SPARTANBURG, S.C. – “Red,” a production of the Wofford Theatre Department; the third annual “Thinking Life a River” two-day symposium; and poet Adrian Matejka in the Writers Series highlight events in October at Wofford College. Other events include special speakers and presentations, art exhibitions and the World Film Series.

These events are open to the public and are free of charge unless otherwise noted. Please check the online calendar at calendar.wofford.edu for frequent updates. For athletic events, please go to athletics.wofford.edu.

For more information, contact Laura Corbin at WoffordNews@Wofford.edu or 864-596-4180.

Thursday, Oct. 2
3:30-6 p.m., Sandor Teszler Library Gallery
“Jiha Moon: Paintings & Prints” artist talk and reception
Jiha Moon (b. 1973), an artist from South Korea, earned her MFA from the University of Iowa and lives and works in Atlanta, Ga. Her art engages identity and societal diversity in the mixed-cultural world of the contemporary era. She labels herself as a cartographer of cultures and an icon maker, creating images loaded with multiple meanings and hidden truths. She has exhibited her works both nationally and internationally, including New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Zurich and Seoul. Her works have been acquired by various institutions and collectors, such as the Asia Society in New York, High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, Smithsonian Institute, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. She has been selected for international residencies at Art Omi, Arcadia Summer Art Program, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. In 2010 she had residencies at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H. Her one-year project with the Fabric Workshop and Museum was showcased in the spring of 2011 in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painter and Sculptor’s Award for 2011. The exhibition runs through Oct. 24.

Friday, Oct. 3
3 p.m., McMillan Theater, Campus Life Building
“Jiha Moon: Paintings & Prints” artist lecture
The exhibition runs through Oct. 24 in the Sandor Teszler Library Gallery. (See description above)

Tuesday, Oct. 7, through Saturday, Oct. 11
Tuesday, Oct. 14, and Wednesday, Oct. 15
Wofford Theatre presents “Red”
7 p.m., Tony White Theater, Campus Life Building
It is 1958 when the eager young man arrives at the painter’s New York City studio on the Bowery. Rothko is at work on a series of murals intended to adorn the Four Seasons Restaurant in the newly constructed Seagram Building on Park Avenue, designed by architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. The action unfolds in the studio. In the span of a terse 90 minutes, the two converse, verbally spar and paint. Join the Wofford Theatre Department on Oct. 7-11 and Oct 14-15 to experience an American classic featuring professor Dan Day and Tim Giles. Student tickets are $5 and adult tickets are $12. Call the box office at 864-597-4080.

Wednesday, Oct. 8
3:30 and 7:30 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
World Film Series: “A Place in the World”
In a sprawling ranching valley in Argentina, the lives of its inhabitants are forever changed with arrival of a multinational company that dazzles the impoverished farmers with promises of wealth. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film may not be appropriate for younger viewers. It may contain violence, nudity, sensuality, rough language, or contain or refer to alcohol/drug use. Directed by Adolfo Aristarain; Argentina/ Spain/ Uruguay, 1992; 120 minutes; Spanish with English subtitles.

Thursday, Oct. 9, and Friday, Oct. 10
“Thinking Like a River” Symposium
The symposium, themed “Blueways: An Inquiring Gaze,” features John Cronin, senior fellow for environmental affairs at Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y., and former Hudson Riverkeeper; Leslie King, director of the River Institute at the University of Dayton in Ohio; and T.S. McMillin, author of “The Meaning of Rivers” and professor at Oberlin College in Ohio. The purpose of the symposium is to integrate perspectives from natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and the arts to look at natural and cultural impacts on local rivers. (See separate descriptions below for details of each program.)

Thursday, Oct. 9:
2:30-5:30 p.m., Anna Todd Wofford Center, Andrews Field House
“Thinking Like a River” panel discussion
Panelists: John Cronin, senior fellow for environmental affairs at Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y., and former Hudson Riverkeeper; Leslie King, director of the River Institute at the University of Dayton in Ohio; and T.S. McMillin, author of “The Meaning of Rivers” and professor at Oberlin College in Ohio; moderators, John Lane, Wofford professor and director of the Goodall Environmental Studies Center, and Kaye Savage, director of Wofford’s environmental studies program.

Thursday, Oct. 9
7 p.m., McMillan Theater, Campus Life Building
"Thinking Like a River" Symposium: “Blueways and the Rivers of Our Imagination”
Speaker: John Cronin, senior fellow for environmental affairs at Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y., and former Hudson Riverkeeper.

Friday, Oct. 10:
3-4:30 p.m., Gray-Jones Room, Burwell Building
"Thinking Like a River" Symposium: “Am I Blue? The Strange Ways of an Urban River”
Speaker: T.S. McMillin, author of “The Meaning of Rivers” and professor at Oberlin College in Ohio.

Friday, Oct. 10
6:30-8 p.m., Gray-Jones Room, Burwell Building
"Thinking Like a River" Symposium: “Rivers Institute at the University of Dayton; Partnering on the River”
Speaker: Leslie King, director of the River Institute at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

Saturday, Oct. 11
9 a.m.-noon, Gibbs Stadium
Spartanburg’s annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s will be held again on Wofford’s campus. All are welcome to attend to help raise awareness and money for this cause.

Tuesday, Oct. 14
4-5 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
Department of History Lecture: Carla Rahn Phillips and William D. Phillips
The Department of History’s Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professors of History for 2014-15 will present a lecture on the history of Spain.

Tuesday, Oct. 14, and Wednesday, Oct. 15
7 p.m., Tony White Theater, Campus Life Building
Wofford Theatre presents “Red”
It is 1958 when the eager young man arrives at the painter’s New York City studio on the Bowery. Rothko is at work on a series of murals intended to adorn the Four Seasons Restaurant in the newly constructed Seagram Building on Park Avenue, designed by architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. The action unfolds in the studio. In the span of a terse 90 minutes, the two converse, verbally spar and paint. Join the Wofford Theatre Department on Oct. 7-11 and Oct 14-15 to experience an American classic featuring professor Dan Day and Tim Giles. Student tickets are $5 and adult tickets are $12. Call the box office at 864-597-4080.

Wednesday, Oct. 15
3-4 p.m., Room 119, Montgomery Music Building
“Circumpliance: The Installation Post-Mortem” artist talk by Dr. Peter B. Kay and Kristofer Neely

Tuesday, Oct. 21
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., Anna Todd Wofford Center, Andrews Field House
Psychology Kingdom Guest Speaker: Dr. Peter Kalivas
The Kalivas lab studies neuroplasticity underlying the development of addiction to drugs of abuse, as well as the learning and memory deficits associated with impoverished rearing environments. Research is at the level of protein biochemistry, neural circuitry and behavioral modeling. The current focus for both addiction and isolation rearing is in adaptations in excitatory neurotransmission. In collaboration with electrophysiologists in the department (Drs. Lavin, Seamans, Woodward) we are elucidating the fundamental role of extracellular glutamate homeostatis in regulating neurotransmission and neuroplasticity. This has led to preclinical and clinical evaluations of specific proteins as targets in treating addiction, including metabotropic glutamate receptors and the cystine-glutamate exchanger. Dr. Peter Kalivas, professor and co-chair of the Department of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, received the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Scientific Research while attending the S.C. Academy of Science Annual Meeting on April 14. Kalivas was recognized for his scientific discoveries regarding drug addiction and serving as an academic leader and department chair in the MUSC College of Medicine for more than a decade. Kalivas’ work contributed to a significant rise in national stature of MUSC as a leading medical research institution.

Tuesday, Oct. 21
7-9:15 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
Film Screening of “Big Men”
The documentary “Big Men” provides an unprecedented inside look at the global energy business and raises challenging questions about whether the discovery of oil in Ghana will be a blessing or a curse for the Ghanaian people. The documentary also includes a first-hand look at the problems created by oil in Nigeria. The film will be followed by a brief moderated discussion.

Tuesday, Oct. 28
7:30-9 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
Wofford Writers Series: Poet Adrian Matejka
Adrian Matejka’s most recent book, “The Big Smoke,” was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award and a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. A native of Nuremberg, Germany, he is the winner of the Julia Peterkin Award and the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lannan Foundation. His work has appeared in “American Poetry Review,” “The Best American Poetry 2010,” “Gulf Coast,” “Ploughshares,” “Poetry” and “Prairie Schooner,” among other journals and anthologies. A graduate of Indiana University and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Matejka teaches in the MFA program at Indiana University in Bloomington and currently is working on a new collection of poems and a graphic novel. His first collection of poems, “The Devil’s Garden,” won the 2002 New York/New England Award from Alice James Books. His second collection, “Mixology,” was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature – Poetry.

Wednesday, Oct. 29
3:30 and 7:30 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building
World Film Series: “Where I Belong”
Rosemarie is a hard-working young woman living in a small English town in the 1950s. She left Austria with her father during the war to escape the Nazi oppression and since then, despite poverty and loneliness, she always has kept the faith that better days would arise. When she meets Anton, one of her father’s friends, she immediately falls in love and starts believing in a fortunate destiny with him. Against all impediments, their secret love affair may help Rosemarie to find out where she really belongs. The film may not be appropriate for younger viewers. It may contain violence, nudity, sensuality, rough language, or contain or refer to alcohol/drug use.

GALLERY EXHIBITS:

Through Oct. 31
Montgomery Music Building Courtyard
Circumpliance: The Decomposition of the Piano
A collaborative art and sound installation created by Dr. Peter B. Kay and Kris Neely, associate professor and coordinator of studio arts at Wofford, with Lynn Rhodes. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Kay served as an artist-in-residence at Wofford. In collaboration with Neely, Kay was asked to develop an installation that would alter the experience of a specific space using sound. Together with Wofford students and members of the community, Kay and Neely created sculptural elements using pieces of three decommissioned pianos. The pianos had been previously destined for a local landfill as they could no longer be tuned properly. The sculpted piano parts and the 88 electronic music tracks of “Circumpliance,” an original music composition by Kay, will shape the experience of the Montgomery Music Building Courtyard through October 2014. Visiting the installation is free and open to the public. The installation is designed to be different each time a person visits. The music is engineered to evolve as the tracks are played in an interlaced randomized sequence over six months. Sometimes the listener may experience harmonies, at other times dissonance. The unprotected sculptural elements will be left exposed to the natural elements, weathering and decomposing as the installation progresses.

Through Oct. 24
Sandor Teszler Library Gallery
Jiha Moon: Paintings & Prints
Artist Talk and Opening Reception: 3:30-6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 2, Sandor Teszler Library Gallery
Artist Lecture: 3 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3, McMillan Theater, Campus Life Building
Jiha Moon (b. 1973), an artist from South Korea, earned her MFA from the University of Iowa and lives and works in Atlanta, Ga. Her art engages identity and societal diversity in the mixed-cultural world of the contemporary era. She labels herself as a cartographer of cultures and an icon maker, creating images loaded with multiple meanings and hidden truths. She has exhibited her works both nationally and internationally, including New York, LA, Berlin, Zurich, Seoul, and many other cities. Her works have been acquired by various institutions and collectors, such as the Asia Society in New York, High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, Smithsonian Institute, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. She has been selected for international residencies at Art Omi, Arcadia Summer Art Program, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. In 2010 she had residencies at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H. Her one-year project with the Fabric Workshop and Museum was showcased in the spring of 2011 in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painter and Sculptor’s Award for 2011.

Through Nov. 1
Slide Room Gallery, Roger Milliken Science Center
Expressions of Piety and Devotion: Photographs from Buddhist Cave Sites in India
Buddhist caves in India have been the focus of religious devotion for millennia. Interestingly, the Buddhist presence at these sites has waned, leading to other religious groups, such as Hindus, to reuse and repurpose sacred spaces. This exhibition of photographs documents the piety of ancient Buddhists through the caves, sculptures and paintings they created, while also addressing more recent developments of Hindu appropriation and the contemporary resurgence of Buddhist devotion at these fascinating sites.

Through Oct. 15
Martha Cloud Chapman Gallery, Campus Life Building
Kristopher M. Neely: Iconic
Kristofer M. Neely combines his affection for found objects, street and outsider art, and altered images in this exploration of the sacred and secular in contemporary culture. Neely serves as assistant professor and coordinator for studio art at Wofford. A brother in the monastic Order of St. Edward the Confessor, Neely has long considered his art making to be a manual act of contemplative prayer.