wildlife and environmental award-winning photojournalist, travels the world shooting assignments for Smithsonian, National Wildlife, and the Nature Conservancy and exhibiting her beautiful images. Nature's Best magazine listed her as one of the top women wildlife photographers in the world.

•         May 20 - "Poetry and the Natural World." Margaret Gibson is the author of eight books of poetry, among them "Earth Elegy," "Icon and Evidence," and "Autumn Grasses." She received the Lamont Selection in 1982, the Melville Cane Award in 1986 and was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1993. "Icon and Evidence" was a finalist for the Virginia Center for the Book Award for 2001.